THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

Scottish Wars of Independence, 1297. Scottish resistance has been crushed, and King Edward, Hammer of the Scots, now rules the North.
Doesn’t he?

At Chester Castle, young apprentice armourer Harry has no idea just how much his life is going to change from the moment he is told to guard an imprisoned Scottish nobleman: the rebel Andrew de Moray. The boy’s momentary carelessness gives the prisoner all he needs: an opportunity to escape. Harry finds himself kidnapped, and on his way to Scotland.

Soon, he is caught up in the Northern Rising with its skirmishes and stealth attacks. But these are nothing to the storm of questions in Harry’s mind: Whose cause is right? Why has his new master joined forces with the outlaw William Wallace? Can his new friend Euphemia be trusted?

As arrows fly and swords clash at the battle of Stirling Bridge, Harry must choose: Whose side is he on?

In a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada, a dad welcoming his fifth – no, sixth? – child into the world. Dan and Jada come from very different places: both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from some of the luxuries Jada has never been able to enjoy in his tiny flat in a Brutalist sixties council block.

Both men find that the birth of their sons has fired their ambitions. Dan plans to walk away from his saccharine TV success and finally knuckle down to writing that novel he always felt he had in him. While, for Jada, it’s the opportunity for one last get-rich-quick scheme – ripping off a local airport. When a tragedy occurs, their worlds are brought closer than either could ever have imagined – close enough that it could mean destruction for both of them . . .

In the wake of a deadly storm, past sins return to haunt the living…

Eilean Eòin is a tiny scrap of land which is stranded amidst miles of fierce ocean, where the scant population barely cling to a centuries’ old way of life. It is here that Flora McKinnon, an aging islander, is brought news of her youngest child’s death, whilst tensions are riled by the arrival of a new reverend, Thomas Murray. Murray has a mission: to weed out religious dissent and purge the island in the name of progress.

When a strange young woman is found washed up on the foreshore, illness and famine start to blight the island, stirring whispers of witchcraft. Despite their differences, Flora and Murray unite in an uneasy attempt to solve the mystery of the girl’s identity, which soon becomes an all-consuming obsession. With their own deep-buried skeletons, will the island’s dark secrets make or break them both?

You are afraid of the border places. You are afraid of the fork in the road.

Fleeing her mistakes in Glasgow for a marriage of convenience, Norah Mackenzie’s new home on an estate far in the north of Scotland is a chance for freedom, a fresh start. But in the dim, draughty corridors of Corrain House, something is very wrong. Despite their warm correspondence, her distant, melancholic husband does not seem to know her. She is plagued by ghost ships on the sea, spectres at the corner of her eye, by winding, grasping roots. Her only possible companion, the housekeeper Agnes Gunn, is by turns unnerving and alluring, and harbours uncanny secrets of her own.

As the foundations crumble beneath her feet, Norah must uncover the truth about Corrain House, her husband, Agnes, and herself, if she is to find the freedom she has been chasing.

MOST FAMILY REUNIONS END IN TEARS. THIS ONE WILL END IN MURDER.

Lucy Foley meets Succession in this atmospheric new murder mystery that will keep you hooked right until the last page . . .

On a private island off the west coast of Scotland, the Agarwals gather for a much-awaited family reunion.

Raj, the patriarch and business tycoon, who has six weeks to decide how to split his petrochemicals empire between his three children.

Shalini, the fragile mother, who longs to see her family healed.

Myra, the eldest daughter and golden child, who, unbeknownst to the family, is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Aseem, the son and supposed heir, who must choose between his wife and his family.

Aisha, the fun-loving youngest daughter, who is tired of being treated like a child.

And Zoe, the outsider whose #Instaperfect life is built on a foundation of lies.

