The first book on our list of crime and thriller recommendations for this winter is the latest Health of Strangers pandemic thriller from Lesley Kelly!

Dead Man Driving by Lesley Kelly

Publisher: Sandstone Press / Thriller
Paperback / ISBN: 9781914518362
Publication date: 20 July 2023

Two years into a devastating flu pandemic, food shortages are critical. The streets are full of angry protestors objecting to the government’s proposed rationing.

Carlotta Carmichael MSP is busy organising a meeting of international Virus ministers. When a lorryload of food for her ministerial dinner gets hijacked, she calls on the unwilling assistance of the North Edinburgh Health Enforcement Team to track down its missing driver. While the lorry proves easy to find, the identity of the dead young woman in its hold is less easy to establish.

Everyone’s hungry. Everyone’s scared. And the Health Enforcement Team are driving blind.

M. Night Shyamalan meets Ian Rankin over a dram next, in this enthralling Highland-set mystery from Fulton Ross, shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize.

The Unforgiven Dead by Fulton Ross

Publisher: Inkshares / Crime Fiction
Paperback / ISBN: 9781950301577
Publication date: 27 July 2023

Troubled Constable Angus ‘Dubh’ MacNeil carries a burden, a blessing, a curse, a secret—dà-shealladh, the second sight of Gaelic lore.

One morning at the seashore he finds a girl lying on the unblemished sand. She wears a green cloak and cradles a corps creadha, a Highland voodoo doll. She has suffered a ritualistic, three-fold death—her head bludgeoned, her throat cut, and symbolically drowned. It is Faye Chichester, daughter of an American billionaire whose mission to reintroduce wolves to the Highlands has embroiled the village of Glenruig. But even as media and police swarm the area, Angus is troubled by the same thought: you could have saved her.

Gills MacMurdo, noted folklorist, academic, and Angus’s oldest friend, confirms what the dà-shealladh is warning. Just as Faye’s death was three-fold, so must the murder victims fulfil the ancient pattern. More will die, unless Angus does what he must—close his eyes and see.

What better way to spend a winter day than by cozying up with latest Skelfs, courtesy of Doug Johnstone? Expect astronauts, arson, murder, and a body lost at sea. It’s another adventure in the lives of our favourite crime solving funeral directors!

The Opposite of Lonely by Doug Johnstone

Publisher: Orenda Books / Crime Fiction
Paperback / ISBN: 9781914585807
Publication date: 14 September 2023

The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and private-investigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever.

Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at an illegal campsite and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk.

With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything…

If you haven’t met Kitt Hartley yet, what are you waiting for? For our next book we delve into Helen Cox’s latest mystery for some guaranteed mystery and entertainment.

A Body in the Borderlands by Helen Cox

Publisher: Quercus / Cozy Crime, Crime Fiction
Hardback / ISBN: 9781529421521
Publication date: 14 September 2023

Former investment banker Johan Golding – Joe to his friends – is the newest member of the Hartley and Edwards Investigations team, and he’s thrilled to be shadowing Kitt Hartley, librarian-turned-top sleuth, and her right-hand woman Grace Edwards.

But Joe finds himself thrown in at the deep end when a man known as Ralph Holmes goes missing on the outskirts of Carlisle. Police are refusing to investigate, as his disappearance seems voluntary, but his niece, Carly Lewis, is determined to find out what really happened.

As Kitt, Grace and Joe begin to investigate, they deduce there might be more to this disappearance than meets the eye. Drawn into a web of international conspiracies and possible murder, they need to find out who Ralph Holmes really was – and who he was working for.

We travel back to 1960s Barloch now, where an innocent encounter sends an optimistic and ambitious young police constable into a whirlwind of hidden family secrets, jealousy and murder.

Barloch by Diarmid MacArthur

Publisher: Sparsile / Crime Fiction, Historical Crime
Hardback / ISBN: 9781914399725
Publication date: 14 September 2023

Alan McInnes is a young and ambitious police constable dreaming of a career in the CID, far from the backwater village of Barloch, and nourishing wistful visions of marrying his girlfriend.

