Showing results by narrator "David Monteath" in All Categories

With a bike, a turbo trainer, and the right advice, you can beat anyone. No one but Graeme Obree has the clarity of vision to get to the heart of the "problem" of how to improve as a racing cyclist. His innovative approach took him to the top of world cycling, twice breaking the world hour record - a story picked up in his Hollywood biopic The Flying Scotsman. It can draw the same outstanding athletic performance from you.

In dark, wintry Lochdubh, Christmas Cheer is about as welcome as a flat tyre on a deserted road. The Calvinist element in town has always resisted what they view as secular frivolity, so for most of the townsfolk there'll be no carols, feasting, gifts - or even whisky on Christmas Day! And for PC Hamish Macbeth there's no holiday from crime - he finds himself hunting for a missing cat belonging to a lonely spinster.

Christopher Templeton is a lawyer whose conscience troubles him. He knows many of the secrets of The Fellowship, the shadowy group profiting from the civil unrest in the nation, and has intimated to the Company of Rogues that he is willing to share them. The problem is, he has vanished. Jonas Flynt – thief, gambler, killer – still recovering from a duel with death upon the frozen Thames, is tasked with finding him. The trail takes him from the dark slums of London to a quiet village in the north of England, where all is not as it seems.

When a three-year old girl is reported missing, DCI Andy Gilchrist is assigned the case. But Gilchrist soon suspects that the child's mother - Andrea Davis - may be responsible for her daughter's disappearance or, worse, her murder. The case becomes politically sensitive when Gilchrist learns that Andrea is the daughter of Dougal Davis, a former MSP who was forced to resign from Scottish Parliament after being accused of physically abusing his third wife.

Celebrated author John Heppel is known in Lochdubh as a self-important bore, prone to belittling the scribblings of the locals in his creative writing class. So when he's found dead, his mouth oozing ink, it seems a fitting fate. But for PC Hamish Macbeth the murder is more than a disruption to idyllic village life - especially when the media arrive, trailing in their wake DCI Heather Meikle, a maneater with a taste for bachelor police constables. Hamish must rekindle an old flame to escape her clutches and pull out all the stops to find the killer . . .

A student meets an untimely demise when she falls from Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh's Holyrood Park. Was she pushed? Whilst DI Jack Knox is picking through the lies of the victim's friends, he is called upon to help the narcotics division on the other side of the city. A drug dealer is dead and the squad is setting up a deadly sting. But without Knox and the clout he has among the criminal fraternity, they're unable to move against rival gangs.

In recent years, Billy Connolly has had more than his share of challenges - in 2013 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer (he's now been given the all clear); on the same day he was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson's disease. But being a determined 72-year-old, Billy won't let the illness put him off one more exploration of the country he knows and loves so well.

This new selection of ghost stories, by Michael Newton, brings together the best of the genre. From Elizabeth Gaskell's 'The Old Nurse's Story' through to Edith Wharton's 'Afterword', this collection covers all of the most terrifying tales of the genre. With a thoughtful introduction and helpful notes, Newton places the stories contextually within the genre and elucidates the changing nature of the ghost story and how we interpret it.

Deep in the mountains of north-east Scotland lies Glen Conach, a place of secrets and memories, fable and history. In particular, it holds the stories of three different eras, separated by centuries yet linked by location, by an ancient manuscript and by echoes that travel across time.

The brutal murder of 10-year-old Callum Bradley sent shockwaves across Scotland, but as the weeks have stretched on with no solid leads, the investigation has been scaled back. Sergeant Don Colyear, community police officer, is tasked with tying up a loose end: a 999 call which may have hinted at the boy's murder. However, the call was made three weeks before the crime took place. The caller turns out to be a resident at an Edinburgh care home, drifting in and out of lucidity due to dementia - enough to write off the potential lead as a dead end.

