THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

What if the killer she’s hunting turns out to be the woman she’s falling for? A gripping debut thriller in a unique location, from a major new talent in Scottish crime – pre-order now to read before anyone else!

‘A significant crime debut. Authoritatively authentic, irresistibly pacey and nerve-shreddingly tense’ Chris Brookmyre

Just because the most dangerous criminals in society are caught and locked up, doesn’t mean they stop committing crime.

That’s where Kennedy Allardyce comes in – monitoring not just the prisoners, but also the staff.

And she’s just stumbled across her most dangerous foe yet – rumours of a corrupt guard with lethal influence. And what’s worst, it seems they’ve already realised Kennedy is on their tail.

At least one thing is giving her joy – a blossoming relationship with Molly, a beautiful, enigmatic new guard.

Wouldn’t it be awful if the killer she’s hunting turned out to be the woman she’s falling for?

What if the killer she’s hunting turns out to be the woman she’s falling for? A gripping debut thriller in a unique location, from a major new talent in Scottish crime – pre-order now to read before anyone else!

‘A significant crime debut. Authoritatively authentic, irresistibly pacey and nerve-shreddingly tense’ Chris Brookmyre

Just because the most dangerous criminals in society are caught and locked up, doesn’t mean they stop committing crime.

That’s where Kennedy Allardyce comes in – monitoring not just the prisoners, but also the staff.

And she’s just stumbled across her most dangerous foe yet – rumours of a corrupt guard with lethal influence. And what’s worst, it seems they’ve already realised Kennedy is on their tail.

At least one thing is giving her joy – a blossoming relationship with Molly, a beautiful, enigmatic new guard.

Wouldn’t it be awful if the killer she’s hunting turned out to be the woman she’s falling for?

Sparks will fly, even without firewood?

When city-girl Harper arrives in the Caledonian Forest in Scotland, her hopes for her holiday are quickly dashed. She’d planned a whimsical, autumnal writing retreat, to finish her novel. But ghosted by her scammer rental host, she discovers that the cosy log cabin she’d booked for her solo getaway does not actually exist. Miles away from any hotel, she wanders through the woods until she finds the hot local woodcutter Fraser.

The last thing Fraser needs right now is a pretty girl distracting him, but he can’t leave Harper stranded. So he reluctantly allows Harper to stay in his tiny lumberjack’s cabin for the night. He will sleep at his house outside the forest, then return tomorrow to turf Harper out so he can get back to his strenuous task of splitting logs for the locals’ firewood.

But once Harper sees Fraser’s axe swing, she is determined to cut through his gruff exterior. She has a feeling this man might be the perfect cure for her writer’s block.

Fraser can’t help inviting Harper to extend her one-night stay to two, then three, then four. And with every tree he fells, he’s starting to wonder if he’s falling harder.

This spicy autumnal romance features a HEA ending with BookTok’s hottest lumberjack love interest.

18+ content.

Tropes:- opposites attract- forced proximity- rural setting

With everything from lazy bakes for serene snactivities to turning lunchtime into playtime with fantastic themes to spark every child’s imagination, Rachel Stirling shares the cheat codes to beautiful, nutritious and budget-friendly meals for kids, without the hassle!

These lunchtime hacks are perfect for everyday meals or picky eaters, playdate platters, baking bonanzas and even the inevitable ‘out of bread’ days. Featuring formulas for a perfectly balanced lunchbox, easy wins and tips for introducing new flavours, it’s time to treat your kids with the Lunchbox Mama!

THE NEW FRONTLIST THRILLER FROM THE MILLION-SELLING AUTHOR OF COFFIN ROAD AND THE BLACKHOUSE

In 1989, a killer dumped the body of twenty-year-old Lucie Martin into a picturesque lake in the West of France. Fourteen years later, during a summer heat wave, a drought exposed her remains – bleached bones amid the scorched mud and slime.No one was ever convicted of her murder. But now, forensic expert Enzo Macleod is reviewing this stone-cold case – the toughest of those he has been challenged to solve.

Yet when Enzo finds a flaw in the original evidence surrounding Lucie’s murder, he opens a Pandora’s box that not only raises old ghosts but endangers his entire family.

Uncover the Extraordinary Adventure of the Lamb Gang: Join their Mission to Save our Planet!

