books tagged “scotland”

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Black and Blue
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0312966776 (0-312-96677-6)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
"I'm a peeper, he thought, a voyeur. All cops are. But he knew he was more than that: he liked to get involved in the lives around him. He had a need to know which went beyond voyeurism. It was a drug. And the thing was, when he had all this knowledge, he then had to use booze to blank it out..." In his ninth outing, Edinburgh's glowering and tenacious Inspector John Rebus finds a unique way of cutting back on alcohol. Convinced that Rebus might lie or try to destroy evidence in the reopened case of a man convicted of a murder he probably didn't commit, the investigating officer assigns him a babysitter. Luckily, the minder is one of Rebus's old mentors, Jack Morton, a former drinking buddy now waging a successful battle against the bottle. Rebus and Morton burn off energy and anger repainting Rebus's apartment, while trying to clear Rebus's name and exploring the connection between a recent string of murders and a real-life Scottish serial killer of the 1970s known as Bible John. The cases take Rebus to Aberdeen and an oil platform in the North Atlantic, but as usual the main action happens within the mind and soul of Rankin's meticulously crafted creation. Previous entries in the memorable Rebus series are also available, including Let It Bleed, Hide and Seek, Knots and Crosses, Mortal Causes, and Tooth and Nail. [via]
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The Black Book
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 1883402778 (1-883402-77-8)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster

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- The Black Book: ISBN 1883402778 (1-883402-77-8)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
The Black Book 1993-1994: The Guide for the Erotic Explorer
by Bill Brent

ISBN 0963740113 (0-9637401-1-3)
Hardcover, Asp Wholesale

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More editions of The Black Book 1993-1994: The Guide for the Erotic Explorer:
- The Black Book 1993-1994: The Guide for the Erotic Explorer: ISBN 0963740113 (0-9637401-1-3)
  Hardcover, Asp Wholesale
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Checkmate
by Dorothy Dunnett

ISBN 0679777482 (0-679-77748-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
The grand finale to Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, "Checkmate" finds Francis Crawford returning to France to lead an army against England. But even as the soldier-scholar succeeds brilliantly on the battlefield, his haunted past becomes a subject of intense interest to forces in both the French and English courts. "Checkmate" is a masterly evocation of the intrigue and pageantry of sixteenth-century Europe--and a triumphant conclusion to the Lymond saga. 1 map. [via]
More editions of Checkmate:
- Checkmate: ISBN 0899663192 (0-89966-319-2)
  Hardcover, Buccaneer Books
- Checkmate: ISBN 0679777482 (0-679-77748-2)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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Clans and Tartans
by Collins Celtic Staff

ISBN 0004589580 (0-00-458958-0)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited

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Book summary:
Tartans are synonymous with Scotland and for many Scots, both at home and abroad, they are recognized and acknowledged as symbols of clan kinship. This book is abridged from Robert Bain's "The Clans and Tartans of Scotland" and contains over 100 of Scotland's most famous clans providing details of their crests, mottoes and often turbulent history. Also included are the correct tartans worn by the holder of a particular clan of a family name, a clan map of Scotland, and a helpful list of sources for those wishing to pursue their clan or family history further. [via]
More editions of Clans and Tartans:
- Clans and Tartans: ISBN 0004589580 (0-00-458958-0)
  Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
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The Clans and Tartans of Scotland
by Robert Bain

ISBN 0004111176 (0-00-411117-6)
Hardcover, Book Sales

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Book summary:
This lovely book speaks of Scottish clans, Clan and Family names, Personal names in English and Gaelic, outstanding dates in Scottish and clan history, and contains a clan and family map of South Scotland, many many bright color pictures through out the book. [via]
More editions of The Clans and Tartans of Scotland:
- The Clans and Tartans of Scotland: ISBN 0004111184 (0-00-411118-4)
  Hardcover, Collins
- The Clans and Tartans of Scotland: ISBN 0004111176 (0-00-411117-6)
  Hardcover, Book Sales
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Complicity
by Iain Banks

