Blood on the Thistle: Casebook of Twentieth Century Scottish Murder

Politics & Social Sciences

Skelton, Douglas

Social Sciences

HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd

Scotland's Most Wanted

Fort Publishing Ltd

Scotland is a country with a dark and bloody history, filled with characters who thought nothing of resorting to torture, murder, and treachery. More than a few of its ancient sites are steeped in tales of skullduggery and evil doings—castles and cairns, battle and burial grounds—each with a story to tell. Now, in Devil’s Gallop, Douglas Skelton bring Scotland’s dark past vividly to life. From dragons to dragoons, warlocks to warfare, he irreverently mixes fact with legend. Within these pages, you’ll find murderous monarchs, wicked witches, and nasty nobles. There are tales of cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers, religious fervor that led to bloody rebellion, and murder, abduction, and villainy. Laced with a liberal dose of gallows humor, Devil’s Gallop is an engrossing collection of ghastly tales.

Devil's Gallop: Trips Into Scotland's Dark and Bloody Past

History

Europe

Mainstream Publishing

<p>According to Peter's own account, his farm was attacked in 1754, during what became known as the French and Indian War, and he was captured by the Indians, who forced him to travel with them as a slave. After escaping, he joined the British Army to fight the French and their Indian allies but his regiment was forced to surrender and he was taken to Canada as a prisoner of war. Eventually, the POWs were exchanged for French prisoners and Peter found himself free. He made his way back to Scotland and tracked down the men who were behind his initial kidnapping, taking them to court in a landmark case that exposed the scandal of slave trading. Once settled in Edinburgh, Peter became a publican, writer, publisher, and entrepreneur. He developed Edinburgh's first Penny Post system, launched a weekly magazine, and shamelessly exploited his experiences for profit. A well-known figure, especially in the law courts, his 1788 divorce case scandalized the city—and provided further fodder for his autobiographical pen. Brimming with action and adventure, Indian Peter is a true-life tale of abduction, war, courtroom drama, and survival against the odds.</p>

Indian Peter: The Extraordinary Life and Adventures of Peter Williamson

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

According to Peter's own account, his farm was attacked in 1754, during what became known as the French and Indian War, and he was captured by the Indians, who forced him to travel with them as a slave. After escaping, he joined the British Army to fight the French and their Indian allies but his regiment was forced to surrender and he was taken to Canada as a prisoner of war. Eventually, the POWs were exchanged for French prisoners and Peter found himself free. He made his way back to Scotland and tracked down the men who were behind his initial kidnapping, taking them to court in a landmark case that exposed the scandal of slave trading. Once settled in Edinburgh, Peter became a publican, writer, publisher, and entrepreneur. He developed Edinburgh's first Penny Post system, launched a weekly magazine, and shamelessly exploited his experiences for profit. A well-known figure, especially in the law courts, his 1788 divorce case scandalized the city—and provided further fodder for his autobiographical pen. Brimming with action and adventure, Indian Peter is a true-life tale of abduction, war, courtroom drama, and survival against the odds.

The Old Tolbooth JailEdinburgh’s Bastillewas for five centuries the capital’s heart of darkness. The tall, turreted building blocked the High Street like a stone sentinel at the gates of Hell. In its early days, it played host to the Scottish Parliament and the Court of Session, but eventually it became the main jail of the Old Town. And it was a hellhole, the very epitome of what Scots Law called squalor carceris, a foul, dingy, plague-infested purgatory that was, nevertheless, an integral part of the history of the Old Town and the nation. Not for nothing did Sir Walter Scott dub it the Heart of Midlothian. It was home to rich and poor, noble and ignoble, master and servant. Thieves, debtors, murderers, and rebels all rotted in its filthy cellsmany spending their final hours there before surrendering to the tender mercies of an executioner to be hanged, beheaded, or burned. Now, for the first time, the complete story of the Old Tolbooth is told, from its proud beginnings to its final downfall at the hands of municipal vandals. Featuring tales of some of the jail’s unwilling residents, including the noblemen who had their heads spiked on its tower, the black magician who threatened a monarch, and one who scandalized the town with tales of sexual depravity, Dark Heart is the definitive account of one of the most interesting buildings in Edinburgh’s history.

Dark Heart: Tales from Edinburgh's Town Jail

<p>When reporter Rebecca Connolly is told of Roddie Drummond’s return to the island of Stoirm she senses a story. Fifteen years before he was charged with the murder of his lover, Mhairi. When he was found Not Proven, Roddie left the island and no one, apart from his sister, knew where he was or what he was doing.Now he has returned for his mother’s funeral – and it will spark an explosion of hatred, bitterness and violence.Defying her editor's wishes, Rebecca joins forces with local photographer Chazz Wymark to dig into the secrets surrounding Mhairi's death, and her mysterious last words of Thunder Bay, the secluded spot on the west coast of the island where, according to local lore, the souls of the dead set off into the after life.When another murder takes place, and the severe weather that gives the island its name hits, she is ideally placed to uncover the truth about what happened that night fifteen years before.</p>

Thunder Bay

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Polygon

Blood Is Still

The Hollow Mountain: A Rebecca Connolly Thriller (The Rebecca Connolly Thrillers)

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Blood on the Thistle: A Casebook of Twentieth Century Scottish Murder

Mainstream Pub Co Ltd

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