Arachnid Press, 91 Columbia Avenue, Livingston (2026)

29/12/2025

One broch, two millennia, three murders. ‘Thicker Than Water’ is a compelling murder mystery set in northern Scotland.

The fictional Sarclet Broch on the east coast of Caithness south of Wick is the hub around which much of the story revolves and it is where all three of the murders in the book take place. It is closely based on the Broch of Gurness in Orkney, shown in this image.

Available as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple. Find out more:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-ttw/index.html

Callum Anderson and Jenny Mackay are spending Hogmanay at Sarclet Castle in Caithness when they are asked to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman at nearby Sarclet Broch in 1943, a woman whose ghost is believed to haunt the castle.

What seems the coldest of cold cases is not the first murder of a young woman at the broch: there was another nearly two thousand years earlier. Nor is it the last. On the day that Callum and Jenny arrive, there is a third fatal stabbing there.

Their investigation into the 1943 murder uncovers shoddy police work and the possibility of a serial killer: but can anything be proved after eight decades? Meanwhile they find themselves drawn into the increasingly dangerous hunt for the latest murderer.

28/12/2025

Is your enemy’s enemy always your friend? Ken Lussey’s latest novel ‘Friend or Foe?’ is a fast-paced thriller set largely in south-west Scotland during World War Two.

This modern image shows Torphichen Preceptory near Linlithgow, established as the Scottish base of the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in the 1140s. It is visited by the book’s two central characters, though at the time of their visit the old tower and transepts hadn’t been reroofed.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/buy.html
If you wish this can be signed and dedicated by the author at no extra cost.
For a limited time only, paperback sales are P&P free for UK purchasers.

It’s late June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland’s journey home from Malta is interrupted, first in London to hear Soviet claims of a German spy in Scotland and then by a shoot-out between US military units in Lancashire.

Having returned to Edinburgh, they remain only briefly before travelling with a Military Intelligence 11 team to Galloway to track down the spy. How best to catch a ghost who may already have uncovered vital military secrets? Can they find him before it’s too late?

When two Soviet agents arrive in Galloway to help, Bob and Monique need to work out the difference between friend and foe. Does the German spy exist, or is he a Soviet invention intended to lure MI11 into danger?

27/12/2025

When the hunter becomes the prey. ‘The High Road’ is a fast-paced contemporary thriller set mainly in central Scotland and the far north-west.

At the beginning of the story the central character is staying at Houstoun House Hotel in West Lothian. At the heart of the hotel is this magnificent tower house dating back to 1598.

Available as a Kindle, Kobo, Apple or audiobook. Find out more:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-thr/index.html

Callum Anderson is in Scotland to scatter his father’s ashes when he’s asked by a cousin to look for her missing sister, Alexandra. With his life in London in tatters and suspended from duty by the Metropolitan Police, why not?

It soon becomes clear that Alex is on the run from a local criminal. But someone much more dangerous is after her too and sees Callum as a means of finding her and adding to a trail of bodies that extends across two countries.

After a brief entanglement with a Police Scotland anti-terrorist operation, Callum drops off the radar to follow the only lead he has left, which takes him to the far north-west of Scotland. But can he find Alex before his own hunter finds him?

26/12/2025

How many deaths to end a war? ‘Eyes Turned Skywards’ is a fast-paced thriller set mainly in northern Scotland during World War Two. It uses many real settings, transported eight decades back in time.

Dunollie Castle perches on the summit of a 90ft high outcrop of rock that guards the narrow passage into Oban Bay between the mainland and the north end of the island of Kerrera. The book begins with a brutal murder at the castle.

Available as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple. Find out more:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-ets/index.html

Wing Commander Robert Sutherland has left his days as a pre-war detective far behind him. Or so he thinks. On the 25th of August 1942 the Duke of Kent, brother of King George VI, is killed in northern Scotland in an unexplained air crash and a second crash soon after suggests a shared, possibly sinister, cause.

Bob Sutherland is tasked with visiting the aircraft’s base in Oban and the first crash site in Caithness to try to uncover who might have sabotaged one, or both, of the aircraft.

Set against the background of a country that is far from united behind Winston Churchill and the ever-present threat from the enemy, we follow Bob as he unravels layers of deceit and intrigue far beyond anything he could have imagined.

24/12/2025

Is your enemy’s enemy always your friend? Ken Lussey’s new novel ‘Friend or Foe?’ is a fast-paced thriller set largely in south-west Scotland during World War Two.

