Book picks similar to
The Hurting: The Glasgow Terror by R.J. Mitchell


british-thrillers
glasgow
rj-mitchell
scottish-mystery-thrillers

The Lost Child


Ann Troup - 2015
    She was never found. ‘The Lost Child is complex, mysterious and highly compelling reading.’ - Reviewed the BookThirty years on, Elaine Ellis is carrying her mother’s ashes back to Hallow’s End to scatter them in the place that she once called home. Elaine has never been there, but it’s the only place Jean talked about while she was growing up – so it seems as good a place as any.As Elaine settles into her holiday cottage in the peaceful Devonshire village, she gets to know the locals; family she never knew she had, eccentric and old-fashioned gentry, and new friends where she would least expect them. But she is intrigued by the tale of the missing girl that the village still carries at its heart, and which somehow continues to overshadow them all. Little does she know how much more involved in the mystery she will become… For fans of Lesley Thomson, Diane Chamberlain and Rosamund Lupton What readers are saying about The Lost Child ‘atmospheric, haunting and quite dark’ - Book boodle‘An unusual, beautifully written mystery.’ - The Disorganised Author‘A fabulous book that gripped me and left me wanting more!’ - Compelling Reads‘You won't spot the twists and turns coming and they will keep you on the edge of your seat!! You just won't want to put this book down until you find out what happens at the end!’ - Becky Lock

The Girl on the Beach


Tracy Buchanan - 2019
    But the day she finds a teenage girl wandering barefoot and confused along the frozen beach of Winterton Chine, everything changes. As Amber feels her maternal instinct reawaken to help the girl, something that feels a tiny bit like hope flickers inside her–– for the first time in years. But the girl has no recollection of who she is, or what she is doing there. She is just clutching a notebook, filled with notes, stories, and pictures that she claims not to recognise. Who is she? Where is she from? And what led her to this particular beach in the south of England, on the coldest day of the year? Amber knows she must help her find some answers. But neither Amber, nor the girl, know that this will be the start of a journey that will take them to Scotland, Iceland and beyond. To discover what it means to face your fears, discover the devastating secrets from your history, and to have the courage to find your family… and your way back home.

Bonnie Jack


Ian Hamilton - 2021
    Now living in the United States and facing his impending retirement, Jack and his wife Anne travel to Scotland to track down his long-lost sister. Their journey takes them from their home in a quiet Boston suburb to the impoverished mill towns of Ayrshire, the gray cobbled streets of Glasgow, and the majestic Scottish Highlands. Along the way, Jack gets entangled in local affairs and must confront uncomfortable truths about family, legacy, and the wife he thought he knew.Bonnie Jack, the first stand-alone novel by acclaimed author Ian Hamilton, is a compelling story about the importance of family, self-discovery, and the lengths we go to protect the ones we love.

In Too Deep


Bea Davenport - 2012
    The window's so small I can't see what happens next. But what I do know is that Kim is dead. And I know this, too that I helped to kill her. Kim, my lovely, only, best friend.'Five years ago Maura fled life in Dowerby and took on a new identity, desperately trying to piece her life back together and escape the dark clouds that plagued her past. But then a reporter tracks her down, and persuades her to tell her story, putting her own life in danger once again.Layer upon layer of violence and deceit make up the full picture for Maura to see and the reporter to reveal. Hidden secrets are uncovered that have been left to settle, for far too long. But in life some things can't be left unsaid, and eventually the truth will out. Whatever the consequences.

Snatched


Gillian Jackson - 2017
     How do you keep hope alive when your worst nightmare becomes reality? Eleven-year-old Danny Stone is brutally snatched from the street on his way home from school. He finds himself imprisoned in a semi-derelict building, alone, cold and terrified of what might happen to him. Danny’s parents, Martha and Richard, are thrust into an unimaginable nightmare. With their only child missing and a ransom demanded, they are forced to meet the kidnappers’ demands or lose their son forever. As family secrets bubble to the surface, the Stones' marriage is put under strain. Will Danny make it out alive? Can his parents save him? Or will one horrific moment cause irreparable damage to all three of their lives…? SNATCHED is a page-turning kidnapping thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. This emotional psychological thriller will stay with you long after the pages have turned.

