THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

Paris, 1919. Will the brittle pieces of Europe ever fit together again?

As the fragile negotiations of the international Peace Conference get underway, typist Stella Rutherford throws herself into her work and the mixture of glamour and devastation the City of Light reveals. Anything to escape the grief coming in waves for her beloved brother Jack.

Her sister Corran is about to put her academic career to use among the troops in France, a chance to see what the experience was like for countless men, including her fiancé Rob.

Rob Campbell, profoundly changed by his time as a surgeon on the front line, has had little chance to lift his head from the incessant grind of the injured, dying and dead. If he did the ghosts of his teammates, the Scottish rugby players who followed the same path into hell, would surely be waiting for him.

The Paris Peacemakers follows three Scots as they attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives while the fabric of Europe is stitched together for good or ill.

Climate catastrophe leaves the people of Earth fighting for oxygen in this gripping dystopian thriller from bestselling sci-fi author Alastair Chisholm.

Sparrow lives in the world after the Reek. The atmosphere is toxically polluted, and Axel Brodie, the tech billionaire behind Zephyr Industries, is cashing in as the only supplier of clean air. Sparrow is struggling to help her family survive until her brilliant inventor friend, Miriam Fenn, comes up with a new form of technology that could break Zephyr’s stranglehold on the air supply. But men like Brodie are hard to defeat, and he will do everything in his power to stop Miriam and Sparrow. Who will triumph in this battle to breathe?

First published in 1973, Haste Ye Back is a lively and intimate portrayal of Aberlour Orphanage in Banffshire, where Dorothy K. Haynes (1918–1987) spent four formative years in her childhood. Best known as a writer of gothic and supernatural fiction, here Haynes’s vivid imagination brings to life the residents, caretakers and stories of the institution that irrevocably shaped her.

In this new edition, the complete text of Haste Ye Back is reprinted alongside additional material by Haynes: three previously unpublished reminiscences on Aberlour Orphanage, and ‘The Head’, the winner of the 1947 Tom-Gallon Trust Award and a fine example of the author’s haunting short fiction. Opening with a fresh and considered look at Haynes’s life and work, this volume re-introduces a long-neglected writer of striking originality.

‘Hearing you say my name was a way of seeing myself as I had never seen myself … you gave my name new meaning, new weight.’

Nerdy and shy, scholarship student Daniel de La Luna arrives at college nervous to meet his golden-haired, athletic roommate, whose Facebook photos depict a boy just like those who made Daniel’s school years hell.

Sam Morris is not what he had imagined, though. As the two settle into college life they drink tequila under the stars, go on long runs through snow-covered hills, explore freshman nightlife, and inch closer until they find themselves in love.

But their blissful first year is over all too soon. Daniel’s summer in his ancestral homeland of México becomes a rollercoaster of revelations, before his life is brutally upended by the unimaginable.

How We Named the Stars is a tale of love, heartache and learning to honour the dead. Daniel and Sam will leave you forever changed.

‘Hold on to your chapeaux, because this story is a beezer! It’s a stoatir, so it is!’

Victor and Barry are the epitome of the expression ‘big in the 80s’. Annoyingly, they were also a little big in the first bit of the 90s too, so that phrase doesn’t really pan out very satisfactorily; much like Victor and Barry themselves, in fact, who completely disappeared from the face of the Scottish showbiz scene in 1994 and were rumoured to have actually died on stage. But apparently rumours of their deaths have been greatly exaggerated, and the two can still be spotted strolling the leafy suburban lanes near the home they have shared for many decades at 22B Lacrosse Terrace, Kelvinside, Glasgow G12. In Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium, Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson reminisce about their hectic years as Victor and Barry through both beloved and never-before-seen photos, songs and musings in a scrapbook style compendium, including a foreword from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

FORGET WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW
THIS IS NOT THAT CRIME NOVEL

You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a twinset and tweed.

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes.

Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation. It will end with a rabbit hole that goes so deep, Johnny and Penny might just come to question not just whodunnit, but whether they want to know the answer.