This modern image shows the view north over Stranraer and Loch Ryan from the roof of the Castle of St John. Stranraer is visited by the central characters several times as the hunt for a spy builds towards its dramatic conclusion.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/buy.html
If you wish this can be signed and dedicated by the author at no extra cost.
For a limited time only, paperback sales are P&P free for UK purchasers.

It’s late June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland’s journey home from Malta is interrupted, first in London to hear Soviet claims of a German spy in Scotland and then by a shoot-out between US military units in Lancashire.

Having returned to Edinburgh, they remain only briefly before travelling with a Military Intelligence 11 team to Galloway to track down the spy. How best to catch a ghost who may already have uncovered vital military secrets? Can they find him before it’s too late?

When two Soviet agents arrive in Galloway to help, Bob and Monique need to work out the difference between friend and foe. Does the German spy exist, or is he a Soviet invention intended to lure MI11 into danger?

23/12/2025

The siege is over but the war goes on. ‘The Eye of Horus’ is an atmospheric World War Two thriller with settings that move from the Highlands of Scotland via Gibraltar to Malta.

The mountains of the Isle of Skye form a backdrop to the start of the story and this modern image shows them partly shrouded in haze when seen from the neighbouring island of Raasay.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-eoh/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-eoh/buy.html
If you wish this can be signed and dedicated by the author at no extra cost.
For a limited time only, paperback sales are P&P free for UK purchasers.

It’s June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland are on honeymoon in Kyle of Lochalsh when an unexpected visitor arrives to spoil their idyll.

They agree to travel to Malta to search for two missing men, a young naval lieutenant and an MI6 officer who has disappeared while looking for him. The aerial siege of the island is over and the tide of war has turned but, after three years of bombing, Malta remains a shattered place.

The available leads produce more questions than answers and progress is impeded by lies. As Bob and Monique come closer to discovering what became of the two men, events take a dangerous turn and their priority shifts from enjoying their honeymoon to surviving it.

22/12/2025

A game of secrets and lies. ‘Bloody Orkney’ is a fast-paced thriller set in Scotland, mainly in Orkney, during World War Two. It uses many real settings, transported eight decades back in time.

Scapa Bay in Orkney was a very much busier place in 1942 than it is today and has an important part to play in the book, as does Scapa Distillery, which can be seen on the far side of the bay in this modern photograph.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-blork/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-blork/buy.html
If you wish this can be signed and dedicated by the author at no extra cost.
For a limited time only, paperback sales are P&P free for UK purchasers.

It’s November 1942. Bob Sutherland, Monique Dubois and the Military Intelligence 11 team fly in to review security in Orkney, home to one of the most important and most heavily defended naval anchorages in the world.

But an unidentified body has been found. It becomes clear that powerful men have things they’d rather keep hidden and MI11’s arrival threatens the status quo. Then Bob stumbles over a ghost from his past and things get far too personal.

He and Monique are called away to resolve a crisis at a secret experimental base at Gruinard Bay in Wester Ross. When they return to Orkney, they find that the rules have been rewritten and they are in very real danger.

21/12/2025

Is your enemy’s enemy always your friend? Ken Lussey’s new novel ‘Friend or Foe?’ is a fast-paced thriller set largely in south-west Scotland during World War Two.

This modern image shows the west front of Galloway House near Garlieston in Galloway. During the war the house served as a hospital and it features at the beginning of the book and again as the story builds towards its climax.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/buy.html
If you wish this can be signed and dedicated by the author at no extra cost.
For a limited time only, paperback sales are P&P free for UK purchasers.

It’s late June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland’s journey home from Malta is interrupted, first in London to hear Soviet claims of a German spy in Scotland and then by a shoot-out between US military units in Lancashire.

Having returned to Edinburgh, they remain only briefly before travelling with a Military Intelligence 11 team to Galloway to track down the spy. How best to catch a ghost who may already have uncovered vital military secrets? Can they find him before it’s too late?

When two Soviet agents arrive in Galloway to help, Bob and Monique need to work out the difference between friend and foe. Does the German spy exist, or is he a Soviet invention intended to lure MI11 into danger?

20/12/2025

Relentless pursuit and a grisly murder. ‘Hide and Seek’ is a fast-paced thriller set in Stirling Castle and more widely across Scotland during World War Two. It uses many real settings, transported eight decades back in time.

This modern image shows the site of a grisly murder in 1943. Its investigation forms a central strand of the story and uncovers links to the murder of an earl by a king that took place here nearly five centuries earlier.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-has/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-has/buy.html
If you wish this can be signed and dedicated by the author at no extra cost.
For a limited time only, paperback sales are P&P free for UK purchasers.