ISBN 0743200187 (0-7432-0018-7)
Softcover, Scribner

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Book summary:
Living for his vices, the greatest of which involves writing front-page bylines, journalist Cameron Colley receives information about a high-stakes conspiracy from an anonymous source, until the men he exposes suddenly begin to die. Reprint. NYT. [via]
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A Concise History of Scotland
by Fitzroy MacLean

ISBN 0500272247 (0-500-27224-7)
Softcover, Thames and Hudson

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Book summary:
Softcover 7 x 9 inches, 239 pages. History of Scotland, many illustrations. Index. [via]
More editions of A Concise History of Scotland:
- A Concise History of Scotland: ISBN 0500272247 (0-500-27224-7)
  Softcover, Thames and Hudson
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The Crow Road
by Iain Banks

ISBN 0349103232 (0-349-10323-2)
Hardcover, Abacus

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Book summary:
TV trade edition paperback, fine in specially printed TV dw (fine (as new)) [via]
More editions of The Crow Road:
- The Crow Road: ISBN 0349109079 (0-349-10907-9)
  Hardcover, Abacus
- The Crow Road: ISBN 0349103232 (0-349-10323-2)
  Hardcover, Abacus
Disorderly Knights
by Dorothy Dunnett

ISBN 0679777458 (0-679-77745-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
The third volume in The Lymond Chronicles, the highly renowned series of historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett, Disorderly Knights takes place in 1551, when Francis Crawford of Lymond is dispatched to embattled Malta, to assist the Knights of Hospitallers in defending the island against the Turks. But shortly the swordsman and scholar discovers that the greatest threat to the Knights lies within their own ranks, where various factions vie secretly for master. [via]
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The Falls
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0312982402 (0-312-98240-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
Ian Rankin's John Rebus, arguably the most realistic detective in crime fiction, is a brilliant but troubled man. When a young woman goes missing near his native Edinburgh, Scotland, Rebus finds himself just one small cog in the huge wheel of an inquiry set in motion by her powerfully rich father. Struggling to deal with both his own often-terrifying inner demons as well as the monstrous bureaucracy of the investigative team, Rebus finds himself drawn again and again into the case, desperately searching for the girl's salvation, as well as his own.

In time Rebus uncovers two leads: one, a carved wooden doll stuffed tightly into a tiny casket, and the other the missing girl's possible involvement in a dark, disturbing Internet-based role-playing game. He enlists the help of the tech-savvy DC Siobhan Clarke, who is young enough to know her way around the net, but who may not be old and wise enough to avoid potentially deadly pitfalls and traps. Meanwhile, Rebus tracks down stories of similar caskets and dolls turning up in the area deep into Edinburgh's past, some stretching back to a time when body-snatchers turned into brutal killers.

As Rebus and Clarke delve deeper and deeper into these perilous and obscure worlds, ancient and modern evils begin to converge and soon Rebus finds he's besieged by an impenetrable mass of secrets, lies, and deadly deceit that only he can make sense of. In The Falls, a brilliant addition to an award-winning series, both John Rebus and his creator, Ian Rankin, are at the top of their intense and satisfying form.
[via]
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Fleshmarket Alley: An Inspector Rebus Novel
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0316010405 (0-316-01040-5)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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On a notorious street where propriety and decadence clash, in the basement of a newly renovated bar, the bones of a woman and child are discovered beneath a cement floor. It's an unusually gruesome find, even for Fleshmarket Alley. When Inspector John Rebus is called to investigate, every fact he finds unleashes a host of new questions. Are the bones those of a mother and child? Are they actual human remains or fakes? Were they planted there - and if so, why?It could be nothing more than a ruthless and enterprising pub owner looking to create a local legend that will help lure trade. Or it could be something far worse - something as grisly as the death of a recent immigrant found brutally murdered at a local housing project, or the murder of Donald Cruikshank, a recently paroled rapist whose body is found just as a young woman goes missing. The missing girl is a friend of Inspector Rebus's colleague Detective Siobhan Clarke, and Siobhan is shocked to find herself in the same intricate web of murderers as Rebus - all somehow tied to that pile of bones under Fleshmarket Alley.In a race to stop the killings before more bodies turn up - even as the possibility of romantic entanglements distracts and entices them - Rebus and Siobhan plumb the darkest corners of their beloved city and confront the lawless, conscienceless men who dwell there. Writing with the unstoppable narrative force that has made him one of the bestselling writers in the world, Edgar Award-winner Ian Rankin delivers his most explosive and surprising mystery yet. [via]
More editions of Fleshmarket Alley: An Inspector Rebus Novel:
- Fleshmarket Alley: An Inspector Rebus Novel: ISBN 0316095656 (0-316-09565-6)
  Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
- Fleshmarket Alley: An Inspector Rebus Novel: ISBN 0316010405 (0-316-01040-5)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate: The Sunday Philosophy Club
by Alexander McCall Smith

