Showing results by narrator "Sarah Barron" in All Categories

‘Hi,’ she says, ‘I’m your new neighbour.’ Her smile is bright but her shoulders are tense as she stands on the leafy green Edinburgh street. She seems friendly. But soon I’ll discover her dangerous secret.... On the first day I meet my new neighbour, we share a glass of wine and talk into the night. We swap numbers and I vow to get to know her better. But as I get closer to her, I discover something about her past that changes everything. She isn’t who I thought she was.

Scotland, 1924: When Lady Poppy Proudfoot is invited to her friend’s hotel on the Isle of Skye, she is looking forward to a holiday. But all thoughts of relaxing vanish when she discovers the body of a strangled woman in a church. The police believe the widow’s death was a robbery gone wrong, as a pendant was stolen from the scene. But Poppy is sure it’s murder. Ignoring the police’s warnings to keep her nose out, she enlists her friend Inspector MacKenzie, and her loyal Labrador, Major, to unpick the case.

Having left the Highlands murder team behind and joined the shadowy world of the secret services, former DC Kirsten Stewart overhears a plot that strikes to the very core of Scotland's governance. As the stakes get higher and Kirsten becomes cut off from her superiors, can she stop the assassin before they eliminate their prime target. In her first solo mission, Kirsten Stewart finds herself in deep shadow and in receipt of disturbing news. Only by remaining incommunicado can she find out the intentions of a killer and stop the murder of Scotland's top politician.

Twenty years ago, a young girl was brutally murdered, her body left in an abandoned shed in the Scottish Highlands. Her killer was never caught. Now, another girl has vanished from the same remote village of Kinloch Rannoch, and DCI Ross Fraser and his team are sent to find her. A dogged, methodical investigator with no taste for theatrics, Fraser builds his cases piece by piece. But with no sightings, no suspects, and the clock relentlessly ticking, he begins to fear the same killer has struck again—and that it’s only a matter of time before another body is found.

‘Heartwarming and gloriously romantic’ HEIDI SWAIN ‘Perfect to curl up with on sunny days or cold winter nights’ CRESSIDA McLAUGHLIN ‘I devoured this gorgeous book as quickly as a tin of Scottish shortbread’ VERONICA HENRY Maura has everything she ever wanted from life – a quirky...

Scotland, 1924: When Lady Poppy Proudfoot travels to the Highlands for a midsummer party, the last thing she and her fellow guests expect is for a body to wash up beside the loch. Despite protests that it could have been an accident, Poppy is convinced it’s murder and decides to dust off her law degree and hunt for clues. But when the police arrive, the grumpy Inspector MacKenzie dismisses her evidence, insisting a crime scene is no place for a Lady. The nerve!

At 8 a.m., the first shots are fired. At 1 p.m., the police establish the gunman has a hostage. By 5 p.m., a siege is underway. At 9 p.m., DI Helen Birch walks, alone and unarmed, into an abandoned Borders farmhouse to negotiate with the killer. One day. One woman. One chance to get everyone out alive.

Twenty years ago, a young girl was brutally murdered, her body left in an abandoned shed in the Scottish Highlands. Her killer was never caught. Now, another girl has vanished from the same remote village of Kinloch Rannoch, and DCI Ross Fraser and his team are sent to find her. A dogged, methodical investigator with no taste for theatrics, Fraser builds his cases piece by piece. But with no sightings, no suspects, and the clock relentlessly ticking, he begins to fear the same killer has struck again—and that it’s only a matter of time before another body is found.

DI Helen Birch is recovering from major surgery, housebound and exceptionally bored. Her boss, DCI McLeod, has made it crystal clear: she is not to take on any work until her recuperation is over. In her absence, Amy Kato is promoted to sergeant and is given a maddening case to work on: Edinburgh is being plagued by an anonymous vigilante. He started small, meting out punishment to obnoxious boy racers and other antisocial folk, but his behaviour is escalating. Amy can tell from the anonymous online paper trail he leaves.

