West Lothian Writers have celebrated Halloween with an annual writing challenge since 2013. This collection is just a few of the spine tingling, creepy or down right silly, short stories and poems our members have crafted for the holiday. Read on, if you dare.

All that lab technician Daniel Dreghorn wants is a better job, more money, a new flat - oh, and perhaps to meet a few more girls. It's not much to ask of life, is it? All his dreams are answered with one visit to a faulty cash machine, but is it too good to be true? Yes, Daniel, it is...Daniel's life goes from bad to mad as a series of deaths are attributed to him and some very shady characters start to believe he is more than he seems. As Daniel's colleagues at the university beco...

Waverley is a small cat with a big miaow and he lives with Mr and MrsTurner and their son Jonathan at number 10, Marten's Drive.Waverley likes the house at number 10, Marten's Drive because it haslots of good places to sleep and a back garden that seems to go onforever. Beyond the wooden fence at the bottom of the garden there isa children's playground, green fields, and then the woods. All daylong Waverley snoozes in the sunny spots around the ho...

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS POPULAR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2014‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’There are books you...

It looked bleak and predictable for little Keelen Mailman: an alcoholic mother, absent father, the horrors of regular sexual and physical assault and the casual racism of a small outback town in the sixties. But somehow, despite the pain and deprivation, the lost education, she managed to absorb her mother's lessons: her Bidjara language and culture, her obligations to Country, and her loyalty to her family.So it was no surprise to some that a girl who could hide for a year in her ...

Tying the knot can leave you in a tangle…James is everything Tish has ever wanted in a husband – he’s handsome, dependable, and will make an excellent father. Unlike Tish’s first love, the disreputable Fergal, who abandoned her for a music career and now lives a lavish celebrity lifestyle. Fergal broke her heart and James helped to mend it.Tish and James have just bought a cottage in the country. The next step? Kids and a lifetime of domestic bliss. Well, that’s the plan. A...

‘This gripping book will keep you hooked, whatever your age.’ Fabulous magazine The stunning YA debut thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Escape.“You have to help me. We’re not being reformed. We’re being brainwashed.”All sixteen year old Drew Finch wants is to be left alone. She's not interested in spending time with her mum and stepdad and when her disruptive fifteen year old brother Mason is expelled from school for...

**The Accidental Medium is the first book in a hilarious series from Tracy Whitwell featuring Tanz, the accidental medium who, with the help of the dead, is about to become an unwilling crime-solver.'Spooky and hilarious and brimming with oddball characters, I love this book!' – Mandasue Heller**Tanz is a wine-loving, straight-talking, once-successful TV actress from Gateshead, whose career has shrivelled like an antique walnut. She is still grieving for her friend...

Available together in ebook for the first time ever, this duo of brilliant short stories featuring a guest appearance by DI Tom Thorne showcases the crime writing talent of number one Sunday Times bestseller Mark Billingham.Underneath the Mistletoe Last NightWhen young Jack finds 'Father Christmas' dead beneath the tree, DI Tom Thorne, who has volunteered to work on Christmas Day, must get to the truth with the help of his reliable team and some incriminat...

The second in the detective series featuring DI Geraldine Steel⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I really enjoy this author, once you start reading you can't put down' Amazon customer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Leigh always writes books I get lost in and the Geraldine Steel series is just fabulous!' Beyond The Books'A well-written, soundly plotted, psychologically acute story' Marcel Berlins, The TimesWhen a man dies in a gas explosion, the polic...

'Serrailler, Hill's brilliant detective, is the central character in the great writer's crime fiction novels' CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL**Children are vanishing.The village of Lafferton is shattered.**There are no witnesses and no leads - just a kidnapper at large.Then Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler receives a call: a child has been snatched in Yorkshire. Has the abductor struck again? And will they find this child alive?

It’s 1967. The world is rocking, and Neil is growing up fast.I have this annoying problem that gives me a lot of trouble: a conscience.Neil Bridges attends a Catholic boys’ school in which teachers rule with iron fists and thick leather straps. Some crumble under the pressure but Neil toughs it out, just as his Vietnam-bound older brother has done before him. He has to be a man, after all. But at sixteen, how can he be sure of himself when he’s not...