ISBN 1400077109 (1-4000-7710-9)
Softcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc

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Book summary:
The delightful second installment in Alexander McCall Smiths already hugely popular new detective series, The Sunday Philosophy Club, starring the irrepressibly curious Isabel Dalhousie editor of the Journal of Applied Ethics and her no-nonsense housekeeper, Grace.

When Isabels niece, Cat, asks Isabel to run her delicatessen while she attends a wedding in Italy, Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem. He recently had a heart transplant, and is suddenly plagued with memories of events that never happened to him. The situation appeals to Isabel as a philosophical question. Is the heart truly the seat of the soul? And it piques her insatiable curiosity: could the memories be connected with the donors demise? Grace, of course, thinks it is none of Isabels business. Add to the mix the lothario Cat brings home from the wedding in Italy, who, in accordance with all that Isabel knows about lotharios, shouldnt be trusted . . . but goodness, he is charming.

That makes two mysteries of the heart to be solved just the thing for Isabel Dalhousie. [via]
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The Hanging Garden
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0312969139 (0-312-96913-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
Ian Rankin's ninth book about Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh police is so full of story that it seems about to explode into shapeless anarchy at any moment. What keeps it from doing so is Rankin's strong heart and even stronger writing skills. When a Bosnian prostitute refuses to testify against a crime boss who has threatened her family, he says this about the cops trying to pressure her: "Silence in the room. They were all looking at her. Four men, men with jobs, family ties, men with lives of their own. In the scheme of things, they seldom realised how well off they were. And now they realised something else: how helpless they were."
Rebus is trying to help the young woman--renamed Candice by the young, slick, brutal thug Tommy Telford, who is into everything from drugs and prostitution to aiding a Japanese business syndicate in acquiring a local golf course--because she's about the same age and physical aspect as his own daughter, Sammy. He's also conducting the investigation of a suspected Nazi war criminal, an old man who spends his time tending graves in Warriston cemetery. "A cemetery should have been about death, but Warriston didn't feel that way to Rebus. Much of it resembled a rambling park into which some statuary had been dropped," Rankin writes with the icy clarity of cold water over stone.
Add to this Rebus's involvement with an imprisoned crime boss in a plan to bring Telford down; his continuing battle with drink; the strong possibility that people high up in the British government don't want the old Nazi exposed; danger to Sammy and her journalist lover because of her father's work; and a somewhat strained metaphor of Edinburgh as a new Babylon and you have an admittedly large pot of stew. But Rankin's high art keeps it all bubbling and rich with flavor. Others in the Rebus series include his 1997 Edgar Award-nominated Black and Blue, as well as Hide and Seek, Knots and Crosses, Let It Bleed, Mortal Causes, Strip Jack, and Tooth and Nail. --Dick Adler [via]
More editions of The Hanging Garden:
- The Hanging Garden: ISBN 0312192789 (0-312-19278-9)
  Hardcover, St Martins Pr
- The Hanging Garden: ISBN 0312969139 (0-312-96913-9)
  Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Hide and Seek
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 1883402743 (1-883402-74-3)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
At night the summer sky stays light over Edinburgh. But in a shadowy, crumbling housing development, a junkie lies dead of an overdose, his bruised body surrounded by signs of Satanic worship. John Rebus could call the death and accident--but won't. Instead, he tracks down a violent-tempered young woman who knew the dead boy and heard him cry out his terrifyng last words: "Hide! Hide!" Now, with the help of a bright, conflicted young detective, Rebus is following the girl through a brutal world of bad deals, bad dope and bad company. From a beautiful city's darkest side to the private sanctums of the upper crust, Rebus is seeking the perfect hiding place for a killer.
[via]
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King Hereafter
by Dorothy Dunnett