When a mysterious MONSTER washes up on the shores of LOCH NESS in Scotland, the intrepid LAMB GANG jump into action on their first adventure. BOING! BOING! BOING! The poorly monster is barely breathing, when a curious Clover realises there’s something stuck in its throat. With the kiss of life out of the question (YUCK!), the Lamb Gang hatches an ingenious plan to save the monster before it’s too late.

NESSIE – for that is who it is – is saved. HURRAY! The famous Loch Ness monster then teaches her heroic friends about the harm caused to animals by PLASTIC POLLUTION and LITTER in our waters. And so, the Lamb Gang decide there’s only one way forward – by inviting children to clean up our VERY IMPORTANT PLANET and make it like new.

Children aged 4-8 will be delighted by the humorous illustrations and accessible, dyslexia-friendly text of this early reader chapter book in RHYME, which teaches the importance of the ENVIRONMENT and CONSERVATION.

‘IF WE LOOK AFTER OUR PLANET, OUR PLANET WILL LOOK AFTER US.’

Experience the same sense of adventure as in Julia Donaldson’s books, such as The Detective Dog, with this curious and clever gang of lambs on their first mission.

The first in a series of 3 delightful environmental and conservation stories for children. Don’t miss out on this adventure and important message of The Lamb Gang save the Loch Ness monster.

Big Tech has sold us the illusion that artificial intelligence is a frictionless technology that will bring wealth and prosperity to humanity. But hidden beneath this smooth surface lies the grim reality of a precarious global workforce of millions that labour under often appalling conditions to make AI possible. Feeding the Machine presents an urgent, riveting investigation of the intricate network of organisations that maintain this exploitative system, revealing the untold truth of AI.

Based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of fieldwork over more than a decade, this book shows us the lives of the workers often deliberately concealed from view and the systems of power that determine their future. It shows how AI is an extraction machine that churns through ever-larger datasets and feeds off humanity’s labour and collective intelligence to power its algorithms. Feeding the Machine is a call to arms against this exploitative system and details what we need to do, individually and collectively, to fight for a more just digital future.

Sparks will fly, even without firewood?

When city-girl Harper arrives in the Caledonian Forest in Scotland, her hopes for her holiday are quickly dashed. She’d planned a whimsical, autumnal writing retreat, to finish her novel. But ghosted by her scammer rental host, she discovers that the cosy log cabin she’d booked for her solo getaway does not actually exist. Miles away from any hotel, she wanders through the woods until she finds the hot local woodcutter Fraser.

The last thing Fraser needs right now is a pretty girl distracting him, but he can’t leave Harper stranded. So he reluctantly allows Harper to stay in his tiny lumberjack’s cabin for the night. He will sleep at his house outside the forest, then return tomorrow to turf Harper out so he can get back to his strenuous task of splitting logs for the locals’ firewood.

But once Harper sees Fraser’s axe swing, she is determined to cut through his gruff exterior. She has a feeling this man might be the perfect cure for her writer’s block.

Fraser can’t help inviting Harper to extend her one-night stay to two, then three, then four. And with every tree he fells, he’s starting to wonder if he’s falling harder.

This spicy autumnal romance features a HEA ending with BookTok’s hottest lumberjack love interest.

18+ content.

Tropes:- opposites attract- forced proximity- rural setting

Sparks will fly, even without firewood?

When city-girl Harper arrives in the Caledonian Forest in Scotland, her hopes for her holiday are quickly dashed. She’d planned a whimsical, autumnal writing retreat, to finish her novel. But ghosted by her scammer rental host, she discovers that the cosy log cabin she’d booked for her solo getaway does not actually exist. Miles away from any hotel, she wanders through the woods until she finds the hot local woodcutter Fraser.

The last thing Fraser needs right now is a pretty girl distracting him, but he can’t leave Harper stranded. So he reluctantly allows Harper to stay in his tiny lumberjack’s cabin for the night. He will sleep at his house outside the forest, then return tomorrow to turf Harper out so he can get back to his strenuous task of splitting logs for the locals’ firewood.

But once Harper sees Fraser’s axe swing, she is determined to cut through his gruff exterior. She has a feeling this man might be the perfect cure for her writer’s block.

Fraser can’t help inviting Harper to extend her one-night stay to two, then three, then four. And with every tree he fells, he’s starting to wonder if he’s falling harder.

This spicy autumnal romance features a HEA ending with BookTok’s hottest lumberjack love interest.