Relentless pursuit and a grisly murder. It’s April 1943. Medical student Helen Erickson is followed from London to her aunt’s farm in Perthshire. What do her pursuers want?

Meanwhile Monique Dubois is attending a secret meeting at Stirling Castle when an old adversaryThis modern image shows the end of a passage which leads out into the Douglas Gardens in Stirling Castle. Part of the grass of the gardens can be seen on the right, though the image is dominated by stone buildings on a misty day. There is a paved area in the foreground. The front cover of ‘Hide and Seek’ is shown in the top right corner. is murdered in a chilling echo of a dark episode in the castle’s history. Bob Sutherland and the MI11 team are called in and discover that almost everyone who knew the victim had a motive.

Helen disappears and it becomes clear that national security is at stake. Monique sets out to find the missing woman before anyone else does, even if it means killing to protect her. Can Monique find Helen? Can Bob track down the killer at Stirling Castle? And just how dangerous have things become for both of them?

19/12/2025

You can’t ask a dead man who pulled the trigger. ‘A Tangled Web’ is a fast-paced contemporary thriller set in northern Scotland.

This is the remote Croick Church in Sutherland, which has reminders of the tragic story that brought word of the Highland Clearances to a much wider audience via an article in The Times on 2 June 1845; and which offers an intriguing mystery. The two central characters visit the church for a clandestine meeting with an informant, though after many of the trees seen in this photo were cut down.

Available as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple. Find out more:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-atw/index.html

Callum Anderson returns to north-west Sutherland to help local GP Jenny Mackay investigate the death of her husband. The authorities say he committed su***de but she’s convinced he was murdered.

As an accountant and a councillor, Iain Mackay was an upstanding pillar of society. Or was he? Callum soon discovers that Iain lied to everyone who thought he loved them: especially his wife and his daughters. He was also a philanderer, a blackmailer and thoroughly corrupt. The possible motives for both murder and su***de begin to mount.

What Callum discovers puts his fledgling relationship with Jenny under real strain. But that becomes the least of their problems when they come up against people who have already killed and would have no qualms about killing again.

18/12/2025

Is your enemy’s enemy always your friend? Ken Lussey’s new novel ‘Friend or Foe?’ is a fast-paced thriller set largely in south-west Scotland during World War Two.

This modern image shows Lochryan House. During the war it served as a headquarters for the huge military port built at Cairnryan in case traditional ports on the Clyde or Mersey were destroyed by enemy bombing. Lochryan House is visited by the book’s central characters as their hunt for a spy builds towards its climax.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-fof/buy.html
If you wish this can be signed and dedicated by the author at no extra cost.
For a limited time only, paperback sales are P&P free for UK purchasers.

It’s late June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland’s journey home from Malta is interrupted, first in London to hear Soviet claims of a German spy in Scotland and then by a shoot-out between US military units in Lancashire.

Having returned to Edinburgh, they remain only briefly before travelling with a Military Intelligence 11 team to Galloway to track down the spy. How best to catch a ghost who may already have uncovered vital military secrets? Can they find him before it’s too late?

When two Soviet agents arrive in Galloway to help, Bob and Monique need to work out the difference between friend and foe. Does the German spy exist, or is he a Soviet invention intended to lure MI11 into danger?

17/12/2025

When the past comes back to haunt you. ‘The Danger of Life’ is a fast-paced thriller set in Scotland during World War Two. It uses many real settings, transported eight decades back in time.

This modern image gives a glimpse of Achnacarry Castle in Lochaber. The castle was the focal point of the Commando Basic Training Centre during the war and much of the story is set here. After the war it returned to its role as the ancestral home of Clan Cameron.

Available as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple. Find out more:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-dol/index.html

It’s October 1942. Group Captain Robert Sutherland’s first week in charge of Military Intelligence 11's operations in Scotland and northern England is not going smoothly. His efforts to find out who is behind an attempt to steal an advanced reconnaissance aircraft from a military airfield in Fife have not been helped by the death of the would-be thief.

An unwanted complication comes via a telephone call from Monique Dubois in MI5 in London. An operation she’s been running in Glasgow has gone badly wrong and she wants him to intervene before it’s entirely compromised.

Worse still, an investigation into a murder at the Commando Basic Training Centre in the Highlands takes a grim turn and Bob is drawn in personally. In Lochaber, the present war intersects with another conflict that took place two centuries earlier: with deadly consequences.

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