ISBN 0848812999 (0-8488-1299-9)
Hardcover, Amereon Ltd

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- King Hereafter: ISBN 0848812999 (0-8488-1299-9)
  Hardcover, Amereon Ltd
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Knots and Crosses
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0312956738 (0-312-95673-8)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
Detective John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders...and he's tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood. Once John Rebus served in Britain's elite SAS. Now he's an Edinburgh cop who hides from his memories, misses promotions and ignores a series of crank letters. But as the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Because he isn't just one cop trying to catch a killer, he's the man who's got all the pieces to the puzzle...

Knots and Crosses introduces a gifted mystery novelist, a fascinating locale and the most compellingly complex detective hero at work today.
[via]
More editions of Knots and Crosses:
- Knots and Crosses: ISBN 0385243073 (0-385-24307-3)
  Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
- Knots and Crosses: ISBN 0312956738 (0-312-95673-8)
  Softcover, St Martins Pr
Lanark
by Alasdair Gray, Janice Galloway

ISBN 1841951838 (1-84195-183-8)
Softcover, Canongate Books Ltd

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Book summary:
Written under the influence of World War II, the British welfare state, the Scottish education system, Poe, Carroll, Joyce, Kafka, Pinocchio, and the Bible, this cult classic paints a surreal portrait of the modern world. "It should be widely read" (New York Times). Illustrated by the Author.
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Lanark: A Life in Four Books
by Alasdair Gray, Janice Galloway

ISBN 184195120X (1-84195-120-X)
Hardcover, Canongate Books

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Book summary:
Alasdair Gray's first novel Lanark (first published in 1981) immediately established him as one of the most important Scottish voices of his generation and this astounding work as one of the key British novels of the last century. Magnificent in its reach and unequalled in the adulation of its critical response, Lanark is a massive book.
Perversely we start our reading with Book 3--the hero of this and the last book in the quartet, the eponymous Lanark, lives in a bizarre and fantastical future in a grey, dreary city called Unthank. He doesn't remember how he got there nor who he really is. He hangs around a local cafe with some other young people whose values and mores he can't quite figure. All around people are disappearing. Then he contracts dragonhide... and disappears too. He wakes in an institute and is told the sad but instructional tale of Duncan Thaw (the boy he used to be, the boy, in a sense, Alasdair Gray used to be).
Duncan, unknowingly speaking of the epic of which he is the centre, who we meet as a child and watch grow into an artist , says "I want to write a modern Divine Comedy with illustrations in the style of William Blake." And it is Duncan's story that is the heart of Lanark--and what a poignant, heart-breaking tale it is. From a boy who can never accept or offer or understand love, who cannot connect, to an artist who cannot accept that he cannot have the final word--both in his own life and in his art--Duncan's tale is a beautifully crafted coming-of-age story.
Lanark is a work of huge imagination and wonderful range; it is about all of our selves, how we make them and make them up; it is about place and what that means for identity and it is about love--how we can learn to love our selves, or fail to, how we need to love, both ourselves and others, to create communities in which we can create art that will promote a continuing project of place in which we can love each other better. Lanark is peerless. --Mark Thwaite [via]
More editions of Lanark: A Life in Four Books:
- Lanark: A Life in Four Books: ISBN 080761162X (0-8076-1162-X)
  Softcover, Braziller Incorporated, George
- Lanark : A Life in Four Books: ISBN 184195120X (1-84195-120-X)
  Hardcover, Canongate Books
The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History
by John Prebble

ISBN 0436386089 (0-436-38608-9)
Hardcover, Taylor & Francis

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More editions of The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History:
- The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History: ISBN 0698102142 (0-698-10214-2)
  Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
- The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History: ISBN 0436386089 (0-436-38608-9)
  Hardcover, Taylor & Francis
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The Lion in the North: One Thousand Years of Scotland's History
by John Prebble

