J. Cronin’s affectionate look at young Finlay Hyslop, a newly qualified Scottish doctor who assists a seasoned country GP in managing a variety of medical crises.

    The walking wounded. These are the stories of ordinary people.

    Five other tales describe folk in Britain's lowest professional class between the late-1950s and 60s.

    He lived in the same street as its fictional 'razor king', Johnnie Stark, and subsequently realised that a lot of the old characters represented in the book were still around as late as the 1960s. Men still wore bunnets and played pitch and toss; women still treated the steamie as their social club. The razor gangs were running amok once again, and filth, violence, crime, rats, poverty and drunkenness abounded, just like they did in No Mean City.MacFarlane witnessed the last days of the old Gorbals as a major regeneration programme, begun in 1961, was implemented, and, as a street boy, he had a unique insight into a once great community in rapid decline. In this engrossing book, MacFarlane reveals what it was really like to live in the old Gorbals.

    A quick-witted and vastly entertaining novel that takes Douglas Skelton into the crime fiction big league.” Alex Gray“If you like your humour black and your detective novels hard boiled, The Dead Don’t Boogie is a cut above the rest.” Theresa Talbot“A white-knuckle, wisecracking thriller.” Caro Ramsay A missing teenage girl should be an easy job for Dominic Queste – after all, finding lost souls is what he does best. But sometimes it’s better if those souls stay lost. Jenny Deavers is trouble, especially for an ex-cokehead like Queste. Some truly nasty characters are very keen indeed to get to Jenny, and will stop at nothing... including murder. 
As the bodies pile up, Queste has to use all his street smarts both to protect Jenny and to find out just who wants her dead. The trail leads him to a vicious world of brutal gangsters, merciless hitmen, dark family secrets and an insatiable lust for power in the highest echelons of politics.

    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.

    Although intense, it's written with much humour, and hope. In the author's own words: "As a schoolboy already caught up in addiction, I stood outside of a McDonald's waiting for a man I thought was my friend. A friend I met online. It would change my life forever. I was a streetwise kid growing up in a tough housing scheme. But the Internet was a new phenomenon. Euphoric Recall details my recovery from extreme trauma and addiction. As a Scottish working-class lad who grew up in a new town—Livingston—I also survived brutal experiences with suicide, violence, and severe mental health issues. One day, I decided to write a memoir about it. I hold nothing back.”

    There he falls in love with his Queen Alexandra Corps nurse, Louise, and she with him.The story moves back and forth from their time at the field hospital to the west highlands of Scotland where Donald grew up. As they talk in the quiet hours he tells her the stories of the coast and glens, how his family lived and the fascinating life of a century ago: bagpiping, sheep shearing, celidhs, illegal distilling, his mother saving the life of the people of St Kilda, the navvies building the west highland railway and the relationship between the lairds and the people. Louise in turn tells her own story of growing up in the Welsh valley: coal mining, a harsh and unforgiving upbringing.They get cut off from the allied troops and with another nurse are forced to make their escape through Turkey to Greece, getting rescued by a Coptic priest and ending up in Malta. By this time their love is out in the open, but there is still another tragic twist to their story waiting on the way back to Donald’s beloved highland home . . .

    First Lady Destiny Simms is hosting a NYE’s service at her church and invites Ashley, who she met by barging into her home during the Thanksgiving holiday. With nothing else to do, she decides to go.  It was there that she was inspired to make 2020 the best year of her life.  What she didn't expect is to run into Patrick Need. He looked different, or was he always that handsome? In this holiday short, Ashley is determined to lay the foundation of a promising year.  Will she allow fear to overpower her faith another year? Is she worthy of love after her divorce? Find out in "A New Year's Kiss"  This is a short story, so short that you can finish it one sitting. If you aren’t interested in reading a short, please do not download. Happy New Year from NAKO!

    Hoffman, however, things are not quite as ordinary as they seem. Quickly, these scenarios are flung down a surreal rabbit hole filled with bizarre taxidermy museums, and an outrageous relationship involving a silverback gorilla. Yet, amid all of its convention-smashing glee, Secrets of the Wild reveals a generous and moving portrait of a family, a family doing their best to keep it together—to play-act at normalcy, even sanity—in an American landscape slipping into madness.

    Lisa hears a knock at the door. When she opens it, she finds a mysterious man in need of shelter. He got caught out in the storm while hunting, unaware of the storm that was bearing down on the small town. Lisa gives him shelter, happy to have some company to ride out the storm. Both people are there for their own reasons and as they get to know each other, the storm outside is matched by the one inside the small cabin. Late at night, Will goes to Lisa and the two find something to keep themselves warm during the long, cold night.

    Everyone thinks he's a laughing stock now, including his ex-wife and even his agent. When it seems things couldn't get any worse, a chance encounter results in Robinson moonlighting as a hitman. But that's when things take a surprising turn, because the more people he kills, the more the art world seems to fall back in love with him. This blackly comic short story was first published in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" in August, 2005.

     Farzana is one of the prostitutes at Begum's kotha and Ramakant Bannerjee, the writer, loves her deeply. He's promised to marry her once he has enough money. He's currently writing his most ambitious novel, the story of Kaneez. As the story of Kaneez unfolds, so does the intriguing life of Farzana. What fate does she meet? Read on to find out.

    Makayla Young has over a thousand rules. She has rules about love, life and even sex. When will she ever learn you cannot control and keep a man with rules. Will her rules cause her to loose another man?

    He told her he would make her his wife and protect her. In her state of haze, she agreed.The stranger was her savior and she was thankful but was he really her husband? How did the handsome, charming man end up becoming Her Unexpected Husband?Note: This is a short and sweet romance with a happy ending.