Book picks similar to
A Fistful Of Collars by Mark Farrer


fiction
ala-carl-hiassen
scotland
humorous-mystery

End of Men


Suzanne Strobel - 2020
    All girls. Why?In a dark and divided dystopian America, an ambitious reporter must risk her life and reputation to find out why only females are being born.Twenty-eight-year-old Charley Tennyson has battled PTSD ever since surviving a violent attack that killed her father. Four months later, she returns to her job as a reporter, only to be thrust into a high-profile investigation that forces her to choose between her own safety and the nation’s future.For the last two days, only females have been born in America. If the trend continues, males could become extinct within the next century. Charley's investigation leads to a deep conspiracy that raises unexpected questions about gender roles, violence, government power, and her father’s death.The story of one woman’s journey to find courage in a world full of fear, End of Men is a reminder of what binds us together when everything is falling apart."End of Men is a smart, evocative page-turner set in an unnervingly plausible future. Strobel's plot unfolds at a furious pace, seamlessly weaving in scientific, technological and social details that will convince you her dystopian vision is right around the corner." —Doug Kurtz, The Story Coach, dougkurtz.com"Suzanne Strobel has woven a narrative that holds up to the best of the top-tier dystopian writers. The heroine, Charley Tennyson, embarks on a journey where she uncovers the truth to a scientific mystery, has to build trust with others and ultimately finds hope. I couldn’t put this book down. You’re not going to want to pass up this gem, in fact you’re going to want to bring it to your book club." —Tamara Palmer, Author of Finding Lancelot and Missing Tyler

The Calgary Chessman


Yvonne Marjot - 2011
    To Cas, torn between Scotland and her New Zealand home, the object seems as odd and out-of-place as herself. Intrigued, she begins to search for its origins, thinking it will bring a brief respite from isolation. Instead, the Calgary chess piece opens the door to friendships and new hope. Her son, meanwhile, brings home his own revelation to shake her world.

The River: A Christopher Radcliff Short Story


A.D. Swanston - 2018
    . . Cambridge on the morning of a day in April, the year of Our Lord 1569.And Christopher Radcliff, Doctor of Civil Laws at Pembroke Hall and recruiter of clever young men to the service of the Earl of Leicester, is amongst a crowd of excited townsfolk and university scholars gathered on a field to watch a game of foot ball. It is to be played between the apprentices of the town and pupils of the colleges and it is hoped it will reconcile differences between town and gown. Bets are placed, wagers made. On the field long-standing animosities surface and violence breaks out but not before the college team is victorious, thanks to the skill of a Pembroke Hall man, John Groom.Later that day, Radcliff is summoned to the senior tutor’s rooms. It transpires that John Groom has been locked up on a serious charge of assault – he’d nearly caused a cobbler’s apprentice to drown. If found guilty, Groom would be expelled from college and face imprisonment. But Christopher smells a rat. He believes the charge to be the fabrication of someone with a serious grudge against the young man, and yet it does seem as if Groom is hiding something. Enlisting the help of his friend Edward Allington and his wife Katherine, Dr Radcliff knows the truth lies somewhere within the infamous den that is Slegge’s gaming house…

Ursula's Secret


Mairi Wilson - 2015
    After her mother is killed in a tragic hit-and-run, her mother's childhood guardian, Ursula, also dies suddenly, leaving everything to Lexy. But as Lexy reads through Ursula's hidden papers, what she discovers raises doubts about her own identity and if she really is now all alone in the world.Desperate to find out if she has any surviving family, Lexy travels to Africa hoping she can unravel the mystery she's now tormented by, only to find that she's stumbled into a past full of lies and deceit and that her life is in grave danger.Winner of the Sunday Mail Fiction Competition 2015"Part detective thriller, part emotional journey, Ursula's Secret is a highly enjoyable and intelligent adventure that will appeal to fans of Kate Atkinson and Maggie O'Farrell. A very promising debut."SOPHIE COOKE, author of The Glass House"Lovely straightforward and absorbing story telling of complex lives and a secret that spans decades and continents."ISLA DEWAR, author of Dancing in a Distant Place"The complex story accelerates to a dramatic denouement that leaves Lexy enlightened and chastened, and on the verge of a new phase in her life, and leaves the reader wholly satisfied with Wilson's adept, sympathetic and colourful storytelling."MORAG JOSS, award-winning author of the Sara Selkirk novels'Ursula's Secret is packed full of tension, questions, problems, secrecy and intrigue right until the concluding chapter.'EMMA CROWLEY, Shaz’s Book Blog'This book is filled with twist after twist, secret after secret which will keep you guessing right to the end.'PORTOBELLO BOOK BLOG'I was completely captured from the beginning of Ursula’s Secret, enveloped in the mystery and memories of Ursula and the beauty of her home. With it’s ‘smiling’ staircase and Lexy’s obvious wonder I was lost to the tale and it’s descriptive content… I loved this read.'**** TRACY SHEPHARD, Postcard Reviews Blog