ISBN 0517422468 (0-517-42246-8)
Hardcover, Crescent Books

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More editions of The Lion in the North: One Thousand Years of Scotland's History:
- The Lion in the North: One Thousand Years of Scotland's History: ISBN 0517422468 (0-517-42246-8)
  Hardcover, Crescent Books
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Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles
by Margaret George

ISBN 0312155859 (0-312-15585-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
A fictional account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots traces her lineage and describes her childhood, marriages, and her historic fight with Elizabeth over the throne of England. 150,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. [via]
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The Outlandish Companion
by Diana Gabaldon

ISBN 0385257392 (0-385-25739-2)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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Book summary:
For nine years, four books, and nearly 4,000 pages, Diana Gabaldon has entranced readers with her talent for historical authenticity, dramatic plot lines, and strong characters in the Outlander series. Her superb writing has earned a loyal audience, but after a million and a half words, even the most fervent of fans may have a difficult time trying to recall the exact details of the secondary characters, let alone the obscure ones. Thankfully, Gabaldon's The Outlandish Companion is here to help.
Part crib notes and part trivia guide, this essential handbook includes synopses of the first four novels, a character guide, notes on plot development and research, answers to frequently asked questions, and teasers for the upcoming novels--there're even horoscope charts of the central characters, a list of fan Web sites, and choice recipes for the truly devoted.
Readers looking for a fix of Gabaldon's humorous voice or insight into her writing processes and characters will certainly be more than satisfied, but those looking for the next installment of Jamie and Claire's adventures will have to wait for The Fiery Cross, the fifth book in this bestselling series, expected sometime in late 1999 to early 2000. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien [via]
More editions of The Outlandish Companion:
- The Outlandish Companion: ISBN 0385324138 (0-385-32413-8)
  Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
- The Outlandish Companion: ISBN 0385257392 (0-385-25739-2)
  Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Pawn in Frankincense
by Dorothy Dunnett

ISBN 0899663214 (0-89966-321-4)
Hardcover, Buccaneer Books

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Book summary:
The fourth title in the LYMOND CHRONICLES series, originally published in 1969. Set in 1552, Frances Crawford is searching for his son, who has been hidden somewhere in slavery. While he searches, his enemy waits with an elaborate plan of humiliation and violence. Follows THE GAME OF KINGS, QUEEN'S PLAY and THE DISORDERLY KNIGHTS. [via]
More editions of Pawn in Frankincense:
- Pawn in Frankincense: ISBN 0899663214 (0-89966-321-4)
  Hardcover, Buccaneer Books
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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Library Edition
by Muriel Spark

ISBN 1568496982 (1-56849-698-2)
Hardcover, Buccaneer Books

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Book summary:
The elegantly styled classic story of a young, unorthodox teacher and her special--and ultimately dangerous--relationship with six of her students. [via]
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Queen's Play
by Dorothy Dunnett

ISBN 067977744X (0-679-77744-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
For the first time Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are available in the United States in quality paperback editions.

