A grisly murder. A vanishing corpse. A secret romance. A ghostly tale. An innocent accused. Set in the year of the Armada, 1588: A Calendar of Crime brings together five short stories featuring Hew Cullan. From the gruesome murder of a candlemaker to Spanish ghosts on Hallowmas, Shirley McKay delivers five gripping tales of mystery that will keep you reading long into the night.

1581, Edinburgh. Running from his new responsibilities as head of the family in St Andrews, young lawyer Hew Cullan arrives in the vibrant capital of medieval Scotland. There he plans to publish his late father's book and quietly endure the completion of his legal training under an old family friend. Life in the whirl of Edinburgh is full of dangers and distractions for Hew. Beautiful women, fashionable living and the treacherous world of the law threaten to turn his head. But a brutal murder and hints of a long-hidden mystery draw him into a deadly game against an unrepentant foe. When the game is murder, can Hew Cullan play to win? Fate & Fortune is the second Hew Cullan mystery by Shirley McKay.

Lammas is the third instalment of 1588: A Calendar of Crime, a collection of short stories published in step with the sixteenth century calendar. Lammas day, a day of celebration for some. Elspet, a serving girl at the harbour inn has been told for years by the inn's owner, Walter Bone, that she is ugly and that no man will ever want her. Then, after years of being shut away from the world she unexpectedly catches the attention of a young labourer and realises she has been lied to all these years. She meets her lover in secret at the Lammas day fair, but her dalliances do not go unnoticed . . . Hew Cullan finds himself retained by a man with a mind for murder. Walter Bone makes clear his intent to kill Elspet's lover, and seeks Hew's help to ensure his will is upheld when he is inevitably hanged for the act. But his jealousy has unexpected consequences. When Elspet disappears without a trace several innocent fair-goers and patrons are dragged into a web of suspicion, rumour and accusation. It falls to Hew to unravel the twisted threads and figure out the truth of the matter.

Candlemas is the first instalment of 1588: A Calendar of Crime, a collection of short stories published in step with the sixteenth century calendar. On Candlemas eve an apprentice candle maker finds his master, John Blair, dead in his workshop, and the evidence points to the surgeon Sam Sturrock. Enlisted by Sturrock's desperate apprentice, Hew Cullan, together with his friend and physician Giles Locke, finds himself drawn into the investigation to uncover the truth of the matter. At first it seems like Blair's death is the result of reckless surgical practice, but as Hew delves deeper into the life of the candle maker he discovers a web of extortion. It seems John Blair was a man with many enemies ...

Martinmas is the fourth instalment of 1588: A Calendar of Crime, a collection of short stories published in step with the sixteenth century calendar. In St Salvator's college at the start of the academic year a young student claims that he has seen the ghost of a Spanish soldier. Giles and Hew dismiss this as the fevered product of a wild imagination; the students are unsettled by a spate of violent storms, and fears of the apocalypse readily resurge. In the close confines of college, they can be contained. But when a merchant dies, on the feast of St Martin known as 'killing time', with the words 'dead Spaniard' the last upon his lips, the terror of the students spills out to the streets, and Hew is called upon to rid the town of ghosts.

Yule is the fifth instalment of 1588: A Calendar of Crime, a collection of short stories published in step with the sixteenth century calendar. Despite prohibitions on celebrating Yule, the old traditions still persist among the tenant farmers on Hew's estate at Kenly Green. Hew defends a tenant against both Kirk and Crown when a violent accident befalls an unwelcome guest who has turned up uninvited to the feast.