Book picks similar to
Shadows by Jackie McLean


scottish-fiction
detective
detective-fiction
queer-lit

Coffin Road


Peter May - 2016
    He has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his identity is a map tracing a track called the Coffin Road. He does not know where it will lead him, but filled with dread, fear and uncertainty he knows he must follow it.A detective crosses rough Atlantic seas to a remote rock twenty miles west of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. With a sense of foreboding he steps ashore where three lighthouse keepers disappeared more than a century before - a mystery that remains unsolved. But now there is a new mystery - a man found bludgeoned to death on that same rock, and DS George Gunn must find out who did it and why.A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her father's death. Two years after the discovery of the pioneering scientist's suicide note, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would willfully abandon her. And the more she discovers about the nature of his research, the more she suspects that others were behind his disappearance.Coffin Road follows three perilous journeys towards one shocking truth - and the realisation that ignorance can kill us.

The Case of the Pig in the Evening Suit


R.R. Gall - 2013
    A far from ordinary detective. A topical thriller.The Case of the Pig in the Evening Suit is the first book in a trilogy of murder mystery thrillers.In the Scottish town of Dumfries, people come to Jin Johnstone with their problems - but this can lead to problems of his own.A missing son, a beautiful, enigmatic woman, a pig in an evening suit: it is the swift start to a deadly turn of events.

Aoife's Chariot: Mirrored Murder


Katherine Pathak - 2013
    Her brothers have given her the task of deciding what to do with their parents’ farm, which is slowly falling into disrepair. Imogen will not be rushed into passing judgement on the place. When she starts to carry out some research into the history of Kilduggan Farm, she inadvertently sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy. Suddenly, Imogen and her psychologist husband, Hugh, find themselves faced with a seemingly insoluble puzzle. How can it be possible that an unexplained death in the present day can match, in every detail, an unsolved case from 40 years ago?As the past begins to catch up with Imogen, she realises that she must strive to discover the truth about her family, even if it means that nothing will ever be the same again…This is an intricately plotted novel, cleverly interwoven with subtle clues and the occasional red-herring. It will keep you guessing and the pages turning, right up until its final, shocking conclusion.Aoife's Chariot is the first novel in the Imogen and Hugh Croft Mysteries Series. It is an absorbing family saga, full of mystery and suspense. Husband and wife sleuths Imogen and Hugh Croft are first introduced to readers in this tense genealogical mystery with deathly consequences.

Natural Causes


James Oswald - 2012
    So the murderer has killed himself; that just saves the time and cost of a trial. But a second murder days later bears haunting similarities to the first, even though once more the murderer swiftly confesses and kills himself.Detective Inspector Anthony McLean is investigating the discovery of a dead girl, walled up in the basement of an old Edinburgh mansion. She has been brutally murdered, her internal organs removed and placed around her in six preserving jars. The evidence suggests this all happened over sixty years ago, an attempt to re-enact an ancient ceremony that by trapping a demon in the dead girl’s body would supposedly confer immortality on the six men who took one of her organs each.McLean’s grandmother – the woman who raised him after his parents were killed when he was a young boy – dies after months in a coma following a stroke. On top of this he has to investigate a series of unusual, violent suicides and a cat-burglar who targets the homes of the recently dead. But as another prominent Edinburgh businessman is killed, he begins to suspect that there may be a connection between the murders, the suicides and the ritual killing of the girl found in the basement. The same names keep cropping up. He just can’t find a rational explanation as to how that connection works.As he digs deeper, and as the coincidences stack up, McLean is forced to consider an irrational explanation. Could there really be something evil stalking the city he has sworn to protect? And if so, how on earth can he hope to stop it?

Head Boy


Mark Wilson - 2013
    A scheming bastard in and out of school, Diller screws, drinks, snorts, cons and kills his way through the Lanarkshire underworld and attempts to survive the attention of his local drug-lord, Hondo, who's less than impressed by Diller's growing debt and status; He's also having a busy week at school.A brutal and wickedly funny novella inspired by The Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch Up' music video.Contains strong language and graphic violence throughout.

In Harm's Way


Owen Mullen - 2018
    It’s dilapidated and near-derelict, and nobody is interested in it. But for one potential buyer, the remote location and rat-infested cellar are just what he’s looking for.For the first year, Mackenzie’s marriage to Derek was ideal. Now though, Derek believes she is having an affair, and when she fears her husband is becoming controlling, she knows she’s made a terrible mistake.But Mackenzie has a drinking problem, so when she threatens to leave Derek and then disappears, no one believes she has been abducted. It will fall to DS Geddes to untangle the truth…Owen Mullen is a best-selling author of psychological and gangland thrillers. His fast-paced, twist-aplenty stories are perfect for all fans of Robert Galbraith, Ian Rankin and Ann Cleeves.