Second in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, Queen's Play follows Frances Crawford of Lymond who has been abruptly called into the service of Mary Queen of Scots. Though she is only a little girl, the Queen is already the object of malicious intrigues that extend from her native country to the court of France. It is to France that Lymond must travel, exercising his sword hand and his agile wit while also undertaking the most unlikely of masquerades, all to make sure that his charge's royal person stays intact. [via]
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A Question of Blood
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0316159182 (0-316-15918-2)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
Given his contempt for authority, his tendency to pursue investigative avenues of his own choosing, and his habitually ornery manner, it's a wonder that John Rebus hasn't been booted unceremoniously from his job as an Edinburgh cop. He certainly tempts that fate again in A Question of Blood, which finds him and his younger partner, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, trying to close the case of a withdrawn ex-soldier named Lee Herdman, who apparently shot three teenage boys at a Scottish private school, leaving two of them dead, before turning the pistol on himself.
"Theres no mystery," Siobhan insists at the start of this 14th Rebus novel (following Resurrection Men). "Herdman lost his marbles, thats all." However, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking Rebus, who'd once sought entry into the same elite regiment in which Herdman served (but ultimately cracked under psychological interrogation), thinks there's more motive than mania behind this classroom slaughter. Perhaps something to do with the gunman's role in a 1995 mission to salvage a downed military helicopter, or with Teri Cotter, a 15-year-old "Goth" who broadcasts her bedroom life over the Internet, yet keeps private her relationship with the haunted Herdman. Rebus's doubts about the murder-suicide theory are deepened with the appearance of two tight-lipped army investigators, and by the peculiar behavior of James Bell, the boy who was only wounded during Herdman's firing spree and whose politician father hopes to use that tragedy as ammo in the campaign against widespread gun ownership. But the detective inspector's focus on this inquiry is susceptible to diversion, both by an internal police probe into his role in the burning death of a small-time crook who'd been stalking Siobhan, and by the fact that Rebus--who shies away from any family contacts--was related to one of Herdmans victims.
Now middle-aged and on the downward slope of his pugnacity (the high point may have come in 1997's Black and Blue), Rebus has become the engine of his own obsolescence. Overexposure to criminals has left him better at understanding them than his colleagues, and he only worsens his career standing by fighting other people's battles for them, especially Siobhan, who risks learning too many lessons from her mentor. To watch Rebus subvert police conventions and fend of personal demons (that latter struggle mirrored in A Question of Blood by Herdman's own) is worth the admission to this consistently ambitious series. --J. Kingston Pierce [via]
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Resurrection Men: Inspector Rebus Novel
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0316608491 (0-316-60849-1)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
Rebus is back. Resurrection Men, the 13th DI Rebus novel, finds Ian Rankins doughty detective off the case. He explodes at his superior DCS Gill Templar over the increasingly frustrating murder inquiry into the savage killing of an Edinburgh art dealer and his punishment is a spell cooling his heels at the Scottish Police College in central Scotland. Rebus balks at his "retraining" but hes not alone: hes part of an ill-assorted group of similar officers--all with an attitude problem and a dislike of the institution they find themselves in. Given an old unsolved case to work on the group is obliged to polish up their teamwork while supervisors assess the reprobates. But some of the team have secrets not unconnected to the case theyve been handed and Rebus finds that anything goes when it comes to keeping the past obscured.
This is Rankin in top form with Rebus rejuvenated by the edgy new milieu hes dropped into. Complicating things, the Scottish Crime Squad asks Rebus to act as a link to someone who can deliver the inside dirt on an old nemesis, gangster "Big Ger" Cafferty. In Edinburgh, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke has to take over the case of the murdered art dealer and, like Rebus, finds herself getting closer to the unpleasant Mr Cafferty. Forget the miscast John Hannah in the TV movies, this is the real Rebus: gritty, idiomatic and etched in prose that wastes nae a word in its redefining of the crime novel. --Barry Forshaw [via]
More editions of Resurrection Men: Inspector Rebus Novel:
- Resurrection Men: Inspector Rebus Novel: ISBN 0316766844 (0-316-76684-4)
  Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
- Resurrection Men: Inspector Rebus Novel: ISBN 0316608491 (0-316-60849-1)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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Ringed Castle
by Dorothy Dunnett

ISBN 0679777474 (0-679-77747-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
For the first time Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are available in the United States in quality paperback editions.

Fifth in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, The Ringed Castle leaps from Mary Tudor's England to the barbaric Russia of Ivan the Terrible. Francis Crawford of Lymond moves to Muscovy, where he becomes advisor and general to the half-mad tsar. Yet even as Lymond tries to civilize a court that is still frozen in the attitudes of the Middle Ages, forces in England conspire to enlist this infinitely useful man in their own schemes. [via]
More editions of Ringed Castle:
- Ringed Castle: ISBN 0679777474 (0-679-77747-4)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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Rob Roy
by Walter Scott

ISBN 1406501999 (1-4065-0199-9)
Softcover, Dodo Pr

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Book summary:
From its first publication in 1816 Rob Roy has been recognised as containing some of Scott s finest writing and most engaging, fully realised characters. The outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor was already a legendary, disputed figure by the time Scott wrote a heroic Scottish Robin Hood to some, an over-glamorised, unprincipled predator to others. Scott approaches Rob Roy indirectly, through the adventures of his fictional hero, Frank Osbaldistone, amid the political turmoil of England and Scotland in 1715. With characteristic care Scott reconstructs the period and settings so as to place Rob Roy and the Scotland he inhabits amid conflicting moral, economic and historical forces. This edition features, besides a new critical introduction and extensive explanatory notes, an essay outlining clearly the novels historical context and a glossary of Scottish words and phrases used by Scotts colourful, vernacular characters. [via]
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Rob Roy
by John Sutherland, Walter Scott

