Searching for: thunderpoint

Behind the peaceful facade of Oban, a west coast Scottish town, lies a mystery. The disappearance of an unassuming bookshop owner draws DI Angus Blue into a challenging investigation and lays bare a complex network of rare book theft, where collectors, dealers and thieves are determined to possess these valuable books, and willing to kill for them.

Scotland, 1685: Monmouth and Argyll plan to overthrow the King and the Covenanters see an opportunity to further their cause. From the shepherds and the farmer’s wives of the Lanarkshire hills, to the innkeepers, apothecaries and washerwomen of the towns, Smith portrays with exquisite detail the lives of the ordinary people of 17th century Scotland.

This collection asks, “Is murder always wrong?” Well-known for the darkly dry humour of his Inspector Angus Blue series of crime thrillers set across Scotland, Allan Martin brings his razor-sharp eye for detail to the short story genre, and Tales Murderous and Mysterious will have you gripped from the first knock on the door, to the last dead body.

Just outside Oban, within sight of the Connel Bridge, there’s a burnt out car containing the charred remains of a human body. A woman is missing – but is the body hers? In a high stakes game of business and politics, what secret does the bustling port of Oban hide that is worth killing for?

Tweed rins tae the Ocean follows an east to west coast walk by Allan and some friends, and gently explores the history, literature and language of what Allan contends is the oldest national land border in the world. The title of the book takes its inspiration from the Burns song, 'Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation'.

In The Spinning House Affair Jane Taylor eloquently brings to life the historic struggle of women in the 19th century, and highlights that the fight of women today is a continuation of the struggles of the past.

As James Renwick returns to Scotland, accompanied by the young Jonas Hawthorne, in search of adventure, an undeterred John Steel is still living the life of a fugitive, hunted day and night by Claverhouse's men.

Jura: where the rich and powerful go to play away from prying eyes. After a murder attempt on a Cabinet Minister, Inspector Angus Blue returns to the Hebrides. But Special Branch are sent to hunt the assassin too, and Blue's investigation is hampered at every turn, as he tries to discover what Special Branch are hiding - and who they are protecting.

With the hunt on for the country’s most notorious cop killer, and an ongoing complex international investigation, the murder of a local thug during a football match is the last thing the police need.

Mick Crossan is a ‘homer’, removed by social services from his widowed mother and slum home in the Gorbals and placed in ‘care’. In 1950s Scotland, thousands of children were removed from their families for a ‘better life’ in the rural idyll of the Highlands as ‘boarded-out’ children. Willie Orr deftly writes with a lightness of touch, and addresses a rarely talked about aspect of recent history.