When the badly beaten body of Henry Donaldson is found locked in the old jail at the Telford Bridge in Dunkeld, Forensic Psychologist Dr Chrissy Ferguson is relieved. Now he’s been found, she can continue her downward spiral in peace. Determined to walk away from the case and put some distance between herself and lead investigator, DCI Ross Fraser, Chrissy battles to suppress the gnawing suspicion that Henry's assault conceals darker truths. When the forensic team uncover long buried remains in the old jail, Chrissy can’t ignore her instincts.

A woman slipping through the cracks . . . When a young Vietnamese girl goes missing in Scotland, DI Birch knows there is more to the case than meets the eye. Her colleagues won't take it seriously - but Helen's instinct tells her that Linh is in mortal danger. A psychic determined to help...

Sara Monteith makes an ideal correspondent for Hugo Jamieson, brother of her lost love Ivo, killed in the war before they could marry. Her neighbours in the lovely Border village of Ravenskirk don't know that Sara has moved here because it's where Ivo and Hugo grew up, but they welcome her warmly. Soon, she's drawn into the active village social scene of tea parties, gardening, carol-singing, and Coronation festivities. Meanwhile she's dodging the judgments of stern Miss Bonaly, defending her helper Madge Marchbanks, befriending kind, practical Elizabeth Drysdale and charming Mrs.

This is a fact: Ryan Summers walked into Three Rivers College and killed 13 women, then himself. But no one can say why. The question is one that cries out to be answered - by Ryan's mother, Moira; by Ishbel, the mother of Abigail, the first victim; and by DI Helen Birch, put in charge of the case on her first day at her new job. But as the tabloids and the media swarm, as the families' secrets come out, as the world searches for someone to blame...the truth seems to vanish.

When Leonie Baxter finds herself out of a job and out of a relationship, she’s at her wits end. Her life has just been turned upside down and she needs a plan, fast. By chance, on a walk with her rescue puppy, Leonie stumbles across a striking house in the woods; fully furnished but unoccupied. As a journalist, she is determined to find out more, after all, reporting is in her nature. But her attempts are thwarted by Lily Cruickshank who lives in the cottage next door.

Love is not a singular concept. In this collection, seven award-winning authors explore seven concepts of love: from philautia (self-love) to agape (love for humanity) and from storge (a natural affection for family) to mania (a frenzied, obsessive love).

Robertson Bennet returns to Edinburgh after a 25-year absence in search of his parents and his inheritance. But both have disappeared. A quick, routine police check should be enough - and Detective Inspector Helen Birch has enough on her plate trying to help her brother, Charlie, after an assault in prison. But all her instincts tell her not to let this case go. And so she digs. George and Phamie Bennet were together for a long time. No one can ever really know the secrets kept between husband and wife.

When the brutalized body of the local counsellor’s son is discovered, posed on his knees in the forest surrounding Cargill’s Leap, DCI Ross Fraser turns to troubled Forensic Psychologist Dr Chrissy Ferguson for help. But Chrissy is not in a helping mood. Emotionally scarred from their last case together and devastated by Ross’s abrupt departure from her life, Chrissy wants nothing to do with him or the investigation.

From the dramatic Highlands to bustling cities, the unique landscapes and locales of Scotland have enthralled and shaped generations of mystery writers. This new collection presents 17 classic stories, spanning a period from the 1880s to the 1970s, by a host of Scottish authors alongside writers from south of the border inspired by the history and majesty of the storied country.

Isabel Aird is aghast when her husband is appointed doctor to an extraordinary waterworks being built miles from the city. But Isabel, denied the motherhood role that is expected of her by a succession of miscarriages, finds unexpected consolations in a place where she can feel the presence of her unborn children and begin to work out what her life in Victorian society is for.

In her memoir, Monica, 54, tells the story of her childhood, when her mother, Betty Mount, forced her head under running bathroom taps and tried to strangle her. She had previously tried to kill Monica as a baby. Monica was taken into foster care, where her new parents ran a brutal regime. To the outside world, the family was devoutly religious and respectable, but behind closed doors, Monica was physically and sexually abused.