Arachnid Press, 91 Columbia Avenue, Livingston (2026)

13/01/2026

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 two central characters spend a night at Bunchrew House Hotel as their investigation gathers pace. This classically charming Scottish mansion stands on the southern shore of the Beauly Firth some three miles west of the centre of Inverness.

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.

12/01/2026

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 the harbour at Garlieston in Galloway. Much has changed here since 1943, when it served as the location of trials of temporary harbours intended for use in an invasion of Europe.

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?

11/01/2026

A city at peace in a world at war. ‘The Stockholm Run’ is a fast-paced thriller set in Scotland and Sweden during World War Two. It uses many real settings, transported eight decades back in time.

During the war Dundas Castle, just to the south of Queensferry, was taken over by the RAF and became the headquarters of a barrage balloon squadron defending the Firth of Forth against enemy bombers. It is given a central role in the early part of the novel.

Find out more and buy the eBook as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-tsr/index.html
Buy the paperback edition here:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-tsr/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 March 1943. The death of an intruder reveals a hidden military bunker at Dundas Castle near Edinburgh, a living relic of an anti-invasion scheme from earlier in the war. Bob Sutherland and the Military Intelligence 11 team follow a trail that leads to a much larger secret, buried beneath Edinburgh Castle.

As the mystery in Edinburgh unravels, Bob Sutherland and Monique Dubois are sent to Stockholm, a city supposedly at peace in a world at war. There they are to take delivery of a message of critical national importance.

Or is it all a carefully crafted trap? Both encounter ghosts from the past in Sweden. Can their relationship survive what they uncover? Will they live long enough for that to matter?

10/01/2026

How far would you go to right a wrong? ‘The House With 46 Chimneys’ is a spooky adventure story for younger readers involving a two-century-old family mystery and the haunting of Dunmore Park, a ruined house in central Scotland.

This is a view of the ruins of Dunmore Park from the rear, showing many of the surviving chimneys that give the book its title. This is the first view the central characters have of the house, before they begin to uncover its secrets.

Available as a paperback, Kindle, Kobo or Apple. Find out more on our website:
https://www.arachnid.scot/book-h46c/index.html

Life changes dramatically for Kaleb, Jude and Sequoia when they move to live with their aunt in a rural corner of central Scotland. But then life is changing dramatically for everyone. It’s the beginning of April 2020, the early days of the coronavirus lockdown. The roads are nearly empty of cars and the blue skies almost clear of aeroplanes.

Three local children they meet – in a socially distanced way – draw them into a two-century-old family mystery involving the haunting of the nearby ruins of Dunmore Park, 'The House With 46 Chimneys'. As the book builds to its climax, the children are faced with a decision. Do they try to right a wrong that was done in 1828, a wrong that has had consequences ever since? Or is doing so simply too dangerous?

09/01/2026

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 Whithorn in Galloway, which is briefly visited by one of the central characters as the hunt for a spy gathers pace.

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?

08/01/2026

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

Dunnet Head is the most northerly point in mainland Britain and offers magnificent views across the Pentland Firth to Orkney. It is visited by the two central characters as the story builds towards its climax.

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.

07/01/2026

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.

The magnificent beach at Oldshoremore on the west coast of Sutherland is visited by the book’s central characters as the story develops.

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?

06/01/2026

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.

The spooky Cruggleton Church near Garlieston in Galloway is visited by the book’s two 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?

05/01/2026

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 Bishop’s Palace in Kirkwall, which dates back in part to the 1150s. It had already been a ruin for centuries by November 1942, when it has a small but important role as ‘Bloody Orkney’ reaches its climax.

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.

04/01/2026

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 bridge crossing the mouth of Loch Long at Dornie. When two of the book’s characters arrive here in 1943, they cross an older bridge, then only recently completed to replace a ferry.

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?

03/01/2026

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 the village of Castlebay on the Isle of Barra. It is visited by the two central characters at the end of the book.

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?

02/01/2026

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, found on a tidal island near Drumbeg on the Assynt coastal road, plays an important part in the novel as the story develops. The image shown here is highly edited and adds a castle borrowed from further south on the west coast to a real island at Culkein Drumbeg.

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.

Arachnid Press

13/01/2026

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