‘Extraordinary.’ Marina Hyde
‘An utter joy to read.’ Monica Ali
‘Majestic.’ Independent
‘A masterpiece.’ John Lanchester
‘Addictively enjoyable.’ Guardian
‘Sensational.’ Irish Independent
‘Pitch-perfect.’ Observer

From the author of Mayflies, an irresistible, unputdownable, state-of-the-nation novel – the story of one man’s epic fall from grace.

May 2021. London.

Campbell Flynn – art historian and celebrity intellectual – is entering the empire of middle age. Fuelled by an appetite for admiration and the finer things, controversy and novelty, he doesn’t take people half as seriously as they take themselves. Which will prove the first of his huge mistakes.

The second? Milo Mangasha, his beguiling and provocative student. Milo inhabits a more precarious world, has experiences and ideas which excite his teacher. He also has a plan.

Over the course of an incendiary year, a web of crimes and secrets and scandals will be revealed, and Campbell Flynn may not be able to protect himself from the shattering exposure of all his privilege really involves. But then, he always knew: when his life came tumbling down, it would occur in public.

This is a fascinating insight into a macho, male-dominated world where reality is so grotesquely distorted from the public perception. Read it, believe it, because sometimes the truth is far more incredible than fiction. TERRY BUTCHER, Captain of England Football Team

Her husband found her by the roadside, delirious and choking on her own vomit. Gemma Morgan was 33, happily married with two young children, an outstanding army service record and a first-class international sporting career. But underneath she was a wreck, surviving on a cocktail of vodka, Valium and sleeping pills.

Misogyny, sexual abuse and toxic masculinity had been the daily realities of her Army career long before being deployed unarmed and unsupported to the blood and mayhem of a war zone.

When Gemma gave birth to a baby girl, motherhood left her lost and alienated, a soldier who had deliberately suppressed her femininity with no idea how to cope.

Together, these experiences triggered a mental health crisis that led her to become suicidal, battling PTSD, betrayed and abandoned by the institution to which she had devoted seven years of her life.

With the support of her family Gemma has been on a long, hard and bumpy road to recovery. This is her story in her own words.

She has told it to inspire a fierce and urgent call for change.

Gemma speaks with powerful vulnerability – you could hear a pin drop. JODIE KIDD Model, Racing Driver and TV Personality

Kathleen Haggerty is resourceful, brave and tireless – but fated to work in the bra factory like her mother. It’s 1962, and Kathleen resents her situation. She has to look after her three younger siblings whilst her mother works part-time, collect the wages from her absentee father, and sacrifice her social life for responsibilities she never asked for. When Kathleen’s grandmother dies, the entire family dynamic changes – leaving the relationship with her mother to suffer.

Kitten Heels is a moving coming-of-age story, set in 1960’s workingclass Clydeside and told from thirteen-year-old Kathleen’s perspective.

It is a humorous, character filled story, dealing with issues of poverty, mental health, the role of women. Kathleen finds comfort and support in the community of women around her – learning from the way in which these women find ways to grow, nourish and heal each other, despite hardships and institutional obstacles set in their way.

Discover our collectable Puffin Clothbound Classic edition of Peter Pan

Puffin Clothbound Classics are stunning collectable gift editions of some of the best-loved classics in the world – including this highly anticipated edition of Peter Pan.

The Darling children’s lives take an extraordinary turn when Peter Pan loses his shadow in their nursery…

‘Second to the right, and straight on till morning.

‘Soaring over a sleepy London and through twinkling stars, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell lead Wendy, Michael, and John Darling on a brilliant adventure to Neverland, where pirates, mermaids, and the Lost Boys play!

With magic in the air, it all seems too good to be true until the Darling children meet Capitan Hook and his terrible crew and their tick tick ticking crocodile…

A junkie looking for one last fix in a town full of ghosts.

