Showing results by narrator "Robin Laing" in All Categories

Every day, Mary wakes up before dawn to make breakfast from scratch. She tends the garden and feeds the animals. Every night, Mary makes sure she has dinner on the table for when her husband Cal gets home from work. She puts on his favourite lipstick and greets him with a smile. 'I've missed you.' It's not true and he knows it. But he likes to hear it all the same. Their cabin is hidden deep in the woods in the Scottish Highlands, and Mary doesn't remember the last time she saw another living soul. She tries not to think about her life before too much.

Suzy Medley is having a bad day...when a shabby terrier turns up at her door. Just like Suzy, Scout has been abandoned, although only Suzy has been left with a financial mess and a business in tatters thanks to her ex. Suzy takes Scout in, and her chaotic world changes in unexpected ways: strangers have never been more welcoming, and her teenage kids can’t wait to come home to visit. Then a chance encounter on a windy Hebridean beach makes things more complicated, because Suzy isn’t the only one who needs a friend.

It's a time of change for the Last Chance Saloon—recent promotions have changed the focus of the Unit, and when a Fleet Street Legend, Hunt Robinson, is kidnapped from Heathrow Airport and found close to death in the crypt of Fleet Street's St Bride's Church, DI Declan Walsh and his colleagues need to put the past behind them, and unite to take on the case.

When legendary TV actor Montgomery Pryce is shot in the chest by an arrow and killed while on stage during a Robin Hood convention, Detective Inspector Declan Walsh and the team of the Last Chance Saloon are brought in to solve the murder, only to find that nearly everyone there holds a bow capable of loosing the arrow.

Edvard grows up on a remote mountain farmstead in Norway with his taciturn grandfather, Sverre. The death of his parents, when he was three years old, has always been shrouded in mystery—he has never been told how or where it took place and has only a distant memory of his mother. But he knows that the fate of his grandfather's brother, Einar, is somehow bound up with this mystery. One day, a coffin is delivered for his grandfather long before his death—a meticulous, beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Perhaps Einar is not dead after all.

In 1773, Boswell enticed his famous English friend Samuel Johnson to accompany him on a tour through the highlands and western islands of Scotland. Johnson was then in his mid sixties. The two travellers set out from Edinburgh and skirted the eastern and northeastern coasts of Scotland, passing through St Andrews, Aberdeen and Inverness. They then passed into the highlands and spent several weeks on various islands in the Hebrides, including Skye, Coll, and Mull. After a visit to Boswell's estate at Auchinleck, the travellers returned to Edinburgh.

The complete series of off-beat thrillers about psychic detective Thomas Soutar, who uses his skills in police investigations. Set in Glasgow and featuring fantastic full casts, these unique police dramas star Robin Laing as Thomas Soutar.

Guy de Maupassant is renowned as one of the fathers of the modern short story. A protégé of Flaubert, he was celebrated for his naturalistic fiction, and wrote over 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books and one volume of verse in his short but highly productive lifetime. He died in an asylum aged just 43. This collection brings together dramatisations of some of his finest works.

Andrew O'Hagan issues three bulletins from the porous border between cyberspace and the 'real world.' 'Ghosting' introduces us to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose autobiography the author ghostwrites with unforeseen consequences. In 'The Invention of Ronnie Pinn' the author uses the identity of a deceased man to construct an entirely new one in cyberspace. And 'The Satoshi Affair' details the strange case of Craig Wright, the web developer who may or may not be the inventor of Bitcoin.

How Britain Ends is a book about history, but also about the strange, complicated identity of Britishness. In the past, it was possible to live with delightful confusion: one could be English, or British, Scottish or Irish and a citizen/subject of the United Kingdom (or Great Britain). For years that state has been what Gavin Esler calls a 'secret federation', but without the explicit federal arrangements that allow Germany or the USA to survive. Now the archaic state, which doesn't have a written constitution, is coming under terrible strain.

