The Darkest Road, RMT475B

Glasgow, the Hebrides, Edinburgh: each territory has its own shade of dark, and each carries a past that refuses to stay buried. In 1972, a dead lawyer's enemies threaten to ignite the whole city. On a Hebridean shore, a man without a past follows a road named for burial. In Edinburgh, a detective carries personal wounds through a case that should have simple answers and has none. These novels know that in Scotland, the landscape remembers. Ian Rankin & William McIlvanney, The Dark Remains – Glasgow, 1972: DC Laidlaw investigates a lawyer's murder before two rival gangs turn a crime into a catastrophe. Ian Rankin, A Question of Blood – Rebus investigates a school shooting by an ex-Army loner and finds the killer's logic uncomfortably close to something he recognises. Peter May, Coffin Road – A man with no memory washes up on a Hebridean island and follows a map named for the dead.