Pitkirtly Mysteries Series

Christopher's illusion of having his life under control is shattered when the mysterious Amaryllis appears in his small town in Fife, bringing new ideas, confusion and ultimately chaos in her wake.

Reunited in Death is a sequel to the quirky Crime in the Community, which is already available from Smashwords. Reunited in Death was a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for 2011 and received the following comments in a review by Publisher's Weekly: 'An unlikely cast of endearingly eccentric characters distinguish this offbeat mystery set in Pitkirtly, an appropriately quirky town on the Scottish coast....Memorable characters, delightful word pictures -- an assistant librarian "looked like a piece of chewed string" -- and understated humor highlight a novel with real promise.'

This is the seventh book in the Pitkirtly series of cosy mysteries, set in a fictitious small town on the coast of Fife. When the television programme Open Kitchen comes to town, there are various reactions from the people of Pitkirtly. Jemima is glad of the opportunity to show off her baking skills, while Amaryllis looks forward to the mayhem that could result from a 'healthy eating' procession, and Christopher is aghast when he finds his ex-wife working on the project. But none of them expect murder to be on the menu.

Closer to Death in a Garden is the tenth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series of stories set in a fictitious small town in Fife. Jemima's and Dave's visit to a garden centre is cut unexpectedly short, while Jock and Amaryllis both make the same grim discovery at the same time from different directions. Alpacas get in the way, and Christopher and his friends turn to a local artist and to the internet to fill in the parts the police don't seem to be able to reach. Two mysterious men cause trouble in town and past misdeeds come back to haunt people.

When the Happiness Club comes to town, Maisie Sue sees it as an opportunity to rediscover romance, Jock McLean regards it with suspicion, and Jemima and Dave look forward to taking part in new activities with their friends. Amaryllis and Chief Inspector Smith go along to keep an eye on developments on their patch. As for Christopher, he misses the start of the excitement because of a prior engagement - walking the Fife Coastal Path with a figure from his past. But before anyone has had very much fun, it becomes clear that while the Happiness Club brings good times to some, to others it offers only desolation and death.

The Pitkirtly Triangle is the 11th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a small town on the coast of Fife, in Scotland. Amaryllis is puzzled when the people she has been hired to track keep vanishing without trace. Is there a connection with the new café at the top of the hill and the increase in Empire biscuit consumption in the locality? Meanwhile Christopher manages to lose a very important donation to the Cultural Centre, Jock McLean gets on the wrong side of a garage owner and Jan from the wool shop panics about whether certain herbs are culinary or not. Everything becomes more complicated just as Amaryllis is put out of action for the first time in her life by the onset of a nasty cold virus.

Frozen in Crime is the fifth novel in the Pitkirtly mystery series. As Christmas approaches, deep snow cloaks the little town of Pitkirtly, an armed robbery takes place and Jemima’s husband Dave disappears. Amaryllis, searching for adventure, wants to go on an epic quest but Christopher, needless to say, isn’t at all happy about the prospect. They both find themselves trekking through the snow anyway. Meanwhile at the police station Charlie Smith and his men, trapped at work by the weather, celebrate Christmas in style with microwaved sprouts and virtual crackers. Things can only get worse as, under cover of snow and ice, two desperate men make their evil plans.

Can anyone ever really change? Christopher and Amaryllis ask themselves this question when a young man comes to the door of their holiday caravan one wet evening. The attempt to answer it takes them and their friends on a dangerous journey from a Pitkirtly ice-cream shop to a knitting club and then to a cattery before they reach a dangerous conclusion in an old railway yard. A Pitkirtly mystery

This is the sixth novel in the Pitkirtly mystery series. What would you do if you thought you were about to lose everything you cared about most? Charlie Smith thought his career was more important to him than anything else. Amaryllis valued her freedom. Christopher valued his friends, especially Amaryllis. Neil Macrae, 'the pub landlord with no name', couldn't face the thought of losing his pub. There were others who couldn't bear to lose Neil Macrae. 'The Queen of Scots Mystery' tells all these stories and more.

