78 books like The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange

By Sue Lawrence,

Here are 78 books that The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange fans have personally recommended if you like The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Kevin Clouther Author Of Maximum Speed

From my list on literary fiction about the passage of time.

Why am I passionate about this?

I live in the past, even as the wellness industry tells me to be present. I try to be present! Of course, I also worry about the future. Time for me, inexorably, moves both backward and forward. I’m always writing things down, scared of forgetting. How do other people do it? That’s why I read fiction (or one of the reasons). As Philip Roth said of his father in Patrimony, “To be alive, to him, is to be made of memory—to him if a man’s not made of memory, he’s made of nothing.”

Kevin's book list on literary fiction about the passage of time

Kevin Clouther Why did Kevin love this book?

The popularity of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie may have obscured its structural genius.

Never have I read a book so comfortable drifting between present and future within a single paragraph, even a single sentence. The short novel simultaneously exists inside a classroom in the 1930s and throughout the lives the students will later have as women.

If the Scottish author Muriel Spark had a literary model for this design, I’ve yet to discover it. Sometimes an artist creates something entirely new.

By Muriel Spark,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The brevity of Muriel Spark's novels is equaled only by their brilliance. These four novels, each a miniature masterpiece, illustrate her development over four decades. Despite the seriousness of their themes, all four are fantastic comedies of manners, bristling with wit.
Spark's most celebrated novel, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, tells the story of a charismatic schoolteacher's catastrophic effect on her pupils. THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS is a beautifully drawn portrait of young women living in a hostel in London in the giddy postwar days of 1945. THE DRIVER'S SEAT follows the final haunted hours of a woman…


Book cover of How to Survive Everything

Olga Wojtas Author Of Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Vampire Menace

From my list on featuring feisty Scotswomen.

Why am I passionate about this?

Proud to drop the F-bomb—I’m an unrepentant feminist. I grew up during the heady days of the Sixties and Seventies when books played a major part in raising our consciousness. I’m remembering the wonderful Virago Press championing women’s voices, and writers such as Marilyn French, Angela Carter, Maya Angelou, and Maxine Hong Kingston. I’m not keen on books where women are helpless victims or ciphers while men get to do all the exciting stuff. And since real life can be quite grim enough (I was a journalist for over thirty years and remain a news junkie), I’m increasingly attracted by writing that includes a dollop of humour. 

Olga's book list on featuring feisty Scotswomen

Olga Wojtas Why did Olga love this book?

I’m full of admiration for this book. Morrison is a fifty-something bloke, but this narrative is told in the first person by a teenage girl, Haley, and the voice is totally perfect: opinionated, funny, sulky, naïve. The novel’s full of dark humour, and a real page-turner. Haley is kidnapped by her father to join a group of apocalyptic pandemic survivalists. Are they barking mad or the only people clear-sighted enough to see the danger the world is in from Virus X? You’ll veer from one viewpoint to the other throughout. You’ll also learn how to use a crossbow and what to put in your survival pack. (Warning: I could only read the bit about amputation through my fingers.) 

By Ewan Morrison,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Survive Everything as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"One of the most provocative, intelligent and original novelists working in Britain today." Irvine Welsh. My dad taught us to be prepared for whatever was coming. He said we should know the facts about how long we could survive without food, water or fresh air, and to remember that we couldn't live at all without hope. It was better, he said, to be ahead of the game. Better to be ten years too early than one minute too late. That's why he did what he did, on that morning ... Inspired by her father's advance planning and her own ingenuity…


Book cover of Under the Skin

Abi Curtis Author Of The Headland

From my list on speculative fiction with soul.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Professor of Creative Writing at York St John’s University in York, UK. I’ve been published as a poet, novelist, and nonfiction writer. My list reflects perhaps some eclectic tastes, but what unites these books is a fascination with engaging with the world in a way that de-centers the human, and I have done this throughout my writing career. I love the natural world, growing plants, and watching the seasons change. I am also curious about time and memory and how we perceive these. I am drawn towards science fiction, but more the speculative end of that spectrum, where writers explore otherness and possible worlds. 

Abi's book list on speculative fiction with soul

Abi Curtis Why did Abi love this book?

Another alien novel, but one of the strangest and most profound I’ve read. Isserly drives around in her van in the wilds of Scotland, picking up hitchhikers. But she is no ordinary woman; in fact, she isn’t human at all, but a modified alien tasked with finding humans to be turned into fast food for an alien world.

It is a darkly ironic, strange, and disturbing novel that asks questions about how we treat animals, cleverly reversing its language to refer to humans as aliens and aliens as humans. It felt to me that this book was able to touch on many of the evils of capitalism, not just mass farming but also the treatment of women and women’s bodies. But it doesn’t do this in an obvious way.

