Showing results by narrator "Angela Ness" in All Categories

From an irresponsible baron whose body is discovered beneath a silver birch tree, to a classic detective duo solving a historic case as the lights go out across Europe, and an exclusive Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story, the characters McDermid conjures are enigmatic and dangerous. These evocative, atmospheric tales will shock and delight.

With intolerance and inequality increasingly normalised by the day, it's more important than ever for women to share their experiences. We must hold the truth to account in the midst of sensationalism and international political turmoil. Nasty Women is a collection of essays, interviews and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century. People, politics, pressure, punk. Keep telling your stories.

Louis Satriani thought he had it all—until his world is shattered by Emma’s betrayal. Reeling from the affair, Louis is forced to question everything he believed about love and trust. As he struggles to pick up the pieces, he wonders: Can he rebuild his life and find the strength to love again?

DI Shona Oliver watches in horror as her fellow officer is pronounced dead. PC Hayley Campbell drowns during a triathlon race in the Solway Firth. The postmortem reveals drugs in Hayley's system, perhaps self-administered performance enhancers. But a puncture wound in the back of her wetsuit suggests something darker. Shona makes slow progress on the case. There are other demands on her attention. The death of her old boss brings Shona under scrutiny. And the drug-related death of a teen at a festival–one which Becca is attending–has Shona on-edge.

A blood-soaked hammer is discovered in a lorryload of wood delivered to a local pub. DI Shona Oliver appears to have a murder weapon, but where is the victim? Then a call comes in that local forest ranger and ex-soldier John MacFarlane isn’t answering his phone. There’s no sign of MacFarlane at his cottage, and the only clue the team have to go on is a bloody trail in the snow which ends abruptly and leads to nowhere. A manhunt begins.

Slàinte! A Christmas Eve party at snow-covered Vik castle, where the Christmas Star diamond is on display. Good food, dancing and a visit from Santa. What could possibly go wrong? When Santa appears down the chimney, looking far more crispy than expected, it is clear that something has gone very wrong. With the castle cut off from help, a murderer in their midst and the Christmas Star stolen, it's up to Losers Club to investigate. As they follow the network of secret passages to learn more about their fellow guests, they realize that everyone has a motive. Including one of their own.

Tensions are rising in the run up to the island event of the year—the Vik Show. Not only has the secret recipe for Mrs Hay's peppermint slices been stolen, but someone has had the bad manners to leave a dead body in the distillery. And what does any of this have to do with the disappearance of Elsie the librarian? A perfect storm of past secrets and political conspiracy is brewing, and it's up to the local weight-loss group, Losers Club, to save the day.

Two years on from the start of a devastating pandemic, food shortages are becoming critical, and rationing looms. So it's more than embarrassing when a truck full of luxury food for Scottish Virus Minister's banquet goes missing. When Bernard and Maitland from the HET team find it, the food is missing—but there is a dead body.

Lifeboat volunteer DI Shona Oliver receives a Mayday call coming from Kilcatrin Island. Upon the beach is the badly burned body of a man, and a boy lies gravely injured nearby. Strewn around them are scores of Second World War incendiary bombs, presumably washed up by the tide from Beaufort's Dyke, an offshore arms dump deep in the Irish Sea. The dead man is a local fisherman – his son the other victim – and it rocks the tight-knit community on the shores of the Solway Firth. As lead detective, Shona has to maintain a professional distance.

Oh dearie me, the remote Scottish island of Vik is overrun with treasure hunters, Hollywood has arrived to film the next big blockbuster and Mrs Hubbard has accidentally poisoned Police Scotland. What a stramash! When Colin the curator is found bludgeoned to death in the museum, it's down to the island weight-loss group, Losers Club, to investigate.

No one thinks very much at all about carwash employee Davey Burnet, until one day he takes the wrong customer's motor for a ride. One kidnapping later, he and the carwash are officially part of Glasgow's criminal underworld, working for a psychopath who enjoys playing games like "Keep Yer Kneecaps" with any poor bastard who crosses him. Can Davey escape from the gang's clutches with his kneecaps and life intact? Perhaps this polis Ally McCoist who keeps nosing around the carwash could help. That's if she doesn't get herself killed first.

