Arachnid Press, 91 Columbia Avenue, Livingston (2025)

20/08/2025

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.

This modern photograph shows the Balmoral Hotel, which is a familiar sight in Edinburgh today. Until a few decades ago it was called the North British Hotel and it plays a cameo role in ‘Bloody Orkney’ when, in November 1942, Bob and Monique spend an idyllic weekend here between visits to Orkney.

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.

19/08/2025

Just published! 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 Loch Ryan lighthouse. During the war this was the focal point of the huge military port built at Cairnryan in case traditional ports on the Clyde or Mersey were destroyed by enemy bombing. Cairnryan 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?

18/08/2025

Just published! 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 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?

17/08/2025

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.

This modern image shows the Magistral Palace in Fort St Angelo. The fort stands guard over the Grand Harbour and was the Royal Navy’s wartime headquarters in Malta. The Magistral Palace is visited by the two central characters 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-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.

16/08/2025

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

The fictional Culkein Drumbeg Castle is located on a tidal island near Drumbeg on the Assynt coastal road and plays an important part in the book as the story builds towards its climax. Physically the castle is closely based on the real Castle Tioram, a hundred miles to the south-west. Here we see its interior.

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.

15/08/2025

Just published! 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?

14/08/2025

Just published! 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?

13/08/2025

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 Eilean Donan Castle near Dornie on Loch Duich. The castle has a background role in the story as it builds towards its climax.

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.

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 adversary 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?

12/08/2025

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.

Beyond the western end of Loch Arkaig are the remains of Tigh nan Saighdearan, 'The Soldiers' House', which was one of a number of small barracks built immediately following the Jacobite uprising of 1745-6. A pivotal event in the manhunt at the heart of the story takes place here.

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.

11/08/2025

Just published! 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 Harbour Inn in Garlieston. At the time the book is set, in 1943, it was known as the Galloway Arms Hotel and is visited by several of the characters in search of food and drink.

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?

10/08/2025

Just published! 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 part of Cairnryan in Galloway. The village has an important part to play in the book as the search 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?

09/08/2025

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.

This modern image shows Fort George, on the south shore of the Moray Firth, north-east of Inverness. The central characters arrive here in bizarre circumstances before recruiting help and heading north again.

Berriedale, on the east coast of Caithness, close to where the Berriedale Water flows into the sea. This is where Bob Sutherland’s search for answers reaches its dramatic conclusion.

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.

Arachnid Press

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