ISBN 0460875949 (0-460-87594-9)
Softcover, Tuttle Pub

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This novel, first published in 1817, achieved a huge success and helped establish the historical novel as a literary form. In rich prose and vivid description, Rob Roy follows the adventures of a businessman's son, Frank Osbaldistone, who is sent to Scotland and finds himself drawn to the powerful, enigmatic figure of Rob Roy MacGregor, the romantic outlaw who fights for justice and dignity for the Scots. This is an incomparable portrait of the haunted Highlands and Scotland's glorious past. [via]
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- Rob Roy: ISBN 0460875949 (0-460-87594-9)
  Softcover, Tuttle Pub
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Rob Roy
by Scott, Walter, Sr.

ISBN 0451526236 (0-451-52623-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)

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Book summary:
This novel, first published in 1817, achieved a huge success and helped establish the historical novel as a literary form. In rich prose and vivid description, Rob Roy follows the adventures of a businessman's son, Frank Osbaldistone, who is sent to Scotland and finds himself drawn to the powerful, enigmatic figure of Rob Roy MacGregor, the romantic outlaw who fights for justice and dignity for the Scots. This is an incomparable portrait of the haunted Highlands and Scotland's glorious past. [via]
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- Rob Roy: ISBN 0451526236 (0-451-52623-6)
  Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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Scotland: A Concise History
by Fitzroy MacLean, Magnus Linklater

ISBN 0500282331 (0-500-28233-1)
Softcover, Thames & Hudson

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Book summary:
"The Scots," said a censorious English member of Parliament in 1607, "have not suffered above two kings to die in their beds these two hundred years." He may have exaggerated, but undeniably Scotland has a rough and bloodstained history.
It is a complex one too, but Sir Fitzroy Maclean disentangles the threads and enlivens his brisk account with both wit and scholarship. Pictures from authentic contemporary sources illuminate his story--its romantic figures and bloody battles, its politics and religion--and provide a rich visual record of Scotland's art, craftsmanship, and intellectual life. For this revised edition, the distinguished journalist Magnus Linklater (former editor of The Scotsman), explores the renewed strengths of Scottish identity as the country enters the new millennium with a new parliament. 250 b/w illustrations. 250 black-and-white illustrations [via]
More editions of Scotland: A Concise History:
- Scotland: A Concise History: ISBN 0500277060 (0-500-27706-0)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- Scotland: A Concise History: ISBN 0500282331 (0-500-28233-1)
  Softcover, Thames & Hudson
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Scottish Chiefs
by Jane Porter

ISBN 1419181610 (1-4191-8161-0)
Softcover, Kessinger Pub Co

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A romantic, suspenseful novel of Scotland's 14th-century heroes, Sir William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. First published in 1809 to spectacular success throughout Europe, this new edition captures the grandeur of the earlier edition, with Wyeth's glorious paintings reproduced from the original canvases. [via]
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Set in Darkness
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0312977891 (0-312-97789-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
Edinburgh police inspector John Rebus's obsession--rock & roll--seems odd for a man whose dark, depressed side is so central to his character, but Ian Rankin always manages to work it gracefully into his noirish novels featuring Rebus. In Set in Darkness, Rebus has a fling with Lorna Grieve, a faded rock muse who's the sister of Roddy Grieve, an up-and-coming politico who turns up dead on the grounds of the boarded-up hospital that's being torn down to make way for the new Scottish Parliament. Grieve's body is the second in the space of days found at Queensberry House; the first was a skeleton bricked up in the fireplace. That decades-old murder seems to be tied to the suicide of a mysterious homeless man whose hefty bank balance is revealed well before his true identity.
'So what's the story with Mr Supertramp anyway?'
'He had all this money he either couldn't spend or didn't want to. He took on a new identity. My theory is that he was hiding.'
'Maybe.' He was rifling through the scraps on the desk. She folded her arms, gave him a hard look which he failed to notice. He opened the bread bag and shook out the contents: disposable razor, a sliver of soap, toothbrush. 'An organized mind,' he said. 'Makes himself a wash bag. Doesn't like being dirty.'
'It's like he was acting the part,' she said.
There are always plenty of subplots in a Rankin mystery. This time he adds a stalker who happens to be one of Rebus's colleagues, a couple of toughs who hang out in singles clubs and finish their evenings with a rape or two, and the ongoing story of Rebus's tortured past--a bitter divorce, a daughter still recovering from a terrible accident, and a drinking problem. Set in Darkness hit the bestseller list in Great Britain and should enjoy the same success in its U.S. edition. Rankin's ability to keep finding new dimensions in Rebus, handle intricate plot details brilliantly, and evoke the gloom and darkness of his setting keep winning him new admirers, with just cause. --Jane Adams [via]
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The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
by George Macdonald-Fraser