When Joe Christie's fishing boat is swept onto Tentsmuir beach during a fierce storm, a man's mutilated body is found in the hold. DCI Andy Gilchrist of St Andrews CID is called in to investigate. But his murder investigation deepens when he learns that Joe Christie and his boat have been missing for three years. The police pathologist, Dr Rebecca Cooper, retrieves a five pound note from the dead man's throat. Is this the killer's calling card?

New Year's Eve should be a time for celebrating. A chance to spend time with loved ones and look forward to the year ahead. For DSI William Lorimer, however, this New Year's Eve will be one that he will never forget. Called to a house after gunshots are reported, the carnage he finds there will have a powerful impact on his life - leaving him questioning his future with Police Scotland.

St. Andrews, Scotland: Renovation works on the famous Old Course golf course uncovers the remains of a body in a shallow grave—two bullet holes in the skull. DNA confirms the victim as Rab Shepherd, the missing brother of Scotland's late crime patriarch, Jock Shepherd. But Rab pulled out of the family business over twenty years ago, and moved to Australia where he allegedly lived an honest and wealthy life. This body confirms otherwise. Why was Rab killed? And who would risk killing him, knowing he was big Jock's brother?

Private McAuslan was ‘the biggest walking disaster to hit the army’. Loosely based on his own experiences in a Scottish regiment, and written with rare humour, a sense of the ludicrous and real affection for soldiering, the second volume of George MacDonald Fraser’s McAuslan trilogy now finally comes to life on audio. Private McAuslan, J.—the Dirtiest Soldier in the World (alias the Tartan Caliban)—will be joyfully familiar to listeners of The General Danced at Dawn, the first volume of George MacDonald Fraser’s stories of life in a Scottish regiment.

It’s December 1968. Having cheated Sandy Hoynes out of a rowing race and navigation certificate when they were young, Dreich MacCallum makes an unexpected return to Kinloch. With the Girl Maggie up on the slip awaiting urgent repairs, Hoynes takes to his bed, the memory of it all too much. When first mate Hamish persuades his skipper to get up and put the fishing boat back into the water, there are unexpected consequences that put Hoynes’ liberty and reputation at risk. Has Dreich won the day again? But the spirits of the past have yet to have their say.

Five years ago, 14-year-old Max Wheeler disappeared from Priest's Island, an isolated but bleakly beautiful place on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. In the close-knit local community, there are no secrets - except what happened to Max. None of the police or private investigations since have shed any light on what happened the night he went missing, presumed dead. But there is one man who is yet to take on the case: The Sea Detective.

Mid-winter, St. Andrews, Scotland: When a university lecturer fails to turn up for class, he is found dead at home, with evidence of having committed suicide. A female student reports to the police that she was having an affair with him and knows he would never commit suicide. Toxicology results turn up Class A drugs in his system, and DCI Andy Gilchrist and his associate, DS Jessie Janes, are called in to investigate.

St Andrews, Scotland. When an elderly woman's naked body is found in her home, crucified to the floor, DCI Andy Gilchrist and his associate, DS Jessie Janes, find themselves in a hunt for a brutal serial killer. As the body count rises, suspicion falls on Tap 'Dancer' McCrear, a career criminal recently released from prison after serving 15 years for a murder he swore he never committed. As Gilchrist begins to uncover the terrifying truth behind each of the killings, his worst fears are realised when he learns that McCrear is killing everyone involved in his murder trial....

It's 1968, and the fishermen of Kinloch are preparing to celebrate the old New Year on the 12th of January. The annual pilgrimage to the Auld Stones is a tradition that goes back beyond memory, and young Hamish, first mate on the Girl Maggie, is chuffed that he's been invited to this exclusive gathering - usually reserved for the most senior members of Kinloch's fishing community.

Bonnie Scotland, and she is Bonnie that’s for sure. A country with a rich and mysterious history. Strange land formations, ancient standing stone circles, and otherworldly scenery run from coast to coast. It is the land of the Celts and their folklore that includes stories of unicorns, shape shifting spirits, Kelpies, fairies, and monsters that swim in deep Lochs.