The Malt Whisky Murders : Shortlisted for the 2025 Bloody Scotland Debut Prize

Author: Natalie Jayne Clark

Crime & mystery

Published on 5 June 2025 by Birlinn General (Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 272 pages
129 x 198 x 23mm | 242g

Whisky is a bloody business . . .

When a dilapidated distillery comes up for sale in rural Kintyre, Eilidh and her wife Morag jump at the chance. But their ambition to run the first women-owned whisky distillery in Scotland seems to be scuppered when a grisly, decades-old secret is revealed: two dead bodies have been stuffed into barrels, perfectly preserved in single malt.

To add to their woes, a TV crew has just arrived and the townsfolk will not leave them alone. Eilidh becomes obsessed with solving the murders while juggling whisky tastings, ceilidhs, protests and scandals – everything you’d expect from a wee Scottish town imprisoned by its own geography. And no matter how hard you try, the locals will always find out your secrets.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BLOODY SCOTLAND DEBUT PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE ILP JOHN CREASEY FIRST NOVEL DAGGER