The prize-winning author of Edinburgh Twilight returns to the darkening shadows of nineteenth-century Scotland to track a killer on a profane mission of revenge. A wicked Scottish winter has just begun when pioneering female physician Sophia Jex-Blake calls on Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton to investigate the suspicious death of one of her patients--a railroad lineman who she believes succumbed to the horrific effects of arsenic poisoning. The most provocative aspect of the case doesn't escape Hamilton: the married victim's numerous sexual transgressions. Now, for the first time since the unexplained fire that killed his parents, Hamilton enters the Royal Infirmary to gain the insights of brilliant medical student Arthur Conan Doyle. Then a second poisoning occurs--this time, a prominent banker who died in the bed of a prostitute. It appears that someone is making Edinburgh's more promiscuous citizens pay for their sins. As the body count rises and public panic takes hold, Hamilton and Doyle delve into the seedy underbelly of the city, where nothing is as it seems, no one is immune to murder, and even trusted friends can be enemies in disguise.

As a new century approaches, Edinburgh is a city divided. The wealthy residents of New Town live in comfort, while Old Town's cobblestone streets are clotted with criminals, prostitution, and poverty. Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton is no stranger to Edinburgh's darkest crimes. Scarred by the mysterious fire that killed his parents, he faces his toughest case yet when a young man is found strangled in Holyrood Park. With little evidence aside from a strange playing card found on the body, Hamilton engages the help of his aunt, a gifted photographer, and George Pearson, a librarian with a shared interest in the criminal mind. But the body count is rising. As newspapers spin tales of the "Holyrood Strangler," panic sets in across the city. And with each victim, the murderer is getting closer to Hamilton, the one man who dares to stop him.

The 306 trilogy is dedicated to the memory of the 306 British soldiers of the 1914-18 war who were shot at dawn, by their own side, for what was then called cowardice or desertion. This final play, The 306:Dusk, is set on November 11 2018 and considers the impact of the First World war on today's attitudes to and experiences of war. 2018. Armistice Day. A pregnant school teacher is haunted by the story of her grandfather's story of having to kill his deserter friend. On a school trip to the battlefields she goes AWOL in a wood whilst on this very personal mission of remembrance. An injured veteran of the Iraq war has yet to cope with the aftermath of killing, and still relives the nightmare of battle. A blindfolded soldier wakes up after 100 years to hear the birds singing once more... The 306: Dusk is a unique piece of music theatre about memory and forgetting, friendship and betrayal, exploring what the Great War means to us today. From the 2-minute silence at 11am to dusk that same day, three disparate characters, a string quartet and a choir of voices from the past and present show how our world is shaped by the war to end all wars. The play ends with a roll call of the first names of the 306 soldiers. It also includes extracts from the diary of Oliver Emanuel as he researched and created the 2018 production. The 306: Dusk was a National Theatre Scotland and Perth Theatre production, co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK's arts programme for the First World War centenary and is the concluding part of the 306 Trilogy, following 2016's premiere The 306: Dawn, and performances in 2017 of The 306: Day.

Old friends Carl and Mikey must say their farewells this evening as Mikey makes plans to leave the care home that has become their new stomping ground. Troll Face just wants to keep things running to time and Etienne is forced to see out his community service with two old geezers scrounging for fags. Shut away from a world where pensioners steal in order to feed themselves and dreaming of a youthspent in the dingy corner of a seedy club, two lifelong friends are forced to say their goodbyes. Whenmemory is fading and the past is clouded with a lifetime of drink and drugs, what is true and how to live is called into question. Laura Poliakoff's debut play is a powerful call-to-arms for a generation of twenty-year-olds not considering their own old age. How we care for our elderly, where we put them and the sacrifices that are made fuels this often comic yet touching play.

This is the second book in the continuing saga of the Baird family, following the ebbs and flows of its fortunes through the fears and uncertainties of the interwar years. The Great War is over, but peace brings little respite to the ongoing enmity felt by the protagonist, Iain Baird, towards his younger brother. He is determined to establish a relationship with his biological son, Eddie: the rest of the family, led by Eddie’s formidable grandmother, are resolved to prevent this at any cost. Set mainly in Scotland, the story alternates between Glasgow and Edinburgh, against a backdrop of industrial unrest and the threat of radical socialism in the 1920s, followed by the darkening clouds of fascism, fellow travellers and appeasement in the 1930s. Iain is heavily involved in the twists and turns of extremist politics, first in the fledgling Communist Party, then in the Independent Labour Party, before being induced to act as a double agent for Mosley's British Union of Fascists. He must steer a tricky path, serving two masters, playing off one against the other, if he is to achieve the status and recognition he craves.

"You don't just visit Edinburgh; you fall in love with the place." The best-selling author of Eccentric Britain takes you away from the obvious tartanalia and into Auld Reekie's hidden corners to find spooky stories, weird buildings, mad judges and strange customs. Benedict le Vay also asks the pressing questions that others avoid: Is the Scottish Parliament a monumental cock-up? Was the Stewart dynasty really useless? Should you eat deep-fried Mars Bars...?