The Innocent and the Dead: Gripping Scottish crime fiction

One woman found dead. Another kidnapped. Two cases. Two books. One overworked Scottish detective.

When the body of an attractive young woman is found in woodland on Edinburgh's iconic Calton Hill, DI Jack Knox quickly establishes that she had worked as a prostitute.

For this reason, getting people who knew her to come forward will prove difficult. Knox will have to cut through their lies, establish a motive and collar the killer.

This is the detective's dilemma in LABYRINTH, the included prequel to this new series of mysteries set in Scotland's capital.

In THE INNOCENT AND THE DEAD, the second book in the series, DI Jack Knox is called in to investigate a high-profile case.

A local distiller's daughter has gone missing, and when he receives a ransom note, his fears that it is a kidnapping are confirmed.

Knox decides to take a serious risk to capture the abductors, but the stakes could not be higher.

The father is wealthy and well-connected. If Knox's gamble goes wrong, he'll have hell to pay.

DI Jack Knox is a likeable detective. He likes the odd dram, hankers after his family who are based in Australia, and has a relationship with a colleague he tries to keep under wraps.

THE INNOCENT AND THE DEAD is the first in a series of seven murder mysteries by Robert McNeill.

The full list is as follows:

1. THE INNOCENT AND THE DEAD

2. MURDER AT FLOOD TIDE

3. DEAD OF NIGHT

4. NOUGHTS AND CROSSES

5. A VIEW TO MURDER

6. CONFESSION TO MURDER

7. DON'T CRY, DARLING

These books will appeal to anyone who likes gripping fast-paced easy to read police procedurals in an exciting setting.