As the Women Lay Dreaming


Donald S. Murray - 2018
    In the small hours of January 1st, 1919, the cruellest twist of fate changed at a stroke the lives of an entire community.Tormod Morrison was there that terrible night. He was on board HMY Iolaire when it smashed into rocks and sank, killing some 200 servicemen on the very last leg of their long journey home from war. For Tormod – a man unlike others, with artistry in his fingertips – the disaster would mark him indelibly.Two decades later, Alasdair and Rachel are sent to the windswept Isle of Lewis to live with Tormod in his traditional blackhouse home, a world away from the Glasgow of their earliest years. Their grandfather is kind, compassionate, but still deeply affected by the remarkable true story of the Iolaire shipwreck – by the selfless heroism and desperate tragedy he witnessed.A deeply moving novel about passion constrained, coping with loss and a changing world, As the Women Lay Dreaming explores how a single event can so dramatically impact communities, individuals and, indeed, our very souls."Gave me an insight into the Iolaire disaster which no history book could manage… a powerful book…which reveals new layers with every reading. It is history brought to life through fiction, and when it is done in a manner as moving and beautiful as this it is invaluable." Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae

the kids are alright


Dan Welch - 2011
    documentary

Fallow


Daniel Shand - 2016
    Paul and Mikey are on the run, apparently from the press surrounding their house after Mikey’s release from prison. His crime – child murder, committed when he was a boy. As they travel, they move from one disturbing scenario to the next, eventually involving themselves with a bizarre religious cult. The power between the brothers begins to shift, and we realise there is more to their history than Paul has allowed us to know.

Facebook Phantom


Suzanne Sangi - 2013
    Are you happy?'After her board exams are over, Sonali – Li to her friends– meets a mysterious stranger called Omi Daan on Facebook. What begins as an idle chat soon takes over her waking hours and her dreams, as she, and through her, her friends Jo and Neel, get sucked inexorably into a world of darkness, danger and death. Who is Omi Daan?As they try to find out, their lives disintegrate and Li discovers that one cannot deal with darkness and remain untouched ...

Amerika


Paul Lally - 2015
     Washington D.C. and Manhattan disappear beneath nuclear mushroom clouds. Stripped of its congress, judicial and executive branches, the United States is a fractured, frantic shell of its former self; each state, a world unto its own. Germany’s threat of further attacks on major American cities like Chicago, Miami and Pittsburgh compels Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, sole survivor of the executive branch and now president, to bend to Hitler’s demand of neutrality. Powerless and impotent, America watches from the sidelines while Europe and Asia go up in flames. In search of a cause to unite America once again as a nation, the “Sons of Liberty,” a distant echo of our nation’s revolutionary war volunteers, secretly band together again, in the South this time, led by take-no-prisoners, General George S. Patton himself. And in doing so, he calls upon a group of ordinary citizens, including ex-Pan Am pilot Sam Carter and Hollywood actress Ava James, to embark on a series of missions that, if successful, will deliver America from its darkest hour and set it on a path toward the bright light of victory. The odds are impossible, the missions dangerous, and with an unknown spy in their midst threatening to wreck their intricate plans, everything seems doomed from the start as they struggle to bring America back into the fight for liberty and justice for all.

The Castilians (Seton Chronicles #1)


V.E.H. Masters - 2020
    A few among the Scottish nobles, for both political and religious reasons, are eager for this alliance too. They kill Cardinal Beaton, who is Mary’s great protector, and take St Andrews Castle, expecting rescue any day from England.For a sister and brother – spirited Bethia, living outside the castle in St Andrews, and Will among the rebels inside the castle – the long siege becomes a fight for survival. But it’s also a struggle over loyalties and the choices they each must make: whether to save their family, or follow their hearts…This debut novel closely follows the tumultuous events of the siege of St Andrews Castle, and its dramatic re-takingRunner up SAW Barbara Hammond TrophyFinalist Wishing Shelf Book Awards

Laird of the Game


Lori Leigh - 2006
    She's an American tourist who just happened to stumble into a Celtic Warrior Reality Game. Melissa is certain she has stepped through the magical mist of Scotland - to go back in time. He captures her heart from the first moment they look at each other. For Alexander's six brothers, it's a game of deception as they convince Melissa she is in the 18th century. Along with two hundred and fifty warriors, they battle against the challenging Prince. It's a game of wits, and it's anyone's guess who will win. Alexander, their greatest warrior is smitten, and they are honor bound to keep his secrets.

