Category: Scotland

Midnight and Blue – Ian Rankin

Amazingly, this is the 25th Rebus novel! The arc of the Rebus character is fascinating, from a detective willing to bend or break rules to a retired Edinburgh cop willing to meddle. Now Rebus is in prison for an attempted murder, and what a surprise, there is the brutal murder of an inmate in a locked cell. And also, a missing persons case is investigated by police colleagues which reveals secrets and rivalries. Simply put, this is a delicious crime thriller by a master writer.

The Blue Hour – Paula Hawkins

By the acclaimed author of The Girl On The Train, this new psychological thriller about art has complex and often toxic relationships with a shifting female friendship confronting the power and entitlement of the patriarchy (aka the art establishment), with a web of lies and secrets and yes, infidelities. Key events occur on a Scottish island isolated from the mainland by the tide and severe weather. Suffice it to say that there is missing art and a missing person and much more. Can neediness by pathological? Surprises persist right to the end of the book which makes for a very entertaining read.

1979 – Val McDermid

Context is everything in this gritty crime story: Glasgow in 1979, with investigative journalists working in a newsroom filled with cigarette smoke and the din of typewriters. Tax avoidance with greed and Scottish ultra-nationalists are the nasty villains. A totally entertaining story with an appendix with a top-40 list of music from 1979. Thanks Amy, for this recommendation by the acclaimed “Queen of crime” writer.

Fayne – Ann-Marie MacDonald

Full disclosure: this sweeping sage is long (722 pages) but Ms. MacDonald’s exquisite writing makes the reading very worthwhile. The setting: Fayne, an estate straddling the border between England and Scotland. The time: late 19th century. The main players: Lord Henry Bell and wife Mae, and children Charles and Charlotte. The story is rife with family secrets, with cruelty and cowardice in male-female and father-child relationships. A shifting timeline accentuates the drama: highly recommended. 

PS: A-MM wrote the wonderful Fall On Your Knees a long time ago.

A Heart Full Of Headstones – Ian Rankin

The Rebus stories just get better and better. Now long retired and suffering with COPD, Rebus is assisting/hindering the police investigation of a bent cop. The story over only 8 days is rife with corruption and hidden motives. Rebus has a life-long legacy of breaking rules and crossing lines, so this book begins and ends with his trial for a specific misdeed. Highly recommended.

The Christmas Bookshop – Jenny Colgan

You may wonder why I liked this book because the story is entirely predictable, and the plot is sweetly sentimental. On the other hand, the word “bookshop” is in the title and the setting is contemporary Edinburgh. What can I say – it is a relationship book that is entirely satisfying.

The Diary of a Bookseller – Shawn Bythell

After buying a bookshop in the southwest corner of Scotland in 2001, the author/owner keeps a one-year diary of the bookshop activities in 2014. He is an often grumpy and irascible commentator on: his rotating staff and their idiosyncrasies, his customers, and the precarious state of independent second-hand bookshops. And his pet peeve, the Amazon juggernaut. There is lots about buying books from estates. Throughly entertaining.

Machine Without Horses – Helen Humphreys

Machine Without Horses - Helen HumphreysHumphreys is a great writer (Nocturne, The Evening Chorus, The Lost Garden). Her new book is fascinating because the first half is a personal account of her writing process: start with an idea, in this case an obituary of a reclusive Scottish woman who was a renowned salmon-fly dresser. Humphreys describes the essential questions: What is the story? Whose Story is it? How are you going to tell the story? The second half of the book is the imagined life of the Scottish woman; very entertaining.