This is a ghost story. A junkie has gone to El Zapotal to die – to rent a room in this crumbling backwater, melt into one last fix, and not come back. For someone so ready to no longer be alive, though, he can’t stop clinging to the past. His old dog, Kid, who he abandoned. His love, Valerie, who he introduced to drugs. There’s no such thing as a good memory.

El Zapotal doesn’t want him either. The people aren’t welcoming, the streets are empty except for strays, and he’s having trouble pacing his supply. As the drugs run out, the line between what’s real and what’s not blurs to the point of illegibility, and we’re left wandering a tenderly described hinterland of despair, hunger, and regret. García Elizondo has given us an homage to Pedro Páramo, a descent for the ages, a long goodbye with no clear line between the living and dead.

The clock is ticking-

Detective Constable Angus MacVicar has just landed his dream job – transferred out of uniform and assigned to Oldcastle’s biggest ongoing murder investigation: Operation Telegram, hunting the -Fortnight Killer.

Every two weeks another couple is targeted. One victim is left at the scene, their corpse used as a twisted message board. The second body is never seen again.

This should be the perfect chance for Angus to prove himself, but instead of working on the investigation’s front line, he’s lumbered with the forensic psychologist from hell. A jetlagged, sarcastic, know-it-all American, on loan from the FBI, who seems determined to alienate everyone while dragging Angus into a shadowy world of conspiracies, lies, and violence.

It’s been twelve days since the Fortnight Killer last struck, and the investigation’s running out of time. The darkness is growing, and if Angus isn’t careful, it’ll swallow him whole.

From the author of Cuddie’s Strip and Barossa Street comes a new adventure starring reluctant detective Bob Kelty. Now settled in Crieff with his wife Annie, Bob Kelty is busy preparing for the Rover Scout Moot, which will see thousands of Rover Scouts from all over the world pitch tents on the Monzie Estate in Perthshire. Murder is the last thing on his mind.

That is, until a burnt-out tent is discovered on the estate, with a charred body inside. The police are hesitant to pursue the case – doing so would disrupt the camaraderie of the Moot, already balancing on a knife edge due to the precarious political situation in Europe. It is once again up to Bob, along with friends new and old, to get to the bottom of the mystery behind the body in the tent. But all is not as it seems, and a cut-and-dry whodunnit quickly unravels into a complex web of espionage, double-crossing, and covert foreign intervention. As the lines dividing friend and enemy blur, and the disappearances keep adding up – has Bob Kelty finally bitten off more than he can chew?

A travelling funfair of seductive troublemakers arrive in a repressed Scottish town. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s the summer of ’97 and the Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change.

Enter the Freakslaw – a travelling funfair populated by deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem. It doesn’t take long for the Freakslaw folk to infiltrate Pitlaw’s grey world, where the town’s teenagers – none more so than Ruth and Derek – are seduced by neon charms and the possibility of escape.

But beneath it all, these newcomers are harbouring a darker desire: revenge.

And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that’s been simmering for centuries is about to be unleashed…

A junkie looking for one last fix in a town full of ghosts.

This is a ghost story. A junkie has gone to El Zapotal to die – to rent a room in this crumbling backwater, melt into one last fix, and not come back. For someone so ready to no longer be alive, though, he can’t stop clinging to the past. His old dog, Kid, who he abandoned. His love, Valerie, who he introduced to drugs. There’s no such thing as a good memory.

El Zapotal doesn’t want him either. The people aren’t welcoming, the streets are empty except for strays, and he’s having trouble pacing his supply. As the drugs run out, the line between what’s real and what’s not blurs to the point of illegibility, and we’re left wandering a tenderly described hinterland of despair, hunger, and regret. García Elizondo has given us an homage to Pedro Páramo, a descent for the ages, a long goodbye with no clear line between the living and dead.

It only takes one voice to resist.

Caught by the Nazis distributing forbidden leaflets, Sophie Scholl is facing execution. Only one route remains: confession and betrayal of everything she stood for- but will she take it? What would you be willing to die for?