There's a murderer on the loose on a storm swept island cut off from the Scottish mainland. It's down to Losers Club, a quirky weight loss group led by the intrepid Penny Moon, to catch the culprit.

The Queen of Scottish Gangland Thrillers is back! Donnie Black. Charming, successful... and utterly terrifying, he rules the Glasgow underworld with an iron fist. Nothing - or no one - will stop him and he's not afraid to get his hands dirty to grow his fortune. Layla Black. She's been married to Donnie for twenty years, enjoying the lavish world he has worked hard to create. But behind the perfect image, Layla is crumbling, numbing her pain with alcohol. But Layla doesn't know the secrets Donnie keeps - and the truth will send her spiralling.

Uni friends Stacey, Paula, Bev and Valentina used to be inseparable until one weekend before graduation when nothing was ever the same again. Thirty years later, reunited at Valentina's funeral, Stacey receives a letter written by her late friend asking for one last wish...that the three friends go back to where things fell apart and finally bury the hatchet. As they revisit their old haunts of their uni days and follow a series of clues left by Valentina, their friend's death begins to look suspicious and it is up to them to find out what happened—but they all have secrets to hide.

Detective Helen Carter needs a break. Instead, she's going head-to-head with notorious cop killer Jimmy Osbourne. Eight years ago he pulled off the perfect heist and fled to Spain, leaving behind a trail of carnage. But not a shred of evidence to implicate him. Now he's back in Edinburgh. But why? Helen has her suspicions. Within days, a mysterious jewel thief surfaces on CCTV. A gunman shoots up a seedy back-alley. The suspects are piling up, but Helen knows Jimmy is behind them. All her instincts tell her he's guilty. She's watching him. But he has eyes on her too.

Detective Helen Carter is called to a crime scene: a barmaid, Tina French, has been strangled. Murdered on her way home from work to look after her sick son. Meanwhile, Moira McKenzie leaves her lover's townhouse and gets home to find her abusive husband, Reggie, washing blood from his hands. Later, in their garden shed, she finds incriminating photos, keepsakes and newspaper cuttings about old murder cases. When the police are called to their home, they find a pool of blood and a shattered glass table, but no sign of Moira.

Helen Carter has just landed her first case as a detective: a murder in an abandoned cinema. A mysterious clock-like symbol is drawn on the wall...in blood. Stranger still is what the killer left behind: the business card of an ex-cop. Since being promoted from WPC, Helen is having trouble making her mark in the male-dominated Edinburgh CID, working under Inspector Jack Craven. He’s not happy about having a woman on his team. Witnesses won’t talk to her; her colleagues don’t take her seriously.

Featuring beloved characters from Code Name Verity and The Pearl Thief, as well as a remarkable new voice, this brilliant, breathlessly plotted novel by award-winning author Elizabeth Wein is a must-listen. 'The hair stood up at the back of my neck. Those letters meant something. And with the cipher machine, I'd worked it out myself.' 1940. Facing a seemingly endless war, 15-year-old Louisa Adair wants to fight back, make a difference, do something-anything to escape the Blitz and the ghosts of her parents, who were killed by enemy action.

Edinburgh student Rose MacLeod has been losing time for as long as she can remember. Days and weeks disappear, leaving terrifying gaps in her memory. Now she is seeing horrifying visions - waking nightmares of violence and death. Around the world young women like her are being killed, and Rose has a ringside seat. Mal Fergusson was raised to hunt demons across Scotland. With his father dead and his brother in a coma, he no longer believes in the grand battle between good and evil. Instead, he scrapes a living as an investigator and hit man for the supernatural Mafia of Edinburgh. 

When Scotland's leading virologist goes missing, Mona and Paterson from the Health Enforcement Team are dispatched to London to find him. In a hot and unwelcoming city, Mona has to deal with a boss who isn't speaking to her, placate the professor's overbearing assistant and outwit the people who will stop at nothing to make sure the academic stays lost. Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, Bernard is searching for a missing prostitute while Maitland is trying to keep the chair of the Parliamentary Virus Committee from finding out quite how untidy the HET office is....