Showing results by narrator "Angela Ness" in All Categories

There's a murderer on the loose on a storm swept island cut off from the Scottish mainland. It's down to Losers Club, a quirky weight loss group led by the intrepid Penny Moon, to catch the culprit.

Helen Carter has just landed her first case as a detective: a murder in an abandoned cinema. A mysterious clock-like symbol is drawn on the wall...in blood. Stranger still is what the killer left behind: the business card of an ex-cop. Since being promoted from WPC, Helen is having trouble making her mark in the male-dominated Edinburgh CID, working under Inspector Jack Craven. He’s not happy about having a woman on his team. Witnesses won’t talk to her; her colleagues don’t take her seriously.

From an irresponsible baron whose body is discovered beneath a silver birch tree, to a classic detective duo solving a historic case as the lights go out across Europe, and an exclusive Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story, the characters McDermid conjures are enigmatic and dangerous. These evocative, atmospheric tales will shock and delight.

When Alice Mistlethwaite is shipped off to boarding school in Scotland, it's nothing like she imagines. Run by the mysterious Major, there are no punishments, and the students are more likely to be taught about body painting or extreme survival than maths or English! Then Alice's dad goes missing, and she must run away to find him. Can she persuade her new friends to help? So begins an epic quest across wild Scottish highlands and islands, where the children will face danger and excitement at every turn.

Isla's got the designer clothes and dream job as head stylist at an exclusive salon. She's been so single-minded in this quest that she's forgotten to have a life outside of it. When her aunt is in desperate need at her own salon, Isla heads to the remote island of Auchenmor to help. Finn is 35, and reality has just hit him hard. Now his best friends are about to have a baby, and everything is changing. When into his life walks Isla...

Fit a sotter! The Major Investigations Team is on the island and Sergeant Wilson is a woman on a mission. She must solve the murder of the lighthouse keeper before the MIT eat all the good police biscuits. The DCI might have ordered her to do door-to-door enquiries, but she was la-la-la-not-listening at the time. Convinced that the answer lies in Beacon Brodie's mysterious past, she has instead conscripted the best of the Losers Club minions to discover the truth.

Amy, Carole, Lenore and Susan have been friends since school but now they’re in their 40s, life seems to be selling them short. Encouraged by arch feminist and natural leader Amy, they embark on a graffiti campaign in their home town of Hamilton, scrawling anti-patriarchy slogans on the walls of local buildings.

With intolerance and inequality increasingly normalised by the day, it's more important than ever for women to share their experiences. We must hold the truth to account in the midst of sensationalism and international political turmoil. Nasty Women is a collection of essays, interviews and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century. People, politics, pressure, punk. Keep telling your stories.

Slàinte! A Christmas Eve party at snow-covered Vik castle, where the Christmas Star diamond is on display. Good food, dancing and a visit from Santa. What could possibly go wrong? When Santa appears down the chimney, looking far more crispy than expected, it is clear that something has gone very wrong. With the castle cut off from help, a murderer in their midst and the Christmas Star stolen, it's up to Losers Club to investigate. As they follow the network of secret passages to learn more about their fellow guests, they realize that everyone has a motive. Including one of their own.

Have you ever been on a train and wondered what would happen if you didn’t get off — just carried on to the end of the line? In the throes of a spectacular mid-life crisis and feeling rather unappreciated at home, Katie Frock takes an unplanned journey to London, leaving her supposedly grown-up family behind to figure out how to work the washing machine. Far away in Fancy London, Katie makes new friends, becomes the Banksy of the culinary world and accidentally gets mixed up in some very shady business.

The Queen of Scottish Gangland Thrillers is back! Donnie Black. Charming, successful... and utterly terrifying, he rules the Glasgow underworld with an iron fist. Nothing - or no one - will stop him and he's not afraid to get his hands dirty to grow his fortune. Layla Black. She's been married to Donnie for twenty years, enjoying the lavish world he has worked hard to create. But behind the perfect image, Layla is crumbling, numbing her pain with alcohol. But Layla doesn't know the secrets Donnie keeps - and the truth will send her spiralling.