One night, on patrol, he surprises a young local couple enjoying a private moment. But from this innocent encounter, there are tragic developments, with smuggled cargo, gangster intimidation, hidden family secrets, jealousy, revenge and murder.

MacArthur writes with confident familiarity and affection for the people and communities of 1960s Scotland.

Horrifying premonitions, family curses, buried trauma… it just wouldn’t be October without a spooky recommendation or two, and you can’t ask for spookier thriller than The Murmurs! 

The Murmurs by Michael J Malone

Publisher: Orenda Books / Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Paperback / ISBN: 9781914585821
Publication date: 14 September 2023

On the first morning of her new job at Heartfield House, a care home for the elderly, Annie Jackson wakens from a terrifying dream. And when she arrives at the home, she knows that the first old man she meets is going to die.

How she knows this is a terrifying mystery, but it is the start of horrifying premonitions … a rekindling of the curse that has trickled through generations of women in her family – a wicked gift known only as ‘the murmurs’…

With its reappearance comes an old, forgotten fear that is about to grip Annie Jackson.

And this time, it will never let go.

Next is the spine-tingling Jump Cut, using the good old-fashioned setting of the haunted house to terrifying effect in the story of a mythical lost movie and one young woman’s fatal desire to discover it. Best keep the lights on for this one!

Jump Cut by Helen Grant

Publisher: Fledgling Press / Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Paperback / ISBN: 9781912280643
Publication date: 28 September 2023

The Simulacrum is the most famous lost movie in film history – would you tell someone your darkest secrets, just to lay hands on a copy?

104-year-old Mary Arden is the last surviving cast member of a notorious lost film. Holed up in Garthside, an Art Deco mansion reputed to be haunted, she has always refused interviews. Now Mary has agreed to talk to film enthusiast Theda Garrick. In return she demands all the salacious details of Theda’s tragic past. Only the hint of a truly stupendous discovery stops Theda walking out.

But Mary’s prying questions are not the only thing Theda has to fear. The spirit of The Simulacrum walks Garthside by night, and it will turn an old tragedy into a new nightmare…

We’re sure, like us, you’ve been eagerly awaiting the next Claudia Pineiro novel since the Booker-shortlisted Elena Knows, and A Little Luck does not disappoint. A tragic, thrilling look at a Buenos Aires suburb through the eyes of a woman returning to the past she was desperate to forget.

A Little Luck by Claudia Pineiro

Publisher: Charco Press / Crime Fiction, Translated Fiction
Paperback / ISBN: 9781913867553
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Twenty years after a shocking accident, Mary Lohan returns to the Buenos Aires suburb she escaped in a fugue of guilt and isolation. She is not the same―not her name or voice, not even the colour of her eyes. The neighbourhood looks different too, but she’s still the same woman and it’s still the same place, and as the past erupts into view, they slowly collide.

A story about the debilitating weight of lies, the messy line between bravery and cowardice, and the tragedies, big and small, that can ripple out from a single decisive event. In a place she had determined to forget forever, both anticipated encounters and unanticipated revelations show her, and us, that sometimes life is neither fate nor chance: perhaps it’s nothing more than a little luck.

Next up we have another Tartan Noir cracker thanks to Caro Ramsay – thought-provoking and engrossing, perfect for a rainy day under the duvet.

In Her Blood by Caro Ramsay

Publisher: Severn House / Crime Fiction
Hardback / ISBN: 9781448306763
Publication date: 1 August 2023

When a body is discovered in the water at Connel Bridge, the police assume it’s an open-and-shut case of suicide. But when DCI Christine Caplan is called in to take a closer look, she discovers that darker truths lurk beneath the surface, and suspicion begins to turn to a young woman recently out of care.

Known only as Girl A, her identity remains anonymous, protected under law. Her violent past includes an allegation of the murder of a younger sibling, so the timing of this new death seems too coincidental. Then a vigilante sets her home on fire and she flees, so the ‘child killer’ is now on the loose – and at risk herself.