18+ content.

Tropes:- opposites attract- forced proximity- rural setting

Nancy and Calder are moving from London to an isolated slate island, off the west coast of Scotland. Nancy is focused on their new beginning, but is increasingly unsettled by the stark island, the mysterious inhabitants and Calder’s dark past, which he’s kept hidden from her.

Then one of Nancy’s nightmares plays out in real life: she finds Calder’s boat upturned in the bay, his body adrift in the icy water. He’s clinically dead with no heartbeat. But miraculously the doctors manage to bring him back to life. Everyone thinks he has made a full recovery, but Nancy doesn’t recognise the man who has come back from the dead.

As secrets, lies and bodies begin to wash up on the island, Nancy must come to terms with the fact that despite the fresh start, sometimes the slate cannot be wiped clean.

This spine-tingling volume collects some of Robert Louis Stevenson’s stories first published in the late 19th century for a new generation of young readers – featuring a freshly reimagined cover!

Dr. Henry Jekyll is a respectable man, sociable and well-liked, so his friends Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield are concerned when Dr. Jekyll appears linked to Edward Hyde. Mr. Hyde’s outbursts of violence have their small community on edge; he may be small in stature, but no one can deny he’s terribly dangerous, self-indulgent, and even evil.

As Dr. Jekyll’s behavior grows more erratic and Mr. Utterson circles in ever closer to the elusive Mr. Hyde, the shocking truth of the relationship between the good doctor and the unholy terror comes to light – a chain of events set off by a repressed man giving himself over wholly to the worst of his vices and shame.

Also included are ‘The Body Snatcher’, a story about medical students haunted by what they’ve done to obtain cadavers, and ‘The Bottle Imp’, a tale of a man who buys a cursed bottle who learns about the consequences of wishes.

Discover the new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life after Life.

Welcome to Rook Hall.

The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.

Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre – from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.

‘A hundred miles from the mainland, half in the sea, half out of it.

The rules are different here.’

All 13-year-old Blair Zielinski wants is a way off the remote Scottish island her parents have dragged her to. Roscoe is home to thousands of deer, a couple of hundred people, a complete lack of phone signal, and some unusual violet-eyed creatures.

Blair is miserable, until an otherworldly woman with antlers, one of the island’s darkly magical fey folk, offers her an irresistible deal: complete three tasks and Blair’s wish will be granted.

As she unravels the island’s secrets, Blair soon discovers that a fey bargain cannot be broken, and her wish has put everyone on Roscoe at risk. Can Blair find a way to save her family, and the place at the edge of the silver sea that she has come to call home?

From the author of The Sky Beneath the Stone, this wildly magical upper middle-grade fantasy explores family and friendship, the balance between humans and nature, and the people and places we embrace as our own. The Edge of the Silver Sea deftly weaves Celtic mythology and folklore — from kelpies and selkies, to will-o’-the-wisps and river spirits — with themes of environmentalism, in Alex Mullarky’s trademark captivating style.

Discover the new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life after Life.

Welcome to Rook Hall.

The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.

Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre – from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.

The West Highland Way is Scotland’s most popular long-distance walk, running 96 miles (155 km) from Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, through its first National Park, across the western Highlands to the foot of its highest mountain, Ben Nevis. This sixth edition of the popular rucksack-friendly guidebook has been revised for 2024 with various updates. It contains all you need to plan and enjoy one of the world’s finest walks. It includes detailed route descriptions with altitude profiles; background on Loch Lomond, history and wildlife; detailed mapping of the entire route at 1:42,500; practical information about transport and travel; lavishly illustrated with 120 colour photos; and printed on rainproof paper.

Discover the new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life after Life.

Welcome to Rook Hall.

The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.

Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre – from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.

The President is dead. Cal Drummond is hiding out deep in the woods of the American South when he hears the news. Once a famous talk show host, he is now a disgraced man living a solitary existence in a cabin, drinking Jack Daniels, enjoying the cover of the trees, and getting on with life as Hank MacPhearson. But this news – and the journalist who delivers it – will have consequences that reach far back into Cal’s past. They threaten his new life and identity, but they also throw him one final chance: it was an interview that brought about his downfall, but could it be another one, this time with him in the hotseat, that could bring him back to life? Taking the reader from Scotland to Mexico and from California to Georgia, The Interview is a novel not only about speaking truth to power, but also about speaking truth to oneself.

