THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

‘Gripping and grisly, with plenty of twists and turns that race along with black humour.’ Craig Robertson

St. Andrews, Scotland: When an elderly woman’s naked body is found in her home, crucified to the floor, DCI Andy Gilchrist and his associate, DS Jessie Janes, find themselves in a hunt for a brutal serial killer. As the body count rises, suspicion falls on Tap ‘Dancer’ McCrear, a career criminal recently released from prison after serving fifteen years for a murder he swore he never committed.

As Gilchrist begins to uncover the terrifying truth behind each of the killings, his worst fears are realised when he learns that McCrear is killing everyone involved in his murder trial… for it was Gilchrist who arrested McCrear all those years ago.

High-flying Detective Superintendent Rommie Frazier, who leads the multi-constabulary task force searching for McCrear, clashes with Gilchrist over the detail of the investigation, and demands his removal. But Gilchrist won’t leave without a fight, for he knows it is up to him to find Tap McCrear… before his own name is struck off the murder list.

Spanning time, distance and twists of fate, this unique story is rooted in WW2 and pays warm tribute to three central characters – the author’s father from Harris, his stepfather from Skye and his father-in-law from Tuscany.

Through their personal accounts we learn of deprivation and suffering watching in amazement as their three very different stories begin to intertwine and finally emerge as one remarkable storyline of happiness and gratitude when Duncan marries Alessandra, his lovely Italian wife. This is an absorbing human life story told from the heart. A story of love, four times over, that will have lasting appeal.

The name “Macbeth” has been cursed for hundreds of years, synonymous with tyranny and over-vaulting ambition. But what if the true Macbeth was something other than the villain Shakespeare portrayed?

Macbeth: the Red King tells an entirely new story of the real-life Scottish monarch, revealing a benevolent ruler who seized on his legitimate claim to the throne. Drawing from historical sources, this engaging graphic novel by Shaun Manning and Anna Wieszczyk is visually stunning companion to Shakespeare’s legendary drama. See Macbeth vanquish the incompetent Duncan, nurture a difficult relationship with his stepson Lulach, and make pilgrimage to Rome while his noble wife minds the restless kingdom — and witness his last stand against the insurgent prince Malcolm.

Satan, Dracula, Sauron, Lord Foul, Darth Vader. The motif of the Satanic Dark Lord is ever-present in science fiction and fantasy, a malign intelligence seeking to thwart the Chosen One.

In the literature of the 1980s and 90s, the Dark Lord is always defeated. However, post-millennium, there are signs that he has finally begun to get the upper hand, as we witness his change from anti-hero to hero.

In this enthralling study, prize-winning author A J Dalton considers how our understanding and characterisation of Satan has developed over time. From early depictions of Satan as a brutal dragon in the Bible, to the playfully seductive friend in the works of Chaucer and Marlowe, to the sympathetic and sensitive vampire of the modern-day, to the alien and unknowable artificial intelligence of tomorrow.

This book provides a starting point for researchers, writers and fans of science fiction and fantasy interested in the development of one of the biggest tropes in speculative fiction.

WINNER Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-monde (2012)

WINNER Insular Book Award (France, 2012)

It was as if we’d reached the minimum critical point of a mathematical curve. Imagine a parabola. Zero point down, at the bottom of an abyss. That’s how low we sank.

The year is 1993. Cuba is at the height of the Special Period, a widespread economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

For Julia, a mathematics lecturer who hates teaching, Havana is at Year Zero: the lowest possible point, going nowhere. Desperate to seize control of her life, Julia teams up with her colleague and former lover, Euclid, to seek out a document that proves the telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci in Havana, convinced it is the answer to secure their reputations and give Cuba a purpose once more.

From this point zero, Julia sets out on an investigation to befriend two men who could help lead to the document’s whereabouts, and must pick apart a tangled mystery of sex, family legacies and the intricacies of how people find ways to survive in a country at its lowest ebb.