Everyone has a secret – but only one would kill to protect it…

In this new edition of her first full-length collection, Gerda Stevenson invites readers into a world rich with music – skipping rhymes, heartfelt laments and lively dance tunes. Her poetry dances across themes of butterflies, snowberries and the bittersweet echoes of childhood, alongside reflections on Bosnia, Iraq and Scotland’s own landscapes. If This Were Real serves as an autobiographical tapestry, weaving together personal and political narratives that resonate deeply with our shared humanity.

This collection is ideal for poetry enthusiasts, readers of contemporary Scottish literature and anyone intrigued by the interplay of personal experience and broader societal themes. It’s a perfect book for those who appreciate the musicality of language and the power of storytelling in verse.

When Danny reveals the dark underside of a company making a new fighting toy gadget, he has no idea of the danger he’s in. A gripping sci-fi mystery from bestselling author Alastair Chisholm.

Everyone is desperate to have a Blitzer, the new fighting-game craze. But Danny’s Blitzer is broken – it won’t fight!

His classmates laugh at him. His brother tells him to wipe the code and start again. But Danny does something different … and everything changes.

For the people behind Blitzers are hiding a deadly secret, and now everyone is in danger. Can Danny uncover the truth? Can he figure out what Blitzers are? And above all, can he save his best friend?

Particularly suitable for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.

For millennia,
elms shaped our landscape and our folklore;
then they started dying.

For the past century, a deadly pandemic has raged across the world, destroying all in its path and outmanoeuvring scientists’ desperate attempts to halt it.

Dutch elm disease has killed hundreds of millions of trees globally and over 25 million in the UK alone, altering our landscapes forever. Few young people have seen a mature elm tree, yet they once covered great swathes of Europe and North America and their legacy lives on in our mythology.

The Lost Elms is a love letter to our vanished elms – the story of how we have nearly lost them all, and the long, slow fight back. It tells the gripping story of the scientists desperately trying to halt the disease’s relentless progress, and demonstrates the deadly effect globalisation can have on the environment, the threat of climate change, the importance of biosecurity and the intricate ways in which trees are interlinked with other species. Woven throughout is a lyrical look at the elm’s central place in our history, culture and folklore – the elm features heavily in Greek, Celtic, Japanese, Germanic and Scandinavian mythology; as the ‘Liberty Tree’ it played a symbolic role in both the American and French Revolutions; and since ancient times the elm has held associations with death and the supernatural.

However all is not lost: recent breakthroughs in ecological understanding reveal elms to be far more resilient than we ever imagined. This tree holds an important place in our history, and now might just offer hopeful lessons for how we can save other disappearing species and our environment.

It was obvious to Catherine Simpson from the beginning that there was something different about her first child, Nina.

Motherhood had always felt like Catherine’s destiny, and she’d grown up nurturing joyful visions of the family she’d create. But her dreams crashed headfirst into the reality of parenthood. It seemed that the world was not Nina-shaped, and no matter how hard they both tried, they had to fight almost everything – especially once Nina started school.

Aged ten, Nina’s autism was diagnosed and a door opened. It became clear why she didn’t think or behave the way other children did, but faced with school bullies, dismissive doctors and insensitive peers, her difficulties were far from over. She and Catherine still felt as though it was them against a world that demanded Nina change as a child and Catherine as a mother.

While Nina remained resolutely herself, Catherine adapted. Mothering an autistic child lit a fierce determination within her and underlined the power of her unconditional love.

This is an unforgettable story that shows what a gift it is to see someone not as the world tells them they should be, but as they are.

When troubled but talented young author Euan meets decorated novelist Malcolm Furnivall, he feels his luck has finally changed. Malcolm takes Euan as a protégé, vouching for him in the rarefied literary scene in the 1950s. But lately, Malcolm has not been himself. Consumed by his work, he cuts an increasingly isolated figure and has become convinced that something terrible will befall him. He summons his loved ones to his secluded island in the Hebrides and – to everyone’s surprise – entrusts Euan with the task of completing his masterpiece.