In this enthralling book Jim Fraser gives a unique insight into forensic science and examines in detail some of the UK's most high-profile murder investigations in recent decades, including the deaths of Rachel Nickell, Damilola Taylor and Gareth Williams, the GCHQ code breaker. Drawing on his personal experience as a forensic scientist and cold-case reviewer, Fraser reveals how each of these cases unfolded as a human, investigative and scientific puzzle and how some were solved and why others remain unsolved or controversial even today.

Jamie was 19. He was an ambitious personal trainer who wanted to be a social media influencer. But now his hopes and dreams will never be realised. Jamie was found killed at the family home, discovered by his dad - who’s now been charged with his own son’s murder. In this gripping crime drama, revealed through recordings of sessions led by forensic psychiatrist Dr Alex Bridges (Lolita Chakrabarti), we hear from those closest to Jamie and find out more about the family’s secrets.

In a condemned tower block in Glasgow, residents slowly trickle away until a young man is left alone with only the angels and devils in his mind for company. Stumbling from one surreal situation to the next, he encounters others on the margins of society, finding friendship and camaraderie wherever it is offered, grappling with who he is and what shape his future might take. The Voids is an unsparing story of modern-day Britain, told with brilliant flashes of humour and humanity.

Dave Kellock is a pillar of the community in Portobello, Edinburgh. A tireless volunteer who never misses a chance to help others, he's just been recognised on the King's Honours List. Dave Kellock is also a fraud. A moment of panic, violence and blood twenty years ago plagues his dreams. He's been hiding himself in Portobello, terrified that his past will catch up with him. Now that his photo has been in the paper, collecting his award, the truth won't stay buried for long.

In the quiet Scottish seaside village of Dunlyre, Finn is enduring a winter holiday with his annoying new stepmother, wishing things could go back to how they were, while Sage is enjoying her new home, wishing things would stay as they are. Finn has seen mysterious swimmers in the Firth late at night. Then, from the clifftop, first Sage, then Finn, hears an eerie song. Could the local legend of merfolk living amid the waves actually be true?

The Goldenacre—a masterpiece by the painter and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh—has been given to the people of Scotland. The beautiful canvas, the last work by the artistic genius, enthrals the art world, but behind it lies a dark and violent mystery. Thomas Tallis, an art expert with a trouble past, is trying to uncover the truth about the painting's complex history, while dogged newspaper reporter Shona Sandison is investigating a series of shocking murders in Edinburgh.

The immense cultural contribution made by two maverick Scottish independent music labels, Fast Product and Postcard, cannot be underestimated. Bob Last and Hilary Morrison in Edinburgh, followed by Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins in Glasgow, helped to create a confidence in being Scottish that hitherto had not existed in pop music (or the arts in general in Scotland). Their fierce independent spirit stamped a mark of quality and intelligence on everything they achieved. Hungry Beat is a definitive oral history of these labels and the Scottish post-punk period.

As the old chemical works in Leith are demolished, a long deceased body encrusted in phosphate rock is discovered. Seated at a card table, he has 10 objects laid out in front of him. Whose body is it? How did he die, and what is the significance of the objects? Phosphate Rocks: A Death in 10 Objects unravels the mystery using a mix of real life anecdote, scientific explanation and a touch of fiction, woven together to create a vivid account of the life and decline of a factory over five decades.

1838, England: When eighteen-year-old Frances Dickinson impulsively marries Lieutenant John Geils, all her hopes for her future are quickly shattered as she finds there is much about her husband she did not know. A cruel and violent man, John keeps Frances in isolation on his family's estate, while spending her fortune and preying upon their maids. Frances yearns to break free from her marriage but the law is not on her side. Only when John's abuse escalates can she set in motion a daring plan to secure her freedom.

Paramedic Andy Campbell has a secret he can't tell anyone, not least the police. But when his missing wife's image is found at the home of a suspected killer, detectives start asking questions, and they're not the only ones . . . The race for the truth leads them far from their Edinburgh home. But who will find her first, and will they save her life or take it?