The Cateran Trail is one of Scotland’s Great Trails – a circuit of 64 miles (104 km) starting in Blairgowrie, near Perth, following in the footsteps of cattle-rustlers (caterans). This waymarked Trail follows ancient paths through glens, mountains and farmland of Highland Perthshire, with fine scenery, heritage and wildlife. The nearest village is never more than 7 miles (11 km) away, and gradients are easy to moderate. The Trail can be completed comfortably within 4-5 days, and several route variants are described, including the option for a weekend Minitrail.

Our updated third edition includes 35 fine images from professional photographer Mike Bell. Its detailed mapping is at 1:50,000 and has been updated for 2024, as have all route descriptions and other information.

A wronged woman’s voice is reclaimed in this gripping tale of revenge and romance – a medieval Gone Girl.

Highland Scotland was no place for a woman in the early 1500s. Life was turbulent and short, battles were waged, and sisters and daughters were traded as pawns in marriage. Catherine Campbell was one such young bride, betrothed to Lachlan Maclean and sent from her fine home to join him on the Isle of Mull, to bear his sons and heirs

.But Lachlan proved to be nothing like the man of Catherine’s dreams, and she was forced to resign herself to enduring life with him for the sake of duty. Until the day when he threatened to take away the one thing she couldn’t sacrifice: her daughter.

Casting a fascinating light on the ruthless Highlands, this sweeping drama by one of Scotland’s best-loved novelists explores love, ambition and betrayal and highlights the precarious position of 16th-century women

‘Top meals from the Michelin-starred chef who is also a champion athlete.’ – The Times

‘Alan’s culinary precision is matched only by his passion and ability as a sport professional.’ – Tom Kerridge

THIS IS PORTABLE, PRACTICAL, PERFORMANCE FOOD.

RECIPES AND EXPERT ADVICE TO HELP TIME-POOR CYCLISTS GET MOVING, STAY ENERGISED AND RECOVER WELL.

‘If you’re hungry, it’s too late’ is the cyclists’ mantra to avoid hitting the wall with an all-consuming loss of energy. To professional peloton, club riders and weekend peddlers alike, portable foods are as essential as a pump and a spare tube.

Armed with a host of simple-to-prepare, savoury and sweet recipes, Alan Murchison creates a range of on-the-go snacks, unique dishes and smoothies to enable riders to ditch the processed energy bars, sugary drinks and takeaways, and enjoy real food full of flavour.

On-the-go food must be appealing enough to encourage snacking when appetites are blunted and robust enough to withstand being grabbed from a musette. These energy-boosting recipes – including mouth-watering snacks such as Pressed Parmesan and Rosemary Polenta and Bakewell Balls – restore strength and are downright delicious. And instead of impatiently raiding the fridge after a hard day on the saddle, his post-ride refuelling suggestions offer irresistible protein-rich recovery alternatives.

As a respected cyclist and pro-cycling team nutritionist, Alan has road-tested his own recipes and cooked them for elite cyclists. This book of portable, practical, performance food means that whatever your level you will always have energy to the end.

Recipes include:

– ‘Full English’ frittatas
– Chocolatey cardamom protein muffins
– White chocolate miso blondies
– Frozen yoghurt protein berries bites
– Banana peanut popsicles
– ‘Full gas’ lassi
– Last legs espresso brownie
– Sweet potato ‘tattie scones’

Praise for Alan Murchison:

‘Alan’s food is simple, yet tasty and powerful. He’s been a key component for my training and racing.’ – Alex Dowsett, World Tour rider, former World Hour Record Holder and national champion

‘I can’t think of a finer chef to have written a book on nutrition and diet for athletes’ – Tom Kerridge

‘Alan’s commitment to the world of gastronomy and cycling is awe-inspiring’ – Sat Bains, two-star Michelin chef.

‘Alan has completely changed my perception of what an athlete’s diet can look like.’ – Elinor Barker, multiple world champion and Olympic gold medallist

‘His approach to nutritional cooking is nothing short of incredible.’ – Ashley Palmer-Watts, two-star Michelin chef

‘Alan’s knowledge as a world-class chef, as well as being a competitive athlete, gives him an extraordinary understanding in how to make healthy food taste great with a practical and unique approach to nutritional cooking.’ – Fred Sirieix