The Sixties Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade


Gerard J. DeGroot - 2008
    That was, of course, an oblique reference to the mind-bending drugs that clouded perception--yet time has proven an equally effective hallucinogen. This book revisits the Sixties we forgot or somehow failed to witness. In a kaleidoscopic global tour of the decade, Gerard DeGroot reminds us that the Ballad of the Green Beret outsold Give Peace a Chance, that the Students for a Democratic Society were outnumbered by Young Americans for Freedom, that revolution was always a pipe dream, and that the Sixties belong to Reagan and de Gaulle more than to Kennedy and Dubcek. The Sixties Unplugged shows how opportunity was squandered, and why nostalgia for the decade has obscured sordidness and futility. DeGroot returns us to a time in which idealism, tolerance, and creativity gave way to cynicism, chauvinism, and materialism. He presents the Sixties as a drama acted out on stages around the world, a theater of the absurd in which China's Cultural Revolution proved to be the worst atrocity of the twentieth century, the Six-Day War a disaster for every nation in the Middle East, and a million slaughtered Indonesians martyrs to greed. The Sixties Unplugged restores to an era the prevalent disorder and inconvenient truths that longing, wistfulness, and distance have obscured. In an impressionistic journey through a tumultuous decade, DeGroot offers an object lesson in the distortions nostalgia can create as it strives to impose order on memory and value on mayhem.

The Lock


Andrew Barrett - 2019
    This is the story of how I saw a dead man die. I was finishing up at a sudden death in an old house, waiting for the body snatchers to arrive, when I heard a noise from the cellar.I had time to kill, so I went to investigate.Turns out I wasn't the only one with killing on his mind.If you like fast-paced crime thrillers with a forensic slant, raw emotions, and characters that reach out of the book and grab you by the throat, you’ll love Andrew Barrett’s CSI Eddie Collins series.To find out what's in that cellar, buy The Lock today. Andrew Barrett is the best-selling author of the Eddie Collins Series. It will appeal to fans of authors like Ian Rankin, Robert Bryndza and Kathy Reichs. What people are saying about The Lock. Andy Barrett, you know how to snatch the breath from a reader’s chest.This book is dark and ugly but has just enough humour dotted around to make you giggle when you know you really shouldn't.The writing, as strong as always, is crisp, immediate and loaded with sarcasm.This novella sucks you right in from the first page.Barrett is the master of tension with laugh out loud moments interspersed throughout.I had to remind myself to breathe. The Lock is graphic, imaginative, and brilliantly written. Truly breath-taking.I love how the tension escalates.Try to stop reading....you can’t!Andrew Barrett is a master of his game!“The Lock” by Andrew Barrett is a macabre little thriller of a novella.With the class of Alfred Hitchcock, a seriously disturbing black and white story that will keep you awake after you hit the sack.This is my favourite Eddie Collins CSI novella yet!I love the way Andrew Barrett adds the wit and humour into the story.Brilliant story, great humour and very scary! Loved It!Had me scared out of my wits one minute laughing myself silly the next!Oh how I love Andy's writing!This book is dark and twisted; it will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.Although this book is a novella it packs a mighty punch and will keep you hooked.

The Perfect Home


Kevin Lynch - 2022
    Or die.June is very happy in her home. It’s where she raised her two kids – now college age – and every room is filled with memories, some beautiful, some painful. She loves the garden she has worked so hard to create. She likes her neighbours in this pleasant, leafy suburb.But lately, something has changed.There’s the new guy across the street. He seems rough, possibly criminal. And he’s been taking a definite interest in June’s rebellious daughter, Cathy.And there’s June’s son, Sam. He’s always been open and friendly but recently he’s been sullen and secretive.Even more disturbing, June’s cheating ex-husband suddenly seems to be everywhere. It’s almost as if he’s stalking her.Then, when someone she knows is murdered, June begins to understand that all these different things are connected. And as she investigates further, she realises that she herself is in terrible danger.Because someone out there wants June gone. Permanently.

