Showing results by narrator "lesley Mackie" in All Categories

A distraught young woman boards a train at King's Cross to return to her family in Scotland. Six hours later, she catches sight of something so terrible in a mirror at Waverley Station that she gets on the next train back to London, where a traffic accident leaves her in a coma.'AfterYou'd Gone' follows Alice's mental journey into how she came to be this way, as she twists together threads of memory in a plot that grips from the outset.

The continuing adventures from Isabel Dalhousie, Edinburgh philosopher and curious observer of the behaviour of her fellow man.

DI Jade Tanner's new Complex Crimes Unit is finding its feet. DS Mo Uddin is settling into his new Scottish home, Dr Petra McBride has stopped receiving anonymous calls, and Jade is working to support her son over the loss of his dad. But then a mysterious crime is added to their workload. The body of a young man is discovered at the top of Dunsinane Hill, with soil from Birnam Wood in his pockets. The two sites are sixteen miles apart, so this is no fluke. Petra and Jade immediately spot the Macbeth reference.

It’s 1925, and Kate Cameron is just sixteen when she’s taken on at a shipyard on the Clyde. Kate’s wages are needed, and her school days are over abruptly. When Kate starts attending art classes at weekends, she meets Jack Drummond, whose world is far removed from her own. But Kate’s not equipped to recognise trouble when it’s disguised by charm.

DI Jade Tanner has been plunged into managing the Complex Crimes Unit, Police Scotland's newest investigating team. She's recruited Dr Petra McBride, fresh from losing her job at Dundee University, and DS Mo Uddin, who's reluctantly transferred from Birmingham. When America's newest internet billionaire is shot on the shores of Loch Lomond, the team is brought in. Jade suspects a connection with the shooting of a local millionaire, an unsolved case which has been haunting her.

DI Jade Tanner is finally allowing herself to be happy. She’s got a new relationship and is balancing being a single mum and heading up the Complex Crimes Unit. But her team aren’t doing so well. Petra has made yet another relationship misstep and DS Mo Uddin is teetering on the brink of depression. Then a body is found at Lochranza Castle on the Isle of Arran. Somehow the killer has placed a boat inside the castle and the body inside the boat, in a way that suggests ritual. The victim is a member of an eco encampment a mile away, a group with secrets and tensions brewing.

Five young Ayrtons all grew up at Amberwell, playing in the gardens and preparing themselves to venture out into the world. To each of these children, Amberwell meant something different, but common to all of them was the idea that Amberwell was more than just where they lived - it was part of them.

Since being widowed, Caroline Dering has been content to live her life solely for her children. Then the mysterious Robert Shepperton arrives in the village. At first, Caroline's gentle heart is simply touched by his obvious unhappiness; until gradually she finds her sympathy turning into love. But the visit of her lovely younger sister, Harriet, to Vittoria Cottage, throws Caroline into a turmoil - because Harriet also falls for Mr. Shepperton....

Margaret Kerr of Perth is living in Edinburgh with her uncle Murdoch during the summer of 1297. She'd come to search for her long-absent husband who is in the service of Robert the Bruce. Margaret herself is still loyal to the deposed King John Balliol. Then terrifying raids and a brutal murder on the Kerr property bring the wrath of the English down on the heads of Margaret and her uncle.

Filled with excitement and trepidation, Jeanie Munro is returning to India and her husband, Mungo, having been forced apart from him by the Second World War. Together, they can start their longed-for family. But post-war India is in a ferment of change and the undercurrents of tension begin to disturb their tranquillity. Still grieving for her beloved brother, killed in action, Jeanie tries to make the most of her new life. Her only true friends are the Lomaxes, a family haunted by scandal and owners of the glamorous Raj Hotel.

It is the spring of 1297, and young wife Margaret Kerr is desperately afraid.

On the rugged, sea-lashed coast of west Scotland lies Ullaness: home to the Scottish legend of Ulla, a Viking woman who washed up on Scottish shores centuries ago. The legend will bring the stories of three different women together. In AD 800 there is Ulla, lost in a foreign country after her lover is brutally killed. Ellen, a servant-girl in the 1800s, catches the unwanted attentions of the master of the house's lascivious son. And, in the present day, there is Libby - an archaeologist who is determined to uncover an age-old mystery.

After spending time combatting terrorists in Malaya, James Dering returns to Scotland. He starts a new life at Mureth House, the home of his aunt and uncle, Mamie and Jock Johnstone, where he hopes to learn to be a farmer. But he soon learns that picking up farming isn't an easy task and is made even more complicated by the unexpected ups and down of rural village life. Sheep-stealing crooks, village gossip, lovestruck teenage runaways, and a brunette bombshell all disturb the peaceful solitude James had willingly signed up for.

Liz MacMillan has wanted to be a nurse ever since her baby brother died of scarlet fever but her domineering father won't allow it. With the outbreak of war, nursing becomes a patriotic duty and Liz gets her chance, together with her new friend Helen Gallagher, whose large, Irish-Catholic family provides a striking contract to the constraint of the MacMillan household. Working in Glasgow's Western Infirmary, one of the other students, Mario Rossi, touches Liz's heart.

Scotland, 1722: on a windswept island, an enigmatic poetess foretells tragedy and the birth of an extraordinary child. That child is the free-spirited Flora, daughter of Marion. When her father dies, Flora and her mother are plunged into poverty. Until her mother's former lover takes them to Skye, where he swiftly marries Marion. When the Clanranalds are invited to a grand wedding in Skye, Flora finds herself irresistibly drawn to Allan of Kingsburgh, one of the mighty Skye MacDonalds.

A young, disabled girl is lost on a winter's night in Leith, unable to help herself or find her way home. Someone is combing the streets, frantically searching for her. Within hours of her disappearance, a body is washed up on Beamer Rock, a tiny island in the Forth being used as part of the foundations for the new Queensferry Bridge. No sooner has DI Alice Rice managed to discover the identity of that body than another one is washed up on the edge of the estuary, in Belhaven Bay.

As a mother, wife, employer and editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, Isabel Dalhousie is aware that to be human is to be responsible. So when a neighbour brings her a new and potentially dangerous puzzle to solve, once again Isabel feels she has no option but to shoulder the burden. A masterpiece painting has been stolen from Duncan Munrowe, old-fashioned philanthropist, father to two discontented children, and a very wealthy man.

Summerhills continues the story of the lives and loves of the Ayrton family, in particular that of Major Roger Ayrton M.C., his brother, and three young half-sisters. Roger has made the Army his career. Anne has settled down as housekeeper to old Mr Orme, the rector. Nell looks after the old house, and it is upon her that the comfort and well-being of the family depend. A new generation is growing up. The story begins as Roger flies home to Amberwell on leave, full of plans for his family and home.

Scotland, 1297. In the weeks leading up to the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Margaret Kerr takes up residence in Stirling town. She has come to discover why the informer who has been providing Wallace and Murray with details of the English plans has become unreliable. Although fearful that she may have inherited her mother's visionary gift and curse, and estranged from her husband, Roger, she is as determined as ever to play her part in saving Scotland from the hammer of Edward Longshanks.

Married at 19, Katherine had four years of happiness with her beloved Gerald. When he dies, she is left on her own to bring up a stepson, Simon, and her own little twins. She has known what it is to be loved and cherished, and without Gerald, all she wants is independence, and the freedom to bring up his children as he would have liked. When an unexpected letter arrives for Simon, offering him a very different life, Katherine is concerned that he makes the right choice.