Murder at Landsmuir

My new book, Murder at Landsmuir was originally entitled Hunter's Blood. It is different to all the other books I have written so far in that one of the sub-plots is loosely based on a true story. Let me tell you about that.

The story begins shortly after the formation of Police Scotland. Prior to that there were eight regional police forces, now there is only one. The merger was intended to streamline procedures and reduce costs. For examole there is now only one Chief Constable instead of eight. However, many mistakes were made in the early days.

In one of these errors, Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 28, died after they were in a car crash on the M9 motorway near Stirling in July 2015.

What happened was that these people were left lying in their Renault Clio for three days before they were discovered, despite a farmer who witnessed the incident reporting the crash.

By the time police found the crashed car, Mr Yuill had died and Ms Bell was seriously injured. She later died in hospital. It was found that a police officer at the force's Bilston Glen call-handling centre failed to log a call from a farmer who informed police that the car was at the bottom of an embankment off the M9 near Stirling.

In my story, Linda Maguire and her boyfriend crash their car and the accident is witnessed by Tim Myerscough and his friends who are on their way to Landsmuir Farm. They report the crash as do Jamie Thomson and his cousin Frankie Hope who come across the car later. Of course, you'll have to read the book to find out what happens!

Murder at Landsmuir is available to preorder on Amazon now and will land on your kindle on 24th July.