‘An impressive novel’, Le Figaro Littéraire (France)

‘The Name of The Rose is set in Cuba and is now called Havana Year Zero (…) A masterpiece’, Marie Claire (France)

James Baldwin was born into the squalor of a Harlem tenement and transcended an early life of setbacks and racism. A storefront preacher at the age of fourteen, he supported his entire family – mother and eight siblings – before he began writing for prestigious journals such as The Partisan Review. Troubled by his fame, his sexuality and his colour, he was a great drinker and socialiser with wild periods of gregariousness and monastic retreats during which he wrote feverishly. By the time he died in 1987, his books such as The Fire Next Time, Go Tell It on the Mountain and Nobody Knows My Name had become modern classics.

James Campbell knew Baldwin for ten years. For this book, he interviewed many of Baldwin’s friends and examined several hundred pages of correspondence. He quotes from the vast, disturbing file that the FBI compiled on Baldwin and discusses the writer’s turbulent relationships with Norman Mailer, Richard Wright and Marlon Brando, as well as his friendship with Martin Luther King.

Elegantly written, candid and original, Talking at the Gates is a comprehensive account of the life and work of a writer who believed that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’.

‘An eloquent, forensic examination of resurgent English nationalism as the force that has driven Brexit and may now break up the United Kingdom’ Jonathan Coe

In the past, it was possible to live with delightful confusion: one could be English or British, Scottish or Irish, and a citizen/subject of the United Kingdom (or Great Britain). For years that state has been what Gavin Esler calls a ‘secret federation’, but without the explicit federal arrangements that allow Germany or the USA to survive.

Now the archaic state, which doesn’t have a written constitution, is coming under terrible strain. The English revolt against Europe is also a revolt against the awkward squads of the Scottish and Irish, and most English conservatives would be happy to get rid of Northern Ireland and Scotland as the price of getting Brexit done. The pressures to declare Scottish independence and to push for a border poll that would unite Ireland may become irresistible.

Can England and Wales find a way of dealing with the state’s new place in the world? What constitutional, federal arrangements might prevent the disintegration of the British state, which has survived in its present form for 400 years?

How Britain Ends is a book about history, but also about the strange, complicated identity of Britishness.

City of Vengeance is an explosive debut historical thriller by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Florence.

Florence. Winter, 1536. A prominent Jewish moneylender is murdered in his home, a death with wide implications in a city powered by immense wealth.

Cesare Aldo, a former soldier and now an officer of the Renaissance city’s most feared criminal court, is given four days to solve the murder: catch the killer before the feast of Epiphany – or suffer the consequences.

During his investigations Aldo uncovers a plot to overthrow the volatile ruler of Florence, Alessandro de’ Medici. If the Duke falls, it will endanger the whole city. But a rival officer of the court is determined to expose details about Aldo’s private life that could lead to his ruin. Can Aldo stop the conspiracy before anyone else dies, or will his own secrets destroy him first?

As the first day of 1982 approached Constable Andy Blackmore was looking forward to a new work challenge with a Secondment to the Criminal Investigation Department, as well as enjoying his recent engagement to Deputy Head Teacher Susan Berger. Andy is soon mired in a major enquiry investigating powerful men as well as former and serving police officers. The New Year that promised a bright future for Andy and Susan was soon dark, menacing with a foreboding of disaster. Andy began to question whom he could trust, Susan? His colleagues? His family? He knew there was a short time to find answers, prevent an imminent tragedy, and survive it all.

This is the third in the trilogy of evocative poetry from local author Andrew F M Wilson. As thought-provoking and evocative as the prior two poetry books.

“So today class, we’re going to study poetry.”

Like many other school kids, I remember the day my English teacher said those fateful words. I was the one who groaned the most and drew the teacher’s attention.

“I’m sure you’ll grow to love it, Andrew!” She said with aspersion.

Little did I realise that day how much poetry would change my life. When I did write my first poem I realised I had found a way to finally say all the things I could never say. Poetry became not only my release but also a way for me to deal with my pent up and unaddressed issues.

This book, like its predecessor, is a safari through those issues, some serious, some not, and some downright ridiculous.

Stand back, lift your head and take time to consider. Stop to smell the flowers before we die and they wither.

The story of two children and how their desire to learn to ride a bike took them on a wonderful jungle adventure. This idea is based upon Wee Wobblers ™ in Scotland and how they teach children to learn to ride a bike. It is the imagination of the children that completes the rest of the story. So join Anne and Spike and the adventures they face learning to ride their bikes.

