Scottish Fiction

When Scotland’s sleepiest hamlet becomes the centre of hot gossip, Layla Devlin finds herself caught in a mystery… When Layla’s fiancé has an unexpected heart attack and dies – in another woman’s arms, no less – Layla is determined to pack up and leave Loch Harris, the village she’s always called home. But an unexpected inheritance and love for her quiet corner of Scotland send her down a new path. Now Layla finds herself facing a whole new kind of drama. Rumours swirl that a celebrity has moved into Coorie Cottage and Layla is determined to have him headline her opening night at local music venue The Conch Club. But the reclusive star is equally determined to thwart Layla’s efforts. Rafe Buchanan is in hiding for a reason, and soon his past comes to Loch Harris to haunt him…

In this critically-acclaimed fictional memoir of Sir Walter Scott, Allan Massie recreates the life and times of one of Scotland's greatest writers, convincingly capturing Scott's humour, stoicism and eccentricity. Combining imaginative plausibility with his own deep knowledge of and love for Scott's work, Massie reveals the intimate thoughts of a man at odds with his popular image: good and courageous, but also an enigma to those around him. By turns a ghost story and an examination of the Scottish character, The Ragged Lion is utterly enthralling.

A man stands bewildered on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris. He cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his identity is a folded map of a path named the Coffin Road. He does not know where this search will take him.A detective from Lewis sits aboard a boat, filled with doubt. DS George Gunn knows that a bludgeoned corpse has been discovered on a remote rock twenty miles offshore. He does not know if he has what it takes to uncover how and why.A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her scientist father's suicide. Two years on, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would wilfully abandon her. She does not yet know his secret.

When Jemima loses her beloved grandfather, keeping his allotment alive seems like an ideal way to feel close to him. She's never fited in before - is this her chance to find where she really belongs.

Edinburgh, Yuletide 1743, and Redcoat officer Robert Catto would rather be anywhere else on earth than Scotland. Seconded back from the wars in Europe to captain the city's Town Guard, he fears his covert mission to assess the strength of the Jacobite threat will force him to confront the past he tries so hard to forget. Christian Rankeillor, her surgeon-apothecary father and his apprentice Jamie Buchan of Balnamoon are committed supporters of the Stuart Cause. They're hiding a Jacobite agent with a price on his head in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary: a hanging offence. As they pick their way through a labyrinth of intrigue, Robert and Kirsty are increasingly drawn to each other. She knows their mutual attraction can go nowhere. He knows his duty demands that he must betray her. Gathering Storm is the first in a suite of Jacobite novels by Maggie Craig.

On a remote Scottish island sits Greyfriar's House - haunted by family mysteries and unspoken words. Once, though, it was a happy place. In the summer of 1939, family and friends gather to forget their fears about the coming war. Nine year old Olivia watches the grown ups with fascination... until she sees something she shouldn't have, and the truth reverberates throughout the generations. Almost fifty years later, Olivia has falled in and urges her daughter Charlotte to visit and reconnect with the rest of the family. But the house is a shadow of its former self, and Charlotte must learn to understand what happened before, and during, the war.

This grown up rhyming tale of Lizzie and her unrule lady garden is sure to raise a titter or two and has already proved popular on social media. Think Pam Ayres meets Charlie Dimmock meets ‘Brenda’s Beaver Needs a Barber’ and you have ‘Lizzie who passionately believes that nature should simply be allowed to do it’s thing when it comes to her lady garden. Underscored by the merest hint of a feminist call-to-action, Lizzie comically inspires ladies far and wide to set their lady gardens free.

Bringing together six short stories – two of which are previously unpublished – One Last Dram Before Midnight is the perfect Christmas gift for fans of Denzil Meyrick. These tales take us from DCI Jim Daley’s early days pounding the beat in Glasgow as a young constable to a light-hearted whisky smuggling romp involving Hamish and some ghostly pipers.

 

Includes four previously eBook exclusive stories: Single End, Two One Three, Dalintober Moon and Empty Nets and Promises

When the body of a man in eighteenth-century Highland dress is discovered on the site of the Battle of Culloden, journalist Rebecca Connolly takes up the story for the Chronicle.

Meanwhile, a film being made about the '45 Rebellion has enraged the right-wing group Spirit of the Gael which is connected to a shadowy group called Black Dawn linked to death threats and fake anthrax deliveries to Downing Street and Holyrood. When a second body - this time in the Redcoat uniform of the government army - is found in Inverness, Rebecca finds herself drawn ever deeper into the mystery. Are the murders connected to politics, a local gang war or something else entirely?

This gripping novel follows Forbes Fogerty, a senior international airline pilot, through his flight experiences and tense moments, while trying to keep his family together at home. His interfering mother-in-law, social climbing wife and anti-establishment daughter, all combine to test his 'safe pair of hands'.

Arguably Scott's finest novel, and the last of his major Scottish novels, Redgauntlet centers around a third, fictitious, Jacobite rebellion set in the summer of 1765. The novel's hero, young Darsie Latimer, is kidnapped by Edward Hugh Redgauntlet, a fanatical supporter of the Stewart cause, and finds himself caught up in the plot to install the exiled Bonnie Prince Charlie on the British throne. First published in 1824, this is perhaps Scott's most complex statement about the relation between history and fiction. This new edition features the Magnum text of 1832, the last to be corrected by Scott, and it includes Scott's own notes. This reissue is the only available critical edition and it includes a fine introduction by Kathryn Sutherland, who examines the historical context, the novel's structure and style, and the story itself. The book also includes an up-to-date bibliography, a timeline of Scottish history in the period relating to the novel, a chronology of Scott's life and work, full explanatory notes, and a glossary of Scots words.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

I loved her from the moment I saw her, and that love has never wavered. It has encased every choice I have ever made, and I have never done anything in my life which didn't involve her image somewhere... I'm so sorry for it all This is the latest English-language novel from award-winning Gaelic poet, novelist, journalist, broadcaster and actor, Angus Peter Campbell, and the first to be published simultaneously in Gaelic and English. Vividly evoked Scottish tale of chance encounters and of family memories, regret, love and loss. Combines myth, music and linguistics to recount the memory of a hazy summer's day on the Isle of Mull.