Murder at Saint Giles (Sir Law Kintour #5)


J.R. Tomlin - 2021
    Assisted by his loyal companion Cormac the minstrel, Sir Law sets out to solve the murders and the conspiracy behind them — whatever the cost...

Teesside Steal


John Nicholson - 2013
    His dad has just died, he’s being made bankrupt, he’s getting evicted, his girlfriend has left him and Middlesbrough are 2-0 down in the UEFA Cup. But there’s a way out. His father has bequeathed him a huge inheritance, if only he can find out where it is. As he tries to repair his relationship with Julie and deal with the ghosts of his dysfunctional upbringing, he discovers his dad isn’t the man he thought he was. Soon it becomes obvious something very strange has happened and Nick begins to doubt that his dad is even dead at all. As he searches for the truth, he is plunged into a world of theft, greed and brutal murder. Soon, as the Boro play a huge European game, he will have to fight for his and Julie’s life on the windswept sand dunes of Saltburn. Teesside Steal is set in Teesside and North Yorkshire and is the first in the Nick Guymer series of mysteries. It is a story of upbringing, inheritance and UEFA Cup football.

Boyracers


Alan Bissett - 2002
    It is a totally fresh, savvy and supremely honest take on being young, naive and hopeful, and the pains of living life at hyperspeed in a mad pop-culture world. It is fast, pacy and funny - an exhilarating joyride through the formative years of four Falkirk teenagers.'A terrific yarn... superb from start to finish' - FHM 'There is real emotion here, and gutsiness... a feeling for language so passionate it shames the dullness of so many sentences that make it into print' - Sunday Herald 'Required reading for those who understand and live its message' - The Herald

The Complaints


Ian Rankin - 2009
    It's a department known within the force as "The Dark Side," and it's where Malcolm Fox works. He's a serious man with a father in a nursing home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship, frustrating problems about which he cannot seem to do anything. Then the reluctant Fox is given a new case. There's a cop named Jamie Breck, and he's dirty. The problem is, no one can prove it. As Fox takes on the job, he learns that there's more to Breck than anyone thinks--dangerous knowledge, especially when a vicious murder takes place far too close to home.In THE COMPLAINTS, Rankin proves again why he is one of the world's most beloved and bestselling crime writers, mixing unstoppable pacing with the deeper question of who decides right from wrong.

The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter


Malcolm Mackay - 2013
    The telephone rings; a casual conversation, but behind this a job offer. The clues are there if you know to look for them. He is an expert. A loner. Freelance. Another job is another job, but what if this organization wants more?A meeting at a club. An offer. A target: Lewis Winter, a necessary sacrifice that will be only the first step in an all-out war between crime syndicates the likes of which hasn't been seen for decades. It's easy to kill a man. It's hard to kill a man well. People who do it well know this. People who do it badly find out the hard way. The hard way has consequences.

Simon Serrailler Bundle: The Various Haunts of Men / The Pure in Heart


Susan Hill - 2012
    in the first two cases in Susan Hill's gripping crime seriesIn The Various Haunts of Men Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler and a new member of the station, Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham investigate the disappearance of a local woman from the peaceful cathedral town of Lafferton. As more people vanish, Simon and Freya are forced to embark on a complicated mission to unravel the mystery and enter the mind of a killer.In The Pure in Heart Simon Serrailler is nursing a broken heart while trying to deal with a new and worrying case: the kidnapping of a young boy on his way to school. As the family of the missing boy falls apart, and more children are taken, the station - and Simon - begin to lose hope...

The Later Cases: Three Gripping Private Detective Mysteries From The Roberts and Bradley Crime Series


Solomon Carter - 2020
    

The Polish Detective


Hania Allen - 2018
    She is unable to establish what links them but clues point to their having been members of a druidic cult - something which her investigative journalist brother Marek is pursuing for his paper.Although Dania's main focus is in solving the murders, she finds herself increasingly drawn to the case of two runaway teenage girls. But when she learns that they were members of the same druid group, she becomes convinced that their disappearance is linked to the murders. And her growing suspicion that the local laird of Backmuir is involved puts her in grave danger...

A Dark So Deadly


Stuart MacBride - 2017
    1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae series.Welcome to the Misfit Mob…It’s where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can’t get rid of, but wants to: the outcasts, the troublemakers, the compromised. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy turns up at the Oldcastle tip, it’s his job to find out which museum it’s been stolen from.But then Callum uncovers links between his ancient corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting. O Division’s Major Investigation Teams already have more cases than they can cope with, so, against everyone’s better judgement, the Misfit Mob are just going to have to manage this one on their own.No one expects them to succeed, but right now they’re the only thing standing between the killer’s victims and a slow, lingering death. The question is, can they prove everyone wrong before he strikes again?