As Caplan launches a search for the elusive teenager, looking for connections between her and the dead man, she turns to Girl A’s past for answers. And when she gets them, she realizes the truth may be even more sinister.

The Queen of Crime is back this month with a mystery involving a dead author’s unfinished manuscript whose plot seems to tell the story of a real-life cold case. Intrigued? So are we!

Past Lying by Val McDermid

Publisher: Little, Brown / Crime Fiction
Hardback / ISBN: 9781408729076
Publication date: 12 October 2023

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn’t be surprised when an author’s manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime.

Karen can’t ignore the plot’s chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but there’s a problem: the author died before he finished it.

As Karen digs deeper, she uncovers a spiralling game of betrayal and revenge, where lies are indistinguishable from the truth and with more than one unexpected twist.

Next, we have another nail-biting installment in the Rhona Macleod thrillers by Lin Anderson. Disappearances on Scottish campsites grow sinister when a body is found with a twig stickman left in its mouth. Ever wondered what’s out there in the dark beyond your tent?

The Wild Coast by Lin Anderson

Publisher: Pan MacMillan / Crime Fiction
Hardback / ISBN: 9781838855475
Publication date: 15 June 2023

When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland’s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim’s mouth.

Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.

As her investigation proceeds, Rhona is forced to reconsider her closest bonds. Rumours of sexual assault offences by serving police officers are circling in Glasgow, which may include her trusted colleague DS Michael McNab. Could it be true, or is someone looking to put him out of action?

All the while a young woman’s life is on the line and the clock is ticking . . .

Onto Robert Galbraith and their epic story of cults, deception, murder, and everyone’s favourite will they/won’t they partnership. It could only be the latest Strike!

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith

Publisher: Sphere / Crime Fiction
Hardback / ISBN: 9781408730942
Publication date: 26 September 2023

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.

The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organisation that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.

In order to try to rescue Will, Strike’s business partner Robin Ellacott decides to infiltrate the cult and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito amongst them. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her . . .

Tartan Noir meets Kolkata Crime in this groundbreaking anthology edited by our very own Abir Mukherjee. Find out what connects and distinguishes us through some of the best crime writers Scotland and India have to offer!

Hot Blood Cold Blood edited by Abir Mukherjee

Publisher: BEE Books / Crime Fiction, Anthology
Paperback / ISBN: 9788194652953
Publication date: 3 August 2023

Scotland and Bengal.

Two lands, and two cultures with ties that go back centuries. Hot Blood Cold Blood: Tartan Noir Meets Kolkata Crime brings together some of the most impressive established, world-famous authors and exciting new talent from both the Highlands of Scotland and the heat of Ganges delta. The themes of relationships, and wrongs committed, between husbands and wives, resonate across cultures while others highlight the contrasts between the two nations. The stories not only entertain but provide an insight into two very different societies, whether it be the familial, honour-bound world of the Bengali middle class with its emphasis on rank and the petty squabbles that go with it; or the cold, hard, windswept environment of life in the cities of central Scotland.

Unsolved murders, time travel, and the poet tasked with replying to Sherlock Holmes’ mail – an American professor gets more than he bargained for in this one-of-a-kind mystery from Simpson Grears.

The Counterfeit Detective by Simpson Grears

Publisher: Rymour Books / Crime Fiction, Historical Crime
Paperback / ISBN: 9781739596088
Publication date: 1 October 2023

An American professor discovers the diaries of John Ledbury, known as the counterfeit detective, a minor poet who, in Victorian London, is employed to reply to the mail that comes addressed to Sherlock Holmes at 221b Baker Street. Through the diaries he unearths a series of baffling unsolved murders. He travels through England and Scotland but he realizes that, in order to solve the mystery, he has to travel further, back through time itself.

The Counterfeit Detective is an epic Gothic literary crime thriller set mostly in Victorian London in 1900 but also in 1970s England, Scotland and the United States.

Happy reading!