Why a Booktrail?
2000s: DI WESTPHALL. No ordinary detective. No ordinary investigations.
Song of the Dead
What you need to know before your trail
Detective Ben Westphall has been given his latest case because of his background in MI6. But it’s his ability to see every angle – even the impossible ones – that will help him in this investigation.
John Baden has come back from the dead. His parents and girlfriend identified his body twelve years ago. Yet he’s just walked into a police station, very much alive. Baden’s story sounds far-fetched – but it’s all about to get much, much stranger.
Westphall travels from the Highlands to Estonia in order to delve into Baden’s murky past. But when his suspects start dying, Westphall realises someone is killing to cover up the truth. He’ll have to question everything he’s been told, before there’s no one left to ask.
Locations
Reset- Scotland - Scottish Highlands
- A: Dingwall - High Street
- B: Dingwall - Police Scotland
- C: Dingwall - Knockfarrel
- D: Cromarty Firth
- E: Nairn Beach
- Estonia - Tartu
- F: Tartu - Emajõgi River
- G: Tartu - Police station
- H: Lake Peipus
Travel Guide
Travel Booktrail style to Dingwall, Scottish Highlands
Dingwall is a town and a royal burgh in the Highlands of Scotland and there are roughly some 5500 people living there. Dingwall formerly served as the county town of the county of Ross and Cromarty. It lies near the head of the Cromarty Firth- the large expanse of water which constantly features in the novels. For a small place, there’s a lot going on in these books. Experts from Inverness and Glasgow are drafted in when cases get a little more complicated and need more resources which they often do in these novels.
Rural Scotland is the perfect place for supernatural- themed novels, police procedurals where remote locations really work and the general bad weather which always help in crime novels.
Both the language and the violence can be graphic at times but the fascinating thing about these novels is that the Scottish banter, vernacular and atmosphere really do give them the edge.
Estonia
This novel also takes us across to Estonia – the town of Tartu and the lake Peipus which straddles the Estonian – Russian border. Imagine the issues with border patrol and legal jurisdiction here…
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Song of the Dead
Destination: Scottish Highlands, Dingwall, Estonia, Tartu Author/Guide: Douglas Lindsay Departure Time: 2000s
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