A Scottish new town in the 1970s is the playground for teenage sweethearts Lorna and Robert and their unforgettable band of friends – and foes. Among the concrete warrens, they discover loyalty and betrayal, booze and bullies, triumph and tragedy. And, like all youngsters growing up anytime, anywhere, they spend an awful lot of time inventing sex. But for Lorna and Robert, their lives are changed – perhaps forever – when they are torn apart by a deathbed promise and bitter sectarian divide. Fast forward 25 years to Blair’s Britain at the start of the new millennium.

While onboard her last chartered sailing trip of the season, Cass Lynch is awoken in the middle of the night by a Mayday call to the Shetland coastguard. A fishing vessel has become trapped on the rocks off the coast of one of the islands. In the days that follow, there's both a shocking murder and a baffling death. On the surface, there's no link, but when Cass becomes involved, it is soon clear that her life is also in danger. Convinced that someone sinister is at work in these Shetland waters, Cass is determined to find and stop them.

When a visiting yachting couple go missing from the Shetland oil capital of Brae, sailing skipper Cass Lynch overcomes her mistrust of the land world to ask for help from her old adversary DI Gavin Macrae. He discovers a link to international art theft and warns Cass to steer clear - but when one of her sailing pupils goes missing, she goes alone to discover the secrets of the Neolithic tomb known locally as a ‘trowie mound’.... Ghosts, folklore and a nail-biting finale at the local show come together to make an atmospheric, fast-moving thriller.

Vik Island weight-loss group Losers Club is on the mainland for the Police Scotland Bravery Awards and, even better, they're staying in a posh hotel. Diet sheets have been abandoned and Gordon's dungarees are straining at the seams, so what could be nicer than a gentle stroll up Bennachie to offset all those breakfast sausages? When the Losers stumble upon the body of a young woman on the hillside, they quickly become entangled in a web of deceit surrounding local road protestors.

As summer draws to a close in Shetland, indomitable sailor Cass Lynch is preparing to look after eccentric, outspoken Tamar, who is returning from hospital following a fall. Recuperation should involve a peaceful week in Tamar's isolated cottage, but on arriving at the house, Cass finds there has been a break-in...curiously, only some old papers are disturbed. Then the body of a man is found in a cove close-by, and while it looks to be an accident at first glance, suspicions are quickly aroused - and soon the police have a murder on their hands.

Featuring beloved characters from Code Name Verity and The Pearl Thief, as well as a remarkable new voice, this brilliant, breathlessly plotted novel by award-winning author Elizabeth Wein is a must-listen. 'The hair stood up at the back of my neck. Those letters meant something. And with the cipher machine, I'd worked it out myself.' 1940. Facing a seemingly endless war, 15-year-old Louisa Adair wants to fight back, make a difference, do something-anything to escape the Blitz and the ghosts of her parents, who were killed by enemy action.

DCI Alison McCoist is back: newly promoted and even less popular. Chuck Gardner is the proud owner of both a confidential paper-shredding business and a serious betting habit. When Chuck finds some scandalous paperwork and McCoist investigates a rat-nibbled corpse under a flyover, they are both sucked into a deadly stramash of gangland wars and police corruption.

It's almost Christmas and, in a ballroom just beyond the cobbled streets of Edinburgh's Old Town, the most important event of the year is taking place–the Foxtrot Oscars. Mrs Hubbard's whole senior citizenship has been building towards the moment she and her Douglas take the Over Sixties Swingers Cup. What could possibly go wrong, dearies?

It's the dark nights in the run up to Christmas, and sailing sleuth Cass Lynch's first night on dry land is disturbed by strange noises outside her isolated cottage. Tiny footprints in the moonlit snow trail from her front door before mysteriously disappearing. Soon Cass learns others were visited by the same tiny feet in the night. It looks like ingenious local teenagers playing tricks - but what happens when festive games turn deadly?