Showing results by narrator "David Monteath" in All Categories

Returning from holiday Hamish becomes unaccountably worried - it's as if he senses a dark cloud of evil hanging over Lochdubh. He soon learns that there is a newcomer to the village, a woman called Catriona Beldame, and that the villagers have decided she is a witch. At first Hamish is charmed by her, but is dismayed when he finds out she's been supplying dangerous potions to certain local people.

Thirty-year-old Dee and her husband Luke are blissfully happy. Every day she makes her loyal parents incredibly proud. Jen has been her best friend since their days of teenage crushes, bad '90s makeup and huge hair. They are just like any other group of family and friends - living life and getting by. Until one day everything changes. Dee is gone, killed by a reckless driver, leaving the people she loved to deal with their grief in different ways. A marriage is rocked as a parent seeks justice. A husband struggles to accept the loss of his wife.

When Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is sent to investigate reports that the wealthy new laird of the remote Naglar House has disappeared, Scotland is hit by the worst storm in living memory. The road is washed away, phone lines are down, mobile reception is dead and his police radio is out of order. He is trapped with the laird's high-class house guests. Then he discovers the laird's body. Forced to remain overnight at the house, he interviews each of the guests and pieces together an alarming picture of clandestine infidelity, vicious jealousy, deadly revenge, lust, greed and fear.

Amazing news is spreading like wildfire across the Scottish countryside: the most famous of all Highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, is planning to marry at last! Everyone in the village of Lochdubh adores Josie McSween, Hamish's newest constable and blushing bride-to-be. While locals think she is quite a catch, Hamish has a severe case of pre-nuptial jitters... after all, if it wasn't for the recent murder of a beautiful woman in a neighbouring village there wouldn't be a wedding in the first place.

St Andrews, Scotland: when a man's preserved body is discovered in a whisky ageing cask in the local Gleneden Distillery, DCI Andy Gilchrist and his partner, DS Jessie Janes, are assigned to the investigation. But when the dead man is identified as Hector Dunmore, the once heir-apparent of Gleneden Distillery, their investigation takes a dramatic turn, for Dunmore was reported missing 25 years earlier when his Land Rover was found abandoned on the outskirts of Mallaig, almost 200 miles away on the coast. Why hide a body in a 25-year ageing cask? And who would want Dunmore dead?

There’s not a cloud in Hamish Macbeth’s sky - just plenty of warm sunshine but not quite enough of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. But as eight hopeful members of the Checkmate Singles Club converge on Tommel Castle Hotel for a week of serious matchmaking, the clouds roll in. The four couples, carefully matched by dating director Maria Worth, immediately dislike one another. And the arrival of Maria’s gross, greedy business partner, Peta, kills the last vestige of romance. And as love goes out the window, murder comes in the door.

When DCI Andy Gilchrist is called to a crime scene to find an amputated hand clutching a note addressed to him, a note that contains only one word, murder, he is pulled into an investigation that will test him to the limit. Soon other single word clues are found along with amputated body parts and the murderer's vengeful message becomes clear as the identity of the next intended victim is revealed. But when someone close to him disappears, Gilchrist knows he is too late.

A sudden outbreak of maliciousness strikes the town of Lochdubh in the form of a rash of poison pen letters. Things turn deadly when the local postmistress is found hanged in her room... with a vicious note beneath her dangling feet. Though his superiors call it suicide, PC Hamish Macbeth pronounces it murder. But Hamish is soon distracted by Jenny Ogilvie, a friend of his ex-fiancee, who arrives in Lochdubh to seduce him. And then he's ambushed by local reporter Elspeth Grant, who sets out to land the story - and Hamish - for herself.

A man is found electrocuted in his bath, an apparent suicide attempt. However, attached to the body is a handwritten note: All it says is "DCI Lambert". Lambert, shaken by past and present, is put on notice when a major prisoner escapes. Is there a connection? And why are MI5 getting involved? Before the investigation is over, Lambert will be pushed to his very limits…and beyond. How far would you go for justice? And what would you do to save your family?