The Perfect Daughter


Kerry Wilkinson - 2021
    She knows this winding country road like the back of her hand, dodges the potholes with ease. But then she hears a crunch. A thud. She slams on the brakes.Since Katie’s dad left it’s just been the two of us, but we’re a team – singing in the kitchen at cheesy pop songs, tackling her homework. My teenage daughter is everything to me.But one night, as we’re curled up in front of the TV, the messages start. I keep my phone away from Katie so she can’t see the terrifying words: I know what you did. Now you’re going to do something for me…I have no choice but to obey. Because if I go to the police, come clean about what I did to protect my girl, all the questions and prying eyes would soon discover Katie’s secret too. And that would tear her life apart.So I drive where they tell me, do what they say, send the photo evidence they want. I feel sick when they ask me to cause someone harm, and it’s clear they know everything about our lives. I thought I was keeping a secret to keep my girl safe. But have I actually put her in even more danger?An absolutely addictive thriller about how far a mother would go for her child, with a twist that will leave you gasping. Fans of Shari Lapena, Lisa Jewell and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down.

Revenge


Martina Cole - 2013
    He fights for what he wants and he takes it, whatever the cost. He learns the rules of the Life from the best and when his mentor, legendary Face Patrick Costello, is taken out, no one questions that Michael Flynn is his natural successor. For Michael, loyalty - and crime - pay.Michael rises to heights beyond anything the criminal underworld has seen. He owns everyone and he rules his empire with an even but fierce hand. No one would dare challenge him.Then the unthinkable happens. Perhaps Michael Flynn is not so untouchable after all, and he must learn that...WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE CAN BE NO FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

Finders, Keepers


Sabine Durrant - 2020
    New project - a house to renovate. New people - no links to the past. New friends - especially her next-door neighbour, the lonely Verity, who needs her help.Verity has lived in Trinity Fields all her life. She's always resisted change. Her home and belongings are a shield, a defence to keep the outside world at bay. But something about the Tilsons piques her interest.Just as her ivy creeps through the shared garden fence, so Verity will work her way into the Tilson family.And once they realise how formidable she can be, it might well be too late.

The Forgotten Child


D.E. White - 2019
    She yanked the wheel as she felt the impact from the car behind her. There was a sharp pain, and then a bang in front of her, and after that nothing but darkness.Holly Kendal is trying to put her painful past and broken marriage behind her and focus on her beloved son, Milo. But while driving him home on a dark February night, Holly loses control on the rain-slicked tarmac, and her car spirals off the road. When Holly regains consciousness, everything is silent and in the dark, she can’t see Milo. Desperately, she claws her way out of the car and forces the back door open. To her relief, Milo is where she left him, injured but breathing – but then she sees something that makes her heart stop. Milo isn't the only child in the car. Next to him is another little boy, unharmed but unconscious. And Holly has absolutely no idea who he is.

I Will Find You


Amanda Rigby - 2022
    But Ash is tormented by her demons and a past that refuses to be laid to rest.Jessica: Perfect wife and loving mother. But although Jessica might seem to have it all, she lives a secret life built on lies.Grace: An outsider, always looking in, Grace has never known the love of her sisters and her resentment can make her do bad things.When Ashleigh goes missing, Jessica and Grace do all they can to find their eldest sister. But the longer Ashleigh is missing, the more secrets and lies these women are hiding threaten to tear this family apart.Can they find Ashleigh before it’s too late or is it sometimes safer to stay hidden?

She Chose Me


Tracey Emerson - 2018
    When she receives a blank Mother's Day card in the post, she is confused and unsettled. Who could have sent it to her and why? She isn't a mother. Another Mother's Day card arrives. Then come the silent phone calls. Haunted by disturbing flashbacks, Grace starts to unravel. Someone is out to get her. Someone who knows what she has done.

Conan's Brethren


Robert E. Howard - 2009
    Howard (1906-36) is best known for his stories about Conan the Barbarian. However, Howard was a prolific writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, Westerns, detective, sports stories, true confessions and other genre fiction. During his short career, he created a number of memorable characters in the pages of Weird Tales and other pulp magazines, including the the vengeful Puritan swashbuckler Solomon Kane, King Kull of Valusia, and the Pictish chieftain Bran Mak Morn.This companion volume to The Complete Chronicles of Conan contains stories featuring Conan's brothers-in-arms, from Howard's very first professionally published story, through the exploits of Kane, Kull, and the Picts, to a number of Oriental adventures, an early draft of a Conan story, and a posthumously published space opera in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs.Compiled and with a historical afterword by Stephen Jones, and lavishly illustrated by Les Edwards, this is a volume that no Robert E. Howard fan will want to miss.