Malcolm’s suspicions soon prove well-founded; he is discovered brutally murdered in his study, and his invaluable unfinished novel has vanished. Cut off from the mainland, with the killer on the loose and the island’s inhabitants circling, Euan feels both his mentor’s legacy and his only chance at greatness slipping away. He must venture deep into Malcolm’s labyrinthine mansion to find the manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands.

But what he doesn’t yet know is that the closer he comes to solving the mystery, the tighter he will bind himself to a fate sealed in time . . .

A brand new crime series from the award-winning author of the Harry McCoy books.

March 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France.

Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to lie low as the Luftwaffe begins bombing Glasgow.

But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When it turns out to be that of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, Gunner reluctantly agrees to investigate.

As he begins to hunt for the truth Gunner runs into old flames and bitter enemies, before finding himself embroiled in a high-level conspiracy that reaches far beyond his hometown of Glasgow.

Partly inspired by the true story of Rudolph Hess’s secret mission to broker appeasement with Britain during the Second World War, Gunner is an atmospheric and addictive new thriller from one of Britain’s best-loved writers.

Three’s a crowd. Especially when one of them ends up dead…
A dark, addictive story of obsession, rivalry, and the thin line between infatuation and obsession

‘It’s not the blood that gives away the fact that he’s dead; it’s the eyes. You never notice someone blinking, but it’s so obvious when they stop’

When university student Louise moves in with her friend Cat, she can’t believe her luck.

In her eyes, Cat is perfect – she’s rich, gorgeous, enigmatic and sexy, and the only person who has ever persuaded Henry, who doesn’t do commitment, into a monogamous relationship.

Life in Cat and Henry’s orbit is never dull, but when a night in for the three of them ends up in bed, Louise is confronted with the true nature of their relationship, and has nowhere to hide when Cat asks for help getting out.

Louise would do anything for Cat, even if what Cat asks terrifies her.

Because for Louise, the only thing worse than doing what Cat is asking, is losing her completely . . .

She wasn’t born into their world. But she’ll do anything to belong.

Leaving behind her childhood in coastal Scotland, Ivy Graveson arrives at an all-girls college at a prestigious university and throws herself into the deep end of life on campus.

Though her fellow students all seem to come from money and to have known each other their whole lives, outsider Ivy is determined to belong. She embraces the world of secret societies, and as she discovers the legacy of her college, the parallels between its past and her present become striking. Because however hard she tries to ignore it, Ivy has always felt drawn to – and terrified of – the bodies of water that surround her.

In just one life-changing year in these hallowed halls, Ivy will have to decide how much sisterhood means to her and how far she’ll go to become the person she was destined to be.

A richly atmospheric campus novel, perfect for fans of The Secret History and dark academia, These Mortal Bodies is an intoxicating story of obsession, infatuation and toxic friendship in the world of the elites, where rules are made to be broken.

Today, trauma permeates media, from music and television to films and books – my own included. While the increasing openness is welcome, I’ve observed that this rise has been accompanied by a parallel explosion of disinformation and sometimes harmful guidance about how to deal with personal trauma.

In Trauma Industrial Complex, I ask the question: How did we get here? And are the stories we’re telling ourselves liberating us or keeping us trapped? In this revealing and deeply personal book, I’ll pull back the curtain, sharing the hard-won wisdom I’ve gained from the events brought on by telling my own story.

SCOTLAND, 1662.
Hunted, held prisoner and banished for a belief…

As civil war rages and King Charles II tightens his grip on the Church of Scotland, childhood sweethearts Violet and Samuel are swept into a violent struggle for religious freedom. They pledge their hearts to each other – and to a cause that will test their faith, courage and love beyond measure.

Hunted as rebels, imprisoned behind the walls of the infamous Greyfriars Kirkyard and torn from their homeland, Violet and Samuel are sentenced to a life of indentured servitude on the brutal sugar plantations of Barbados. But when their ship wrecks off the coast of Orkney, they become separated.