For ages 2+

She only left her daughter in the car for a minute; just a quick minute whilst she ran into the shop. She barely thought twice about making the decision, but it soon began to consume her every thought. And not just her thoughts, but those of every neighbour, police officer and social security worker in a fifteen mile radius. But this is her child. Surely she knows best?

After she’d made the move to a small town in Scotland, the rolling hills and blustery beaches seemed to be the perfect backdrop for her and her four year-old daughter, Emily, to start again. It wasn’t always easy just the two of them, but Liz was sure that she could manage this time. And now this?

Sometimes, one mistake is all it takes to unravel everything. Cat Step is a lyrically sparse novel about judgement, intergenerational relationships, community, class, and the expectations that we place on mothers. With sharp prose Alison Irvine has crafted a compassionate narrative that compels you to read on.

In a short life full of quiet, yet heroic, endeavour, Will Purdom, the son of a gardener from the North of England, carved out a successful career as a plant-hunter and forester. He rose to become a key figure in China’s struggle to repair the ecology and sustainability of its forests after decades of ruinous logging. His name is honoured there but his self-effacing character means that he has been overlooked at home.

Francois Gordon has teased out a history of incredible hardships and life-threatening perils in the war-torn interior of China in the early years of the 20th century; of a life dedicated to discovering plants in service of Country, gardens, science and commerce.

This could be the best or worst weekend of Susie Q’s life, depending on her choices.

Follow one of the most original voices you’ll hear in literature this year as she tries to navigate 48 hours of the party scene… with your help.

Ka, a jackdaw, discovers he can talk to other birds and animals – including people. Rather than bringing him the benefits he might have hoped for, this ability leads to his exclusion from his own family and drives him to undertake a long and dangerous journey in search of a seemingly mythical figure: the Old Raven. In the course of his travels he visits places and meets characters he could never otherwise have imagined, and reaches a fuller understanding of his own behaviour.

In this, his first novel, Richard makes use of his extensive knowledge of Britain’s countryside and natural history – much of it gained during the thousands of miles he has walked researching walking guides – to create a charming adventure story which should appeal to children and adults alike.

Nothing in life works without facts.

A society that isn’t sure what’s true can’t function. Without facts there can be no government or law. Science is ignored. Trust evaporates.

People everywhere feel ever more alienated from – and mistrustful of – news and those who make it. We no longer seem to know who or what to believe. We are living through a crisis of ‘information chaos’.

News and How to Use It is a glossary for this bewildering age. From AI to Bots, from Climate Crisis to Fake News, from Clickbait to Trolls (and more), here is the definitive user’s guide for how to stay informed, tell truth from fiction and hold those in power accountable in the modern age.

1947. In a damp, run-down farmhouse on the island of Jura, George Orwell is embarking on his greatest work: Nineteen Eighty-Four. Forty-four years old and suffering from the tuberculosis that will eventually take his life, this book is his legacy – the culmination of a career spent fighting to preserve the freedoms which the wars and upheavals of the twentieth century have threatened. Completing the book is an urgent task – a race against death.

Dennis Glover explores the creation of Orwell’s final work, which for millions of readers worldwide defined the twentieth century. Simultaneously a captivating drama, a unique literary excavation and an unflinching portrait of a beloved writer, The Last Man in Europe will change the way you understand Nineteen Eighty-Fourand George Orwell himself.

Hi, my name is Charlie Ryan. These are a few stories of my life spent with my human family; my mum Sheralee, my dad Gary, and my sister Keryn. I have tales to tell about lazy cats, silly dogs, a blind bird, and even a mysterious owl who comes to visit. I am a most unusual but very handsome squirrel, and I hope that you will enjoy coming along on my adventures about life in Kalumbila in the North West Province of Zambia, a place filled with laughter, tears, danger, and most of all – love. For ages 5+

A sinister killer is hiding the bodies of his victims in Glasgow’s derelict cinemas in Picture Her Dead, the eighth novel in Lin Anderson’s forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.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.Dealing with personal trauma arising from the unknown fate of a close friend, Rhona must maintain focus as the investigation gains momentum. Fearing the girl’s disappearance could be linked with something she wasn’t supposed to see at the ruined picture house, time is running out, and if she’s not found soon it could be too late . . .