Local police stations all over the Scottish Highlands are being threatened with closure and this presents the perfect opportunity for Detective Chief Inspector Blair, who would love nothing more than to get rid of Sergeant Hamish Macbeth. Blair suggests that Cyril Sessions, a keen young police officer, visit the town of Lochdubh to monitor exactly what Hamish does every day.

Luck runs out for three poker players when a gunman calmly shoots them dead. DI Jack Knox quickly establishes that the intended target, the leader of a bank heist many years before, has slipped the net. But his team has to split up when a young woman, the daughter of a prominent figure, goes missing from the city centre. Suspecting she has been kidnapped, the search heads from Edinburgh to the Scottish Borders. Will the detectives find her abductor in time?

The gripping crime thriller from the number one best seller. An explosive fire. A double murder. And that’s just the start. When DCI Michael Lambert is called out to an apparent house fire, he knows it can’t be routine. Instead he finds the remains of a burnt house, a traumatised child and two corpses - one of whom is a senior police officer. Lambert’s got other problems. Anti-corruption are onto his boss. His relationship is on the rocks. He can’t get over his ex-wife and he keeps blacking out.

Most newcomers don't stay long in remote Lochdubh - usually boredom, dampness and nosy locals drive them out. But it looks as if artist Effie Garrard has come to stay. When Hamish Macbeth calls on her he's amazed to find the woman in residence after a particularly harsh winter. Unfortunately, Effie is also quite delusional, having convinced herself that fellow local artist Jock Fleming is in love with her and that they are engaged. But after a lover's scrap with Jock, Effie is found dead, poisoned by hemlock.

Lighthouses are striking totems of our relationship to the sea. For many, they encapsulate a romantic vision of solitary homes amongst the waves, but their original purpose is much more utilitarian than that. Still today we depend upon their guiding lights for the safe passage of ships. Nowhere is this truer than in the rock lighthouses of Great Britain and Ireland, a ring of 19 towers built between 1811-1905, so called because they were constructed on desolate rock formations in the middle of the sea, and made of granite to withstand the power of its waves.

DSI William Lorimer first meets Meredith St Claire when he is giving a careers talk at his goddaughter's school. The popular and glamorous drama teacher is distraught, begging him to investigate her fiancé's recent disappearance, but with a report already made to the relevant authorities, there's nothing more Lorimer can do. But then a body is discovered on the outskirts of Glasgow.

Over the past century, Oswald Chambers’ writings have inspired countless people to think more deeply about the biblical truths that he so passionately championed. His words are simultaneously penetrating and invigorating, and they trigger something in your soul leaving you forever changed.

William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Peter Manuel has them. But Peter Manuel is a liar. William Watt is an ordinary businessman, a fool, a social climber. Peter Manuel is a famous liar, a rapist, a criminal. He claims he can get hold of the gun used to murder Watt's family. One December night in 1957, Watt meets Manuel in a Glasgow bar to find out what he knows.

When a woman's eviscerated body is found on the golf course close to the Fairmont Hotel, DCI Andy Gilchrist and his associate DS Jessie Janes are assigned the investigation. But the post mortem examination uncovers a shocking detail that must be kept from the public. Who could carry out such a brutal murder? And what is the significance of the gruesome trophy? But DNA uncovers links to a murder committed thirty years earlier, and has Gilchrist fearing a killer of old has resurfaced, or worse, a debut serial killer setting out to learn his murderous trade.

After a stressful winter, DSI William Lorimer is enjoying some time away from Glasgow. He and his new friend, Daniel Kohi, have retreated to the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to unwind. But what awaits them is far from a holiday. Despite its troubled history, the mountain village of Glencoe is now a popular resort, famed for its close-knit community, its breath-taking scenery and the warm welcome it offers weary travellers. So it's particularly shocking when two bodies are discovered in quick succession on the nearby peaks.

1715. Jonas Flynt, ex-soldier and reluctant member of the Company of Rogues, a shady intelligence group run by ruthless spymaster Nathaniel Charters, is ordered to recover a missing document. Its contents could prove devastating in the wrong hands. On her deathbed, the late Queen Anne may have promised the nation to her half-brother James, the Old Pretender, rather than the new king, George I. But the will has been lost. It may decide the fate of the nation.