This is the eighth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series. Through a random combination of circumstances, Jock McLean and Amaryllis find themselves playing Santa Claus and his elf respectively at the Pitkirtly Christmas Market, a blatant attempt to lure tourists away from Edinburgh. Proceedings are interrupted by a murder on Pitkirtly Island (not really an island) and by the activities of a new organisation called FOOP. A sequence of events occurs which results not only in Christopher and Amaryllis having a picnic in the Cultural Centre but in Jock McLean buying new socks for the first time in living memory.

This is the twelfth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a small town in West Fife - quite close to Culross but definitely not as picturesque. Christopher is aghast when Mr Miller from the Council tells him he has to host an event called 'Pitkirtly Creates', but he consoles himself with the fact that a local family's lawyer has just cluttered up his office with more boxes of archive material. Jock McLean has family trouble, and Amaryllis takes up a new job as a bar-maid, but neither of these things prevent them from getting involved in the latest police investigation in town.

This is the ninth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series. It’s a cold spring in Pitkirtly. Amaryllis’s campaign to be elected to the local Council is approaching a conclusion, and the local minister has set up the Face of Pitkirtly art exhibition to show off the creativity of the young people of the area. At least one of these activities is doomed to failure. Things begin to go wrong soon after two young artists arrive unexpectedly at the Cultural Centre to set up their artwork. Before long gruesome discoveries are made, people go missing and are sometimes found again, and Keith Burnet of the local police force suffers from a sudden work overload.

This is the 14th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a fictitious small town on the coast of Fife. When an amateur theatre group plans a promenade performance on Pitkirtly Island in the dark - on Hallowe'en - this seems to Amaryllis like a recipe for disaster, so naturally she pays close attention to the project. By the time it is over, several people's lives have been changed forever, and at least one case a life has come to an abrupt end. Warning: this book may not be suitable for readers of a nervous disposition and those who love Shakespeare!

This is the 13th book in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a fictitious small town on the Fife coast in Scotland. Not a million miles from Culross, and yet rather different from it. Christopher finds that going away on holiday is a lot more trouble than it's worth, while a wedding in the Cultural Centre isn't without its problems. Amaryllis tries to keep a low profile as she teases out secrets from the tangled threads of everyday life, and Christopher's sister Caroline allows obsession to lead her into danger.

This is the 17th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series. Penelope Johnstone can't help feeling a bit sorry for herself as she spends a significant birthday alone at home. But while she is still wondering why her son Zak and his partner Harriet haven't visited her for a while, she gets involved in a sequence of bizarre events, ranging from being mysteriously threatened by the driver of an ice-cream van and receiving a delivery of six sacks of coal she can't use, to being stalked by a neighbour and helping a friend to deal with a man who claims to be smuggling maple syrup. In order to take charge of the situation, Penelope teams up with former spy Amaryllis - always a high-risk strategy - and together they begin to uncover the secrets of the Ice Palace.

This is the 16th book in the Pitkirtly Mystery series. A stolen wheelbarrow gets Stewie into trouble through no fault of his own, and before long he is in danger of losing his job and his place at college. Meanwhile, someone takes most of the computers from the Cultural Centre in broad daylight, resulting in an unwelcome encounter for Christopher and the staff with the Office Supplies Investigation Section. Jemima runs another Family History event in the research room and Pitkrtly DNA test results are soon distributed all round Scotland via the magic of the internet. Is there any connection between these apparently random events? If there is, Amaryllis will find it sooner or later.

This is the 18th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a small town on the coast of Fife, Scotland. A series of unexpected and apparently random incidents takes place in and around Pitkirtly. Rosie investigates a night-time disturbance at her cattery and later disappears. A public meeting is held about a movie studio project which is planned for the Pitkirtlyhill estate and which somehow involves land belonging to the golf club. Amaryllis is keen to get ahead of the police in the investigation but she can't seem to pinpoint anything that will lead her to Mr Big. Christopher is led astray by Douglas Prestonfield, much to his son Kyle's disapproval.