Alone and captive in a foreign land, Violet must summon every ounce of strength to survive the horrors she faces – and to cling to the hope that Samuel is still alive. Can love endure across oceans, through wars and captivity?

The isolated, salt-soaked isle of Stormcliff is preparing for the annual Firebloom Festival, a famous gathering of thousands of jellyfish and their incredible light show.

Twelve-year-old Tally Smuck is destined to become a Sting Winkler — someone who can communicate with jellyfish — just like her mother and grandfather before her. The Smucks’ special gift means only they can do the vital job of caring for the invaluable jellies that Stormcliff depends on.

But by Firebloom Eve, there’s still no sign of Tally’s abilities, or the jellyfish. Determined not to let everyone down, Tally gathers her friends — anxious Farran, fortune-teller-in-training Colette, and resourceful cliff rat Albert. Together can they bring the island’s secrets to light and find the missing jellies before the Firebloom Festival and Stormcliff are plunged into darkness for good?

This illuminating middle-grade mystery adventure from award-winning author Justin Davies is full of jeopardy, joy and jellyfish! Firebloom is a bright and brilliant standalone novel set in the same imagined world as Haarville.

They got away with murder once . . .

In the shadowy closes of Edinburgh’s Old Town, sixteen people are murdered to feed surgeon Dr Robert Knox’s insatiable need for his anatomy classes. Burke and Hare and their wives, Lucky and Nelly, are all complicit, but only Burke swings for their crimes. Lucky, Nelly and Hare go on the run from the angry mob, reinvention their only means of survival.

Years later, journalist Duncan Fletcher hears rumours of sightings of the two women. Keen to impress his editor, Duncan investigates the aftermath of the murder trial. With cobbler Joseph Campbell in tow, Duncan’s quest leads him to the backstreets of London, where the horrors of the past collide with the present.

The time for retribution has come.

He will stay like this forever, Robert’s arm draped round him. They will be forever twenty.

Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is on his way. After years grafting at Lees Boot Factory, he’s off to the Glasgow School of Art, to his future. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls – and never leave his side.

Together they will spend every penny and every minute devouring Glasgow – its botanical gardens, the Barras market, a whole hidden city – all the while loving each other behind closed doors. With the world on the brink of war, their unrivalled talent will take them to Paris, Rome, London. They will become stars as the bombs fall, hosting wild parties with the likes of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Elizabeth Smart. But the brightest stars burn fastest.

Stunningly reimagined, The Two Roberts is a profoundly moving story of devotion and obsession, art and class. It is a love letter to MacBryde and Colquhoun, the almost-forgotten artists who tried to change the way the world sees – and paid a devastating price.

Things haven’t been easy for Eiley but she’s finally stepping into the light. With a new flat above the local bookshop, Thistle & Thorn, and a job that lets her indulge her bookworm fantasies, Eiley is on the path to rediscovering who she is – until her village of Belbarrow gets an annoyingly self-important new fireman called Warren, who it seems is always there to throw cold water on her plans.

Warren, with his hot looks and cool lines, is the last thing Eiley wants. Cocky, flirty and superior, she’s not about to be another notch on his belt. But when chaos sweeps through Eiley’s life, forcing her and Warren to team up to save the shop, sparks fly in ways she never expected.

As autumn leaves swirl and the village gears up for their annual fireworks display, Eiley must navigate the smoking chemistry between them while facing the ghosts of her past. She knows that sometimes love hurts – but other times, it burns…

In a town full of whispers, silence speaks volumes…

When three teenagers track down a missing chihuahua to an abandoned theme park, they discover a corpse strangled by his own camera strap and find themselves caught up in a murder investigation. The victim was supposed to be 400 miles away in London. He’d promised a lot of people a lot of money. And every single one of them has an alibi. Haigh, Cherry, and Sunrise soon discover that their rural village isn’t quite as dull and predictable as they thought it was.