Nominated for a 2023 CATS award for best production for children and young people Duncan Kidd’s Storm Lantern is a timely examination of the final hours of Sophie Scholl at a moment in history when the forces of fascism are on the rise once more.

She stayed in your house. Now she wants your life . . .

‘Tense, compulsive and gripping, The Perfect Guest is uncomfortable in the best possible way’ Charlotte Levin, author of If I Let You Go

We all have that friend – the one who doesn’t quite belong. Dinah Marshall is that person and knows it. After someone drops out, she’s invited to spend the weekend at a luxury holiday home with women she’s known since university. However, the gulf between them has widened since then, and Dinah is conscious of being the only one with no money, career, partner or children. Feeling like an outsider, she takes to snooping around the house. She’s fascinated by its owners, Sarah and Isaac Rivers – and when she discovers she can secretly stay an extra night, that fascination quickly spirals into obsession.

When Isaac Rivers meets ‘Diana Malone’ at an exclusive members club, he introduces her to his wife and friends, and she’s soon welcomed into the group. She seems to be trying a little too hard, however, and as her somewhat intense behaviour starts to raise both eyebrows and questions, one of her new acquaintances begins to suspect she isn’t who she says she is. For Diana – or is it Dinah? – this is a disaster: she’s worked hard to get where she has, and these suspicions threaten everything. But Diana isn’t the only one with secrets, and if she’s going down, then she might just take everyone else with her . . .

Scotland’s unique geography and topography provided a useful base for Allied military preparations during the Cold War, a 40-year nuclear stand-off between the USA and the Soviet Union ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

This book accompanies an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland (13 July-26 January 24) which explores Scotland’s critical position on the front line.

Scots played active roles as soldiers, within intelligence services and as part of voluntary civil defences. Also drawn on is Scotland’s rich history of Cold War-era protest.

The physical legacy of the Cold War is revealed too – the ruined bases, forgotten bunkers and decommissioned nuclear power stations still evident across the Scottish landscape.

It’s the summer of ’97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change. Enter the Freakslaw – a travelling funfair populated by deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem. It doesn’t take long for the Freakslaw folk to infiltrate Pitlaw’s grey world, where the town’s teenagers – none more so than Ruth and Derek – are seduced by neon charms and the possibility of escape.

But beneath it all, these newcomers are harbouring a darker desire: revenge. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that’s been simmering for centuries is about to be unleashed.

‘Delightful, delirious and transgressive, this book is the wildest of carnival rides, an open-mouthed kiss with the lingering taste of candyfloss and smoke. Jane Flett has created a queer punk masterpiece and we should all be so lucky to have our lives turned upside down by a visit to the Freakslaw.’ – Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells.

The astonishing true story of Glasgow gangland confidant James McIntyre, aka Jimmy Two Guns

James ‘Jimmy Two Guns’ McIntyre was Glasgow’s go-to gangland lawyer and consigliere to one of Scotland’s foremost crime families. His maverick approach to the law and a client list that included some of the most feared gangland figures of the time – including the McGoverns and Paul Ferris – ensured that he was always in demand but under the constant scrutiny of the authorities.

Now Jimmy Two Guns recounts the cases he handled, the strokes he pulled, plus his arrests, a high-speed car chase with the drug squad, his time in ‘the cooler’ for allegedly attempting to murder a cop and much more. He tells how he bounced back after being the target of a near-fatal underworld hit, before being arrested by an armed response unit for possession of two pistols, and reveals with wit and a sharp pen what it’s really like being a lawyer for the underdog.

Whatever you thought you knew about crime and justice, think again – because for Jimmy Two Guns, the truth has always been stranger than fiction.

‘Crooked judges, bent cops and hypocrites in high places – the most truthful legal memoir you’ll ever read. Superb.’

Matthew Hall, bestselling novelist and BAFTA-winning screenwriter of Keeping Faith

‘James McIntyre was a legal barracuda swimming both sides of the line; this memoir is his modus operandi.’

G.F. Newman, creator of Law & Order and Judge John Deed