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.

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.

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.

Clova, Scotland, 1942. The midst of the Second World War. Sisters Nell and Effie Anderson live together in the Old Schoolhouse. Effie is a teacher, while Nell works as a postwoman, delivering news – often of the worst – from the frontline to her neighbours. Though they love and care for one another, there are unspoken tensions and mysteries that put distance between them.

Verity is embarking on a better-late-than-never gap year now that her sons have flown the nest, and dreams of turning a lifetime's hobby of knitting and crocheting into a profitable new enterprise at Lerwick Manor's gallery. Nessie has returned to Shetland after two years spent retraining as a blacksmith on the Scottish mainland. She's determined to do whatever it takes to reignite the traditional craft and prove that gender is no obstacle taking on her family's heritage.

Laura has a husband, children, a home in a city she loves. She thinks she can be happy, despite her past. Until someone walks back into her life who she knows will shatter everything. Alexis was her first love. A love so exhilarating, it is impossible to resist. Then Alexis is found dead, and the police are knocking at Laura's door. They're asking her questions and she's telling them lies. Someone wants Laura to pay for what she's been running from. Someone with an obsession that they can't let go.

When Toni’s twelfth birthday is marred by a terrible crime, the wicked path of the girls looks set. A decade later, the McVay family aren't the unstoppable force they once were in the Glaswegian criminal underworld but Frankie McVay, the up-and-coming prince, is determined to restore the family to its former glory and the whole family are expected to help. His sister Toni shares her brother’s blood lust but Valerie dreams of a quieter life, and when she meets and falls in love with Seb, as straight as Frankie is bent, as kind as Frankie is wicked, Val sees her way out.

When Jemima loses her beloved grandfather, keeping his allotment alive seems like ideal way to feel close to him. She's never fitted in before - is this her chance to find where she really belongs? Finally Melissa has the allotment she's been longing for to distract her while her husband works away - even if it is chest-high in weeds. But when she looks for help in the wrong place, she finds she's the hottest topic of gossip.

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...

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.

‘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!

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.

Two orphaned girls become found family amidst the horrors of WWII in a gripping and heart-wrenching tale of friendship, loss and survival against the odds which sweeps the listener across wartime Europe to Budapest from the mountains of Scotland.

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.

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.

'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail An ancient grave. A modern evil. The Dead and the Dying is a pulse-pounding instalment in the Rhona MacLeod series, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness. In the dim morning light, Orkney’s...

When Amy Osbourne’s parents are lost at sea, she is forced to leave her London home and is sent to live with her aunt and uncle at the opposite end of the country. Alardyce House is depressing and dreary, her aunt haughty and cruel. Amy strikes up a friendship with her cousin Edward but his older brother Henry is just as conceited as his mother, and a mutual loathing develops between him and Amy. Struggling in this strange, unwelcoming environment, Amy begins to suspect that something isn’t right at Alardyce House.

When pop megastar Zach Crystal dies in a fire at his remote mansion, his mysterious demise rips open the bitter divide between those who adored his music and his endless charity work, and those who viewed him as a despicable predator who manipulated and abused young and vulnerable girls. Online journalist Scott King, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the accusations of sexual abuse and murder that were levelled at Crystal before he died. But as Scott begins to ask questions and rake over old graves, some startling inconsistencies emerge.