It’s an alien novel that’s low on overt science fiction; it’s gritty and real, emotional and lonely. I wasn’t the same…

By Michel Faber,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Under the Skin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With an introduction by David Mitchell

Isserley spends most of her time driving. But why is she so interested in picking up hitchhikers? And why are they always male, well-built and alone?

An utterly unpredictable and macabre mystery, Under the Skin is a genre-defying masterpiece.


Book cover of Field of Blood

Brenda Chapman Author Of Blind Date: A Hunter and Tate Mystery

From my list on crime fiction with intriguing lead characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been addicted to reading mysteries and crime fiction since I was a kid, and I naturally fell into writing in these genres—I’m currently in the midst of penning my fourth series! There’s nothing better than discovering a new, well-written series and following along with interesting, complicated main characters over several books. These favourite recommendations of mine will take you to Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, and my very own Canada without ever having to leave home. Hopefully, you’ll discover some new authors, and their main characters will bring you as much enjoyment as they’ve given me. 

Brenda's book list on crime fiction with intriguing lead characters

Brenda Chapman Why did Brenda love this book?

I loved the main character Paddy Meehan’s voice in this series. Paddy is a lowly copygirl at a Glasgow newspaper with dreams of becoming an investigative journalist during a time when girls are expected to marry out of high school and have babies, not unlike the way things were when I entered the work world. Paddy is intelligent and driven and so outside the mold that her family and boyfriend, indeed the Scottish community, cannot understand her drive to be more than what society demands she should be. She’s someone I rooted for every step of the way as she navigates the old boys’ club in the 1980s and 1990s. Combine Paddy with Mina’s brilliant writing, realistic dialogue, and compelling plotlines, and this series is one to be savored. 

By Denise Mina,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Field of Blood as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The most exciting crime writer to have emerged in Britain for years' Ian Rankin
'Denise Mina is Britain's best living crime writer' Sunday Express

FROM THE COSTA-SHORTLISTED BESTSELLING AUTHOR

In Glasgow, a child goes missing, taken from the front garden of his home. The investigation leads the police to the doors of two young boys.

Paddy Meehan has just started work at a local newspaper where she dreams of becoming an investigative journalist. Although everyone around her believes the boys acted on their own, she is certain there is more to it and begins to ask awkward questions.

But Paddy's…


Book cover of The Prisoner of St Kilda: The True Story of the Unfortunate Lady Grange

Elizabeth Ford Author Of The Flute in Scotland from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century

From my list on eighteenth-century Scotland.

Why am I passionate about this?

I dropped out of law school to pursue a PhD in music at the University of Glasgow and to write the history of the flute in Scotland. Essentially, I wanted to know that if Scotland was a leader in Enlightenment thought, and if there were hundreds of publications with flute on the title page, and since the flute was the most popular amateur instrument in the eighteenth century, why was nothing written about the flute. I obsessively read Scottish mythology as a child, and was always drawn to the stereotypical wild misty landscapes of Scotland without knowing much about it. 

Elizabeth's book list on eighteenth-century Scotland

Elizabeth Ford Why did Elizabeth love this book?

I couldn’t make this up: one night masked men broke into the Edinburgh townhouse of Lord and Lady Grange, gagged Lady Grange, bound her to a chair, and carried out of the house to a waiting horse. From there, they travelled across Scotland to the remote islands of St Kilda, where she was left for the next seven years. Lady Grange was by all accounts unbalanced and difficult to live with, so her husband decided to have her abducted, and told his friends she had died. The west of Scotland at the time was essentially a different country from Edinburgh society, complete with an English-Gaelic language barrier. This story is so outrageous that it is difficult to believe it is true. Pair it with any edition of Johnson and Boswell for another look at life in the west of Scotland in the eighteenth century, and read their versions of the…

By Margaret MacAulay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Prisoner of St Kilda as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the 18th century shotgun weddings were not unusual, but in most cases it wasn't the bride that was holding the gun. So began the stormy marriage between Lord and Lady Grange, a marriage which was to end with Lady Grange's death on the Isle of Skye after 13 years in exile.

The daughter of a convicted murderer, Lady Grange's behaviour, such as her fondness for drink, was so outrageous that her sudden disappearance from public life was not considered surprising. But few knew the true story of her disappearance.

This book reveals, for the first time, how the unfortunate…


Book cover of The Vanished Days

Lauren Willig Author Of Two Wars and a Wedding

From my list on historical fiction in unusual time periods.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the era of sweeping historical epics, traveling with the turn of a page from Gaius Marius’s Rome to Victoria’s England and everything in between. I’ve always loved books that immerse you in places and time periods you know nothing about—and when I couldn’t find enough of them, I started writing my own. While my long-ago history PhD work is in Tudor-Stuart England (my specialty was the English Civil War), what I love most is being a historical dilettante and getting to hop around the historical record—which may be why my books can take you anywhere from Napoleon’s court to 1920s Kenya to Cuba with Teddy Roosevelt!