The Pearl-fishers


Robin Jenkins - 2007
    But how will they respond when love seems to blossom between local man Gavin Hamilton and the beautiful pearl-fisher Effie? The Pearl-fishers is a classic love story and the master storyteller’s last novel.

Dark Deception


Amanda James - 2019
    Leo works part-time in London as an investment advisor to wealthy businessman, Paul Donaldson. The couple hope to start a family soon and life couldn’t be better.  But Leo has been stealing from Paul and Paul isn’t the sort of man you steal from.  When Leo realises that Paul knows what he’s done, he has no choice but to resort to drastic measures.  Meanwhile, after discovering she is pregnant, Kerensa can’t wait for her husband to return home so she can share her news. But she soon discovers he’s gone missing.  After receiving a threatening phone call from Paul, Kerensa realises how much trouble her family are in.   Just how far is Paul prepared to go to get revenge? And will Kerensa ever be happy or safe again?  Amanda James is also the bestselling author of novels including Another Mother and The Cornish Retribution. Dark Deception is a twisty and suspenseful psychological thriller which will appeal to fans of authors like C.L. Taylor, Claire McGowan and Louise Jensen.

Mrs Keiller's Marmalade


S.M. Boland - 2015
    “Well written and I was left wanting to read on.... It is certainly an intriguing concept” (Troubador)“Writing is dynamic and fast-paced. There's a definite charm about the novel that, I think, would appeal to the kind of audience cultivated by writers such as Marina Lewycka” (HHB Agency)“What a charming novel. I’m from Dundee myself, and the masterful way you wove together setting and culture was admirable. Your characters, too, were powerful yet compassionate, and the prose had a lovely twisting quality” (Canongate Press)“This is fresh and intriguing” (Andrew Lownie)Mrs Keiller's Marmalade is a book about marmalade, the isolation of old age, respect for tradition and the pain of abandonment. Maggie Keiller is a fictional descendent of John Keiller, the last patriarch of Keiller marmalade, whose clan famously created the first ‘Dundee Marmalade’. She is married John's son Billy Keiller in 1909 but lost him in the same year to a storm which visited their small enclave of Auchobane, a village perched precociously on the Dundee coastline of North-East Scotland. Forward fifty years, and Maggie lives a lonely life in Rose Cottage surrounded only by her jars of fine and vintage homemade marmalade. Her only visitor is Dougie, an elderly grocery man and decorated veteran. Maggie’s life is changed when she unexpectedly receives a letter from her estranged niece in London, asking for haven for her teenage daughter. Maggie takes her on, not out of affection for her niece whom she loathes, but to fill the void left by her childless marriage. Isla arrives in 1969, a year on the cusp of a revolution in the London she has just left, and in her own life, hiding the pregnancy she has kept from her mother. Maggie teaches Isla about her heritage, and hopes to pass on to her the tradition of marmalade making. For Isla, abandoned by mother and lover, and struggling to cope with the imminent arrival of an unwanted child, her bond with Maggie becomes a channel to help regain the self-esteem taken from her over her young years. The book culminates in Isla’s entry into the silver spoon Marmalade competition, fifty years after Maggie Keiller had taken the same prize.

Prelude to Dystopia


John Lyman - 2015
    In a psychological, dystopian thriller with Hitchcock-like twists, a young writer with some serious issues comes face to face with an enigmatic figure who's about to change the world forever. Set in present-day Atlanta, aspiring author Ben Swain struggles with internal demons while he tries to lead a normal life behind the wall of glass in his high-rise apartment ... until he meets the general.Not your typical dystopian tale, Prelude to Dystopia zeros in on the days leading up to a world-changing event and the lives of those who are transported from one reality to another in an instant. From Atlanta to Jekyll Island. From the coastal marshes of South Carolina to the Potomac. The action spirals to a whole new level when Ben and the new woman in his life attempt to flee from what's coming, only to learn the truth lies in the aftermath.