E is for Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin
You can read the blurb at Ian Rankin’s website and purchase directly through his website as well.
I recently bought the hardcover of this title and can’t wait to curl up with it.
All posts by Melanie
National Tartan Day
NATIONAL TARTAN DAY
Well, it’s not exactly tartan but it is colourful and it’s the colours in my family’s tartan ~ Robertson.
Tartan Day is a celebration of Scots and their descendants. Dancing, parades, pipe bands, athletic competitions take place at various venues around the world.
Wha’s like us? Damn few, and they’re a’ deid!
D is for Dead Wood #AtoZChallenge
D is for Dead Wood by Chris Longmuir
Blurb: (from Goodreads) Award winning crime novel set in Dundee, Scotland, A mystery and detective story which is a combination of police procedural, and woman in jeopardy. Book 2 of The Dundee Crime Series, with the popular DS Bill Murphy.
Kara owes money to Dundee gangster Tony and takes to the streets to earn the cash. She narrowly escapes the clutches of a killer on the prowl, but stumbles across the bodies of his other victims. Hunted by the serial killer and the gangsters, Kara goes on the run.
DS Bill Murphy teams up with newcomer, DC Louise Walker in the murder investigation. But Murphy is heading for a breakdown and it is up to Louise to catch the killer.
One of the murder victims is the daughter of Dundee gangster, Tony, and he vows revenge. He is determined to mete out his own kind of justice to the killer.
Who will find the killer first? Tony or the police. And what will happen to Kara? In the end what kind of justice will prevail?
Buy Links
Dundee International Book Prize winner 2009
Chris Longmuir is an award winning novelist. Her previous crime novels have won the Pitlochry Award, and the Dundee International Book Prize.
C is for Cauldstane #AtoZChallenge
C is for Cauldstane by Linda Gillard
I love this cover! And if you’ve seen my posts about “I see faces”, I’m happy to say, I found one here, too!
Blurb: (from Goodreads) When ghostwriter Jenny Ryan is summoned to the Scottish Highlands by Sholto MacNab – retired adventurer and Laird of Cauldstane Castle – she’s prepared for travellers’ tales, but not the MacNabs’ violent and tragic history.
Lust, betrayal and murder have blighted family fortunes for generations, together with an ancient curse. As members of the family confide their sins and their secrets, Jenny learns why Cauldstane’s uncertain future divides father and sons.
But someone resents Jenny’s presence. Someone thinks she’s getting too close to Alec MacNab – swordsmith, widower and heir to Cauldstane. Someone will stop at nothing until Jenny has been driven away. Or driven mad.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Especially a dead woman.
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And the #CONTEST winner is!!!
And the Winner is…
Before I announce the winning title, I want to thank everyone who entered. In the end, I received over 100 submissions! WOW!!! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get such a fantastic response.
Here are the suggestions I received from the 26 contest entrants…
The Mystery of Hillcrest House
The Angel Falls Mystery
The Haunting of Hillcrest House
The Haunting Hargraves
Hand of The Hargraves
Caveat Emptor
Visions at the Hillcrest House
Haunted Hillcrest House
Haunted House— Hillcrest
Haunted Angel Falls– Mystery of Hillcrest House
A Walk with the dead
Shadows in the Hillcrest House
Gates of Hell
Screaming Souls
Screaming Souls at Hillcrest House
Midnight Mist
Fallen Angels
Silent Screams
Hargraves on the Hill
Haunted Souls Angel Falls
Mystery of Angel Falls
Angel Falls Haunting
Hillcrest Haunting
Hillcreast haunting
Scotland’s Eerie Hillcreast mansion
Hillcreast, help my kilt!
Echoes from the Past
Secrets of Hillcrest House
Beware of Hillcrest House
Devils at Angel Falls
Demons at Angel Falls
Secrets of Hillcrest House
Shadows at Hillcrest House
The Taming of Hillcrest House
Imprisoned at Hillcrest
The Souls of Hillcrest
The Lost Souls of Hillcrest
Lost Souls at Hillcrest
Unspoken Secrets of/at Hillcrest House
Unspoken Secrets
The Lingering’s
All that Remains or The Remains
The secret of Hillcrest House
Mystery in Angel Falls
Secrets of (from) the past
Whispers from the past
Lost in the future
Alone in the past
Victorian’s Secret
When Angels Fall
The Moon in Hillcrest House
The Deafening Silence of Angel Falls
Haunting Horrors of the House on the Hill
Hillcrest House of Horror
Portal to the Spirit World
Horror Halls
Look Over Your Shoulder
The Haunting Beauty of Hillcrest House
The House of Fear and Beauty
The Hillcrest House Haunting
The Haunting of Hillcrest House
The Haunted House of Angel Falls
Full Moon Gothic
A Rose for Jessica
What Lies Unknown
The Secret of Hillcrest House
The Mystery of Hillcrest House
The Haunting of Hillcrest House
Souls in Waiting
A Past Unearthed
A Past Reclaimed
Jessica’s Folly
The Hargrave Factor
The Haunting of Jessica Maitland
The Hargraves of Hillcrest House
Cliffside Manor
House of the Silver Moon
Jessica’s Dream/Nightmare House
Ghosts of Hillcrest Mansion
A Home Forever
Passage Way of Secrets
Unknown Messages
Hargrave Affair
Hargrave Encounter
Hillcrest Encounter
Fallen Angels Trapped on a Cliff
Fallen Angels in Hillcrest House
Maitland; The Reckoner
Cliff Dwelling Interlopers
Jessica’s Jaunt with Hillcrest
Unwilling Tenants of Hillcrest House
Unholy Occupation of Hillcrest
Unwilling Entrapment at Hillcrest
Hillcrest Manor
The Haunting of Hillcrest
Haunted Hillcrest
We Will Never Leave!
