'It's just to say that no-one has come to pick Nathan up from school, and we were wondering if there was a problem of some kind?'As Mark Douglas photographs a pod of whales stranded in the waters off Edinburgh's Portobello Beach, he is called by his son's school: his wife, Lauren, hasn't turned up to collect their son. Calm at first, Mark collects Nathan and takes him home but as the hours slowly crawl by he increasingly starts to worry.With brilliantly controlled ...

Driving home from a party with his girlfriend and brother, all of them drunk and high on stolen pills, Billy Blackmore accidentally hits someone in the night. In a panic, they all decide to drive off.But the next day Billy wakes to find he has to cover the story for the local paper. It turns out the dead man was Edinburgh's biggest crime lord and, as Billy struggles with what he's done, he is sucked into a nightmare of guilt, retribution and violence.From the author of the ...

Get the FIRST SIX books in Doug Johnstone's addictive, darkly funny and unmissable The Skelfs series in one GREAT-VALUE Box Set.When family patriarch Jim dies, three generations of Edinburgh women – widow Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah – take over the family funeral directors and PI businesses. From missing people and faked deaths to gangland vendettas and graveyard secrets, their investigations pull them into danger in a series of tense, ...

A heart attack at a funeral, blackmail, murder, grief bots, affairs, the power of music and ghosts of every kind, who threaten the Skelfs' very existence. The Skelfs are back in another gripping, heartfelt and irresistible mystery.'One of the finest crime series out there. I remain a happily hopeless Skelfaholic' Mark Billingham'The persistence of love in the Skelf household is reassuring and life-affirming' The Times

Drones, gangland vendettas, a missing choir singer, disturbances in the cemetery, PTSD, panpsychism, and secrets from the past … This can ONLY mean one thing! The Skelfs are back, and things are as nail-biting, tense and warmly funny as ever!`The persistence of love in the Skelf household, no matter what fate flings at it, is reassuring and life-affirming´ The Times`The Skelfs feel like family – their joys are my joys, their pains ...

Four friends, one weekend, gallons of whisky. What could go wrong?Driven by amateur whisky-nut Adam, four late-thirties ex-university mates are heading to Islay - the remote Scottish island world famous for its single malts - with a wallet full of cash, a stash of coke and a serious thirst.Over a weekend soaked in the finest cask strength spirit, they meet young divorcee Molly, who Adam has a soft spot for, her little sister Ash who has all sorts of problem...

Struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her teenage son, Ellie lives in the shadows of the Forth Road Bridge, lingering on its footpaths and swimming in the waters below. One day she talks down another suicidal teenager, Sam, and sees for herself a shot at redemption, the chance to atone for her son's death.But even with the best intentions, she can't foresee the situation she's falling headlong into - a troubled family, with some very dark secrets of their own.From...

Meet Martha. It's the first day of her new job as intern at Edinburgh's The Standard. But all's not well at the ailing newspaper, and Martha is carrying some serious baggage of her own.Put straight onto the obituary page, she takes a call from a former employee who seems to commit suicide while on the phone, something which echoes with her own troubled past.Setting in motion a frantic race around modern-day Edinburgh, The Dead Beat traces Martha's desperat...

Three generations of women from the Skelfs family take over the family funeral home and PI businesses in the first book of a taut, gripping page-turning and darkly funny new series.***Shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Best Scottish Crime Book of the Year******Shortlisted for the Amazon Publishing Capital Crime Awards***'An engrossing and beautifully written tale that bears all the Doug Johnstone hallmarks in its warmth and dar...

Lennox, Vonnie and Ava head to Greenland to meet up with Heather, Sandy and the Enceladons, commencing an epic showdown that will change everything … The emotive, devastating yet ultimately life-affirming conclusion to the bestselling Enceladons Trilogy, as seen on BBC2's Between the Covers… `An affecting and thought-provoking read. Johnstone's worldbuilding is top notch in this pacy eco-alien tale of peril and hope´ Tendai Huchu `Doug Johnstone has emerged as the unholy, octopoid lovechil...

A body lost at sea, arson, murder, astronauts, wind phones, communal funerals, stalking and conspiracy theories … This can ONLY mean one thing! The Skelfs are back, and things are as tense, unnerving and warmly funny as ever!`A terrific read with all of Johnston's trademark warmth and wicked wit in the latest gripping outing for this beguiling family´ A K Turner`Some of the best female characters in crime fiction. Pitch-perfect balance of d...

When three people suffer strokes after seeing dazzling lights over Edinburgh, then awake completely recovered, they're convinced their ordeal is connected to the alien creature discovered on a nearby beach … an adrenaline-soaked, deeply humane, life-affirming first-contact novel from one of Scotland's most revered authors…**Selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers 2023**'All the drive, curiosity and wonder of his crime and mystery novels … sci...