ISBN 1585790257 (1-58579-025-7)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square

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More editions of The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers:
- The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers: ISBN 1585790257 (1-58579-025-7)
  Softcover, Trafalgar Square
Strip Jack
by Ian Rankin

ISBN 0312965141 (0-312-96514-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
When Gregor Jack, a Scottish MP, is caught during a raid on a brothel, and then his socialite wife mysteriously disappears, Inspector Rebus steps in to investigate. [via]
More editions of Strip Jack:
- Strip Jack: ISBN 0312105533 (0-312-10553-3)
  Hardcover, St Martins Pr
- Strip Jack: ISBN 0312965141 (0-312-96514-1)
  Softcover, St Martins Pr
Three Junes
by Julia Glass

ISBN 0385721420 (0-385-72142-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret
sorrows of his marriage. Six years later, Pauls death reunites his sons at Tealing, their idyllic childhood home, where Fenno, the eldest, faces a choice that puts him at the center of his familys future. A lovable, slightly repressed gay man, Fenno leads the life of an aloof expatriate in the West Village, running a shop filled with books and birdwatching gear. He believes himself safe from all emotional entanglementsuntil a worldly neighbor presents him with an extraordinary gift and a seductive photographer makes him an unwitting subject. Each man draws Fenno into territories of the heart he has never braved before, leading him toward an almost unbearable loss that will reveal to him the nature of love.

Love in its limitless formsbetween husband and wife, between lovers, between people and animals, between parents and childrenis the force that moves these characters lives, which collide again, in yet another June, over a Long Island dinner table. This time it is Fenno who meets and captivates Fern, the same woman who captivated his father in Greece ten years before. Now pregnant with a son of her own, Fern, like Fenno and Paul before him, must make peace with her past to embrace her future. Elegantly detailed yet full of emotional suspense, often as comic as it is sad, Three Junes is a glorious triptych about how we learn to live, and live fully, beyond incurable grief and betrayals of the hearthow family ties, both those were born into and those we make, can offer us redemption and joy. [via]
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The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks

ISBN 0684853159 (0-684-85315-9)
Softcover, Scribner

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"I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. I already knew something was going to happen; the Factory told me."
Those lines begin one of the most infamous of contemporary Scottish novels. The narrator, Frank Cauldhame, is a weird teenager who lives on a tiny island connected to mainland Scotland by a bridge. He maintains grisly Sacrifice Poles to serve as his early warning system and deterrent against anyone who might invade his territory.
Few novelists have ever burst onto the literary scene with as much controversy as Iain Banks in 1984. The Wasp Factory was reviled by many reviewers on account of its violence and sadism, but applauded by others as a new and Scottish voice--that is, a departure from the English literary tradition. The controversy is a bit puzzling in retrospect, because there is little to object to in this novel, if you're familiar with genre horror.
The Wasp Factory is distinguished by an authentically felt and deftly written first-person style, delicious dark humor, a sense of the surreal, and a serious examination of the psyche of a childhood psychopath. Most readers will find that they sympathize with and even like Frank, despite his three murders (each of which is hilarious in an Edward Gorey fashion). It's a classic of contemporary horror. --Fiona Webster [via]
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