Beyond these Walls
The Ominous Fortress of Hillcrest House
The Ominous Fortress
An Ominous Dynasty
The Chronicles of Hillcrest Place
Unnerving Truth of Hillcrest House
The Unnerving Truth
Here Forever
Moonlight Seduction
Moonlight Desires
Haunted Desires of Hillcrest House
The Seduction of Hillcrest House
And now without any further delay … the grand prize winner (selected by titles received in chronological order) is Greta Krasteva with her title The Secret of Hillcrest House. Congratulations, Greta!
And the random winner among the remaining entrants is Jennifer Rogers!
I will contact you to find out your preferred e-book format (mobi for Kindle, epub for other ereaders, or .pdf).
If it’s April 3rd, it must be Tweed Day #NationalTweedDay
TWEED DAY
Are you wearing your tweed today? Or do you believe it signifies something else? Take a look at this link for variations on Tweed Day. You’ll find out, too, what fictional characters preferred to wear garments made from tweed.
B is for Bagpipes and Bullshot #AtoZChallenge
B is for Bagpipes and Bullshot by Janice Horton
Blurb: (from goodreads) When Innes Buchanan inherits the title of Laird, he is entrusted with the Scottish family estate, the ancestral home, and centuries of noble tradition. Sadly, he also inherits the family bank balance which, after death duty, is crumbling faster than the walls of their ancient castle.
After exhausting even the most unlikely of cash generating alternatives and with bankruptcy on the horizon, Innes stumbles across one last initiative, a research scholarship in Texas to establish a new herd of cattle. With a lifetime of sheep farming and no room for failure, Innes’s luck returns on a chance encounter with Orley MacKenna, a born and raised Texan cowgirl who needs little convincing to leave her past behind. Though a likely couple, the two settle for an unlikely business partnership, and return to Scotland to try and save the Buchanan fortune.
Told with timeless Scottish romanticism and a knowing sense of humour, Bagpipes and Bullshot twists an everyday love story with a whole cast of village eccentrics who integrate seamlessly into a fantastic play on rural life.
Buy links:
A is for Animal Farm #AtoZChallenge
A is for Animal Farm by George Orwell
Blurb: (from amazon.com): Animal Farm is the most famous by far of all twentieth-century political allegories. Its account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind, can fairly be said to have become a universal drama. Orwell is one of the very few modern satirists comparable to Jonathan Swift in power, artistry, and moral authority; in animal farm his spare prose and the logic of his dark comedy brilliantly highlight his stark message.
Taking as his starting point the betrayed promise of the Russian Revolution, Orwell lays out a vision that, in its bitter wisdom, gives us the clearest understanding we possess of the possible consequences of our social and political acts.
You buy Animal Farm at amazon.com
Theme Reveal… the #AtoZChallenge starts tomorrow…
THEME REVEAL
Drum roll, please… I’m ready to reveal my theme for this year’s Blogging from A to Z Challenge.
Are you ready? What else would a writer blog about during a challenge such as this? How about books? Yup, I’ve put together an eclectic collection of book titles that take in every letter of the alphabet.
I hope you’ll stop by every day next month to see what book I’ve spotlighted. Some are well known… some not so well. Maybe you’ll even find a title or two that you’ve not heard about and you’ll want to read.
See you in April!
There’s still time to enter! #CONTEST ~ Help me choose a title… you could win…
My Title #Contest
There’s still time to enter in the Help me choose a title #Contest. Don’t be disappointed. Enter between now and midnight March 31, 2016, Eastern Time.
Fancy your title on the cover of a book, your name mentioned in the acknowledgements? It could happen! For the month of March, I’m running a book title cover contest.
Not to worry, I am giving you some help starting with the image that will grace the cover. Are the creative juices starting to flow?
Here’s what the book is about…
Sometimes there’s more to a house than bricks and mortar.
Hillcrest House is one such place. Perched on a cliff in the picturesque town of Angel Falls, there is more to this Victorian mansion than meets the eye. When referring to the house, the locals use the word haunted on a regular basis. Strange visions appear in the windows, especially the second-floor ones over the side porch. Even stranger events take place within its four walls.
Rumour has it, the original owners, Asher and Maggie Hargrave, never left their beloved home. They claim the couple and their family are responsible for driving people away. Over the years, Hillcrest House has changed hands numerous times. No one stays long. Renovations begin then stop and the house is once more abandoned. The latest in this long line of owners is Jessica Maitland.
Will Jessica be the next one to succumb or will she unravel the mystery of the haunting of Hillcrest House?
How about now?
How does it all work, I hear you ask.
Contest details…
Contest opens March 1, 2016 and runs until March 31, 2016.
Come up with a title and leave your idea in the comments. And for those of you who would like to take your chances but aren’t comfortable leaving a comment on a blog, send an email to Title Contest.
At the end of the contest, one lucky entrant’s title will be chosen. He/she will receive an e-copy of the book (Mobi, epub or pdf – their choice) and their name included in the acknowledgements.
Another winner will be chosen at random from the non-winning titles.
Enter as many times as you like but be sure you do before the deadline for your chance to win.
Good luck!