Showing results by narrator "Sally Armstrong" in All Categories

In early 2019, after more than a year of careful planning, Rahaf Mohammed boarded a plane and finally escaped from Saudi Arabia. If caught, she was sure she would be killed, like other rebel women who had tried to flee her country’s oppressive regime. But the 18-year-old only made it as far as Bangkok before her passport was taken away. It was a trick, and soon she found herself trapped, barricaded in a hotel room. 

Sanday, one of Britain's northernmost islands, is remote and often inaccessible. When human remains are discovered behind an old primary school, forensic expert Doctor Rhona MacLeod arrives to excavate the grave. Approaching midwinter, daylight is scarce, the weather inhospitable and the residents uncooperative. When the death of an old man in Glasgow appears to have links with the island, DS Michael McNab is dispatched to investigate. Then a series of unexplained incidents occurs....

With its dark legends and passionate history, the windswept shores of Scotland are an archaeologist's dream. Verity Grey is thrilled by the challenge of uncovering an ancient Roman campsite in a small Scottish village. But as soon as she arrives, she senses danger in the air. Her eccentric boss, Peter Quinnell, has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he's finally found it....

Filled with startling twists, Whiteout is the ultimate knife-edge drama from Ken Follett - an international best-selling author who is in a class of his own. As a blizzard whips down from the north on Christmas Eve, several people converge on a remote family house. Stanley Oxenford, director of a pharmaceutical research company, has everything riding on a drug he is developing to fight a lethal virus.

While illegally street racing in the underground tunnels of Glasgow, four Harley-Davidson riders make a horrifying discovery: a dead man left in the darkness, hands together on his chest as if peacefully laid to rest. The cause of death is unclear, the only clues being a half glass of red wine and a partially eaten chunk of bread by his side that echo the ancient religious practice of sin-eating. Called to the scene, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is perplexed by the lack of evidence. 

When notorious millionaire banker Lars Anderson hangs himself from the old oak tree in front of his Kent mansion his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of self-serving is widespread, the carnage most acute amongst those he ought to be protecting: his family. Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered in her home. The genteel community is stunned by what appears a vicious, random attack.

Mark Howitt expects a fun, no-strings night of passion with Leila. But when he wakes up in the early hours of the morning, he is horrified to stumble upon his former bed partner dead and suspended from the ceiling alongside 27 Barbie dolls. Rhona Macleod's forensic investigation of the scene reveals the cord used to hang Leila to be a cingulum, an artefact used in the practise of Wicca, and sketches hidden in nine of the dolls suggest the dolls are linked with nine men.

Summoned in the early hours of the morning to a Glasgow flat, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is confronted by a horrific crime scene. A teenage boy has been found mutilated and strangled to death by a vicious killer. But her grim task of scanning for evidence is made even more unsettling than normal by the boy’s remarkable resemblance to her – and by the fact that she gave up a baby boy for adoption 17 years ago. Overcome by guilt, Rhona sets out to find the boy’s killer and establish whether the young victim is her long-lost son.

On holiday in the Scottish Highlands, forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod joins a mountain rescue team on Cairngorm summit, where a mysterious plane has crash-landed on the frozen Loch A’an. Added to that, a nearby climbing expedition has left three young people dead, with a fourth still missing. Meanwhile in Glasgow, DS McNab’s raid on the Delta Club produces far more than just a massive haul of cocaine. 

A vulnerable young woman has been brutally slain and left on a grave in Glasgow’s sprawling cemetery, the Necropolis. Upon examining the body, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod has no doubt that the depraved killer’s motives were sexual in nature. The case takes on an even more disturbing dimension when the removal of the girl’s body reveals a second victim, who has recently been buried in a shallow grave underneath. When yet another sex worker is reported missing, there are fears that a serial killer is at large in the city. 

When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod returns to her roots on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, a chance encounter in the woods behind a nearby activities centre leads her to what seems to be a crime scene, but without a victim. Could this be linked to a group of army medics, who visited the centre while on leave from Afghanistan and can no longer be located on the island? Enlisting the help of local tracker dog Blaze, Rhona starts searching for a connection.

When Jemima loses her beloved grandfather, keeping his allotment alive seems like ideal way to feel close to him. She's never fitted in before - is this her chance to find where she really belongs? Finally Melissa has the allotment she's been longing for to distract her while her husband works away - even if it is chest-high in weeds. But when she looks for help in the wrong place, she finds she's the hottest topic of gossip.

Following a grisly discovery made on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is sent over to investigate. It’s there she finds a decomposing foot, caught in a net by a local fisherman, and there are key questions which remain unanswered: where is the rest of the body? Who was the dead man? And why does the Ministry of Defence want the discovery to be kept out of the media?

After a fierce storm hits Scotland, a mysterious cargo ship is discovered in the Orkney Isles. Boarding the vessel uncovers three bodies, recently deceased and in violent circumstances. Forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod’s study of the crime scene suggests that a sinister game was being played on board, but who were the hunters? And who the hunted? Meanwhile in Glasgow DS Michael McNab is called to a horrific incident where a young woman has been set on fire. Or did she spark the flames herself? 

When Amy MacKenzie agrees to attend a meeting at a local spiritualist church, the last person she expects to hear calling to her from beyond the grave is her son. The son whom she'd only spoken to an hour before. Then the body of a young man is found inside a neolithic stone circle high above the city of Glasgow and forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is soon on the case. DI Michael McNab is certain it's a gangland murder, but Rhona isn't convinced.

It’s Edinburgh, Scotland, days before the biggest New Year’s party in the world. When Karen, a young homeless girl, dies in a case of suspected arson, her friend Jaz sets out to avenge her death. Faced with similar cases in Glasgow, Dr Rhona MacLeod heads to the capital to establish whether the string of attacks are linked. Arriving as festivities begin to get under way, Rhona starts her investigation and is confronted by combative Severino MacRae, the city’s chief fire investigator.

When the body of a pregnant teenager is found at a Glasgow funfair, her unborn baby surgically removed, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is called in to assist the police. Suspecting the baby may still be alive, finding the killer becomes paramount. Delving deeper into the twisted case shines suspicion on Jeff Coulter, a psychotic inmate at a nearby hospital whose hobby is making Reborns - chillingly realistic baby dolls intended for bereaved parents. But how could he have orchestrated the murder from a secure psychiatric facility? 

When Claire regains consciousness after a stranger causes her car to crash in a snowstorm, she is frantic to discover that her nine-year-old daughter, Emma, is missing from the back seat. Then Emma is found in the woods nearby, unharmed but cradling a child’s skull. She claims it ‘called’ to her – and she can hear another voice nearby. Meanwhile, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is trying to discover the identity of a corpse found badly burnt in a skip. The two cases are linked in ways they could never have imagined.

Mary McIntyre's disappearance tore the local community apart, inflicting wounds that still prove raw for those who knew her. So when the present-day discovery of a child’s remains are found in a peat bog south of Glasgow, it seems the decades-old mystery may finally be solved. Called in to excavate the body, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod uses the advances made in forensic science since Mary’s vanishing to determine what really happened all those years ago...and who was responsible. 

When art student Jude Evans disappears on a trip to photograph one of Glasgow’s many derelict cinemas, her friend Liam reports her missing to the local police. Unable to get the authorities to take him seriously, he enlists the help of his mother, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod, in his search for the missing girl. In an attempt to retrace the last known steps of Jude, they begin working through the list of cinemas she had intended to visit. Their efforts lead them to make a grisly discovery hidden behind one of the cinema’s crumbling walls, and soon a murder hunt is under way.