Scottish Viking

'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail An ancient grave. A modern evil. The Dead and the Dying is a pulse-pounding instalment in the Rhona MacLeod series, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness. In the dim morning light, Orkney’s...

Two lost souls forge something beautiful from something broken. Rachel Ingram is living the dream. Heiress to billions, she’s engaged to the perfect man. But with the sudden death of her parents, her world begins to crumble.... Evander Talorc is living a nightmare. Traitor to his clan of immortal highlanders, he lives alone in a remote cottage. Abandoned and forgotten, Rachel and Evander find each other. But the rest of the world will not let them be.

The Strongbow Saga is an epic tale of one man's unstoppable quest for justice and vengeance that carries him across the ninth century world of the Vikings. In Viking Warrior, Book One of the saga, a cruel twist of fate both frees Halfdan and robs him of the mother he loves, setting him upon the path to a new destiny. But a brutal act of treachery and murder upends Halfdan's new life, sending him on the run with ruthless hunters hot on his trail.

The ubiquitous picture of the Vikings as horn-helmeted, brutish, hairy giants that mercilessly marauded among the settlements of Northern Europe is based on a smattering of facts combined with an abundance of prejudicial historical writing by those who were on the receiving end of Viking depredations. At the same time, much of the popular picture of the Vikings is a result of the romantic imagination of novelists and artists. However, the Vikings' reputation for ferocious seaborne attacks along the coasts of Northern Europe is no exaggeration.

Merrik Haraldsson, the younger brother of Rorik, the Lord of Hawkfell Island, embarks on a journey that begins in Kiev where he comes away with two slaves - Laren and her younger brother. Laren wants to tell stories to earn enough silver and gold to buy her and her little brother from Merik, only he refuses to sell her. And now that she's his, he must protect her when she's accused of murder, then save her yet again when he discovers her secrets.

This is an excellent introduction to the history of this often misunderstood time. Although it is a story written in broad strokes, of an extremely complicated period, particularly in the development of Britain, the author has peppered it with some fascinating details of the people and the events of the time.

Dinner Is Ruined: Unruly Rants from a Scottish Kitchen is a collection of 20 comedic eruptions by our man with the Olivetti and the steak knife, Nielsen Dinwoodie. He covers the nonsenses of food and drink culture, how we shouldn’t shop, could all cook better–and why the very best arguments always happen in the kitchen.