This is the fifteenth book in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a small town in Scotland that isn't really Culross on the coast of Fife, although it does share some of the same features. Little does Jock McLean realise that an encounter with a pack of dogs and their dog-walker on the beach is only the start of a sequence of events that will lead him to the dark side of Pitkirtly Island and beyond. His friends Christopher, Amaryllis, Dave and Jemima will also become involved before long in a case of murder, fraud, a dog home and an irresponsible vet.

This is the 19th in the Pitkirtly Mystery series of novels set in a small fictitious town on the coast of Fife in Scotland. When Mollie goes to work one morning, she doesn't expect to receive a visit from the police with news of a death in her house. This is just the start of Mollie's unexpected adventures, during which she gets on a bus without having the fare ready, sleeps in a barn and encounters a secret agent who persuades her to don a disguise and take part in a boat race. Meanwhile, Amaryllis takes on an uncharacteristic rôle, and Christopher finds that the Cultural Centre has been the focus of hostile reconnaissance.

This is the 20th novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series. Maisie Sue's wedding is disrupted by shadows from the past, while Christopher fights against the inexorable intrusion of the future into his working life, and once again Amaryllis is not the only spy in town. Danger lurks both in the depths of the nearby forest and in Maisie Sue's own home, where visitors do not always stop to admire the curtains.

This is the 23rd novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series. Christmas approaches again as it does at this time every year, somewhat to Christopher’s surprise. He has lost track of Mollie’s ambitious festive plans for the Cultural Centre, but meanwhile other Pitkirtly residents have more serious matters on their minds. Mrs Petrelli’s hospital stay brings past family problems back to the surface, and Amaryllis finds herself having to spend time searching for an uninvited guest instead of helping the police to investigate a suspicious death.

This is the 21st novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series, set in the present day in a fictitious small town on the Fife coast, not far from Culross but definitely not based on any real place. When they find evidence of intruders in the Cultural Centre one night, Amaryllis, Jock McLean and Hamish enter the building, only to stumble across a body on the floor of the library. As often happens, other inhabitants of the town are drawn into the developing situation. Amaryllis has an unscheduled dip in the harbour and Giancarlo, home from America for an unspecified length of time, alternately delivers pizzas and tries to save old friends from the consequences of their actions. Meanwhile Christopher wonders if he will ever have a moment’s peace again.

This is the 25th in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series of quirky mystery novels set in Scotland. It’s early autumn and Dave and Jemima are heading for Loch Rannoch, in Highland Perthshire, not to view the autumn colours but to meet a long-lost cousin of Jemima’s. It isn’t long before they begin to wish the cousin had stayed lost. But at least they and some of their friends from Pitkirtly have the chance to experience a change of scenery and the joys of life without a mobile signal or an internet connection for miles around.

This is the 22nd novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series, set in a small fictitious town on the south coast of Fife which is definitely not Culross, though quite close to it geographically. Kyle is sent to Old Pitkirtlyhill House, once the home of the Murray family and now in the possession of the local council, to review a collection of documents stored in the attics. This task is complicated by a grim discovery and by multiple questions of identity. A mysterious newcomer to Pitkirtly works with Jemima to reveal the truth.

This is the 24th book in the Pitkirtly Mystery series. Clementine Fairfax, previously encountered in 'The Identity Illusion', returns to Pitkirtly under cover to investigate a computer crime which has been traced to Pitkirtly College computing department, where Zak Johnstone is currently studying. Two suspicious deaths later, she is not very much the wiser about what is going on. Meanwhile Clementine's half-sister Amaryllis gets into a tunnel again, Christopher and others try to find something positive in changes at the Cultural Centre, and Zak is doubtful about his future.

This is the 26th novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series. When a music festival takes over the town, most people predict some kind of trouble, but the presence of Amaryllis's former colleague Green makes this seem even more likely. So in the intervals between doughnut breaks, the usual suspects find themselves dealing with two violent deaths and an assortment of temper tantrums, not all from the musicians. Anyone who isn't arrested by a couple of unfamiliar police officers can count themselves lucky.