Lauren's book list on historical fiction in unusual time periods

Lauren Willig Why did Lauren love this book?

Fun fact: in college, my specialty was 16th-century Scotland, which meant I spent several months living in Edinburgh doing research for my senior thesis. In this book, Susanna Kearsley brings to life a Scotland we seldom see in novels but which brings back the Edinburgh I lived in and studied more vividly than anything else I’ve encountered.

There are so many books about the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, but this book tackles the precursor to all that, the tangled politics of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, from the fall-out of the Glorious Revolution and the exile of James II to the ferment around the 1707 Act of Union in all its glorious complexity, through the life of one woman who finds herself—as one does—a normal person buffeted by larger events. Every time I open this book, I feel like I’m back in Edinburgh again. 

By Susanna Kearsley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Vanished Days as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Fascinating and immersive... I love a novel that deals with the many ways in which people keep their secrets' DIANA GABALDON
A sweeping love story set against the Jacobite revolution from much-loved, million copy bestselling author Susanna Kearsley

Autumn, 1707. Old enemies from the Highlands to the Borders are protesting the new Union with England. As the French prepare an invasion to bring the exiled Jacobite king back to Scotland to reclaim his throne, the streets of Edinburgh are filled with discontent. To calm the situation, Queen Anne's commissioners are settling the losses and wages owed to those Scots involved…


Book cover of Natural Causes

Diane M. Dickson Author Of Body in the Canal

From my list on when you want to dabble in crime with no risk.

Why am I passionate about this?

My fascination with crime fiction has come from reading about it. I have no idea how many novels I have read focused on baddies and the catching of them, but it’s numbering now in the many hundreds. I think the fact that a crime novel can incorporate elements of all other genres – horror, history, romance, the supernatural, etc. are what make them so appealing and add to the joy of writing them. Untangling the threads that make up a crime novel is very satisfying. Maybe in another reality, I would be a detective – I love that idea, but for now, in this bit of the multiverse, I’ll just carry on making them up.  

Diane's book list on when you want to dabble in crime with no risk

Diane M. Dickson Why did Diane love this book?

Another Police Procedural series introduction. I love James Oswald’s writing and his characters are fascinating. There are some of the usual tropes in here but there is enough that is new and different to keep it fresh. I loved the fact that this had a horror element to it – I don’t read horror but enjoyed it in this case as a bit of seasoning. I think Edinburgh seems to be a great place to set a crime novel, and Oswald seems to know it well and it becomes a character in its own right I think. 

By James Oswald,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Natural Causes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Natural Causes is the first novel in the Detective Inspector McLean series, from Sunday Times best-selling author James Oswald.

A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room. Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago.

For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority - but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death.

Meanwhile, the city is horrified by a series of bloody killings. Deaths for…


Book cover of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Catriona Child Author Of Trackman

From my list on showing the hidden parts of Edinburgh.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Scottish writer who has lived in Edinburgh for over twenty years and feel a deep affinity for the city. Edinburgh is known for its festival and its castle, which are the parts of the city that the tourists flock to, but there is so much more to it than that. I like books that show the city in a different light: the ones in which Edinburgh itself becomes a character and not just a backdrop; the books that invoke the darker side of Edinburgh, the bits that stay hidden, the bits that only the locals know about. 

Catriona's book list on showing the hidden parts of Edinburgh

Catriona Child Why did Catriona love this book?

This was the first book I read when I started my English degree at Aberdeen University and I remember reading it on the train home one weekend and being completely gripped by it. The novel is about two brothers, George and Robert, one of whom is murdered. The structure of the novel is interesting in that, although it is a work of fiction, it presents itself as a found and true document, with the first part being narrated by the ‘editor’ and the second part told from the point of view of Robert. Robert is the quintessential unreliable narrator and his fate can be interpreted in a number of different ways from demonic possession to schizophrenia. It’s a dark and gothic novel that leaves you feeling unsettled long after you have finished it and unsure about what is real and what isn’t.

By James Hogg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Written in 1824, James Hogg's masterpiece is a brilliant portrayal of the power of evil. Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, the novel recounts the corruption of a boy of strict Calvinist upbringing by a mysterious stranger under whose influence he commits a series of murders. The reader, while recognising the stranger as the Devil, is prevented by the subtlety of the novel's structure from finally deciding whether, for all his vividness and wit, he is more than a figment of the imagination. This is the only complete edition of Hogg's Confessions, since it was first published. All subsequent editions, until…


Book cover of The Everliving Memory of John Valentine

Catriona Child Author Of Trackman

From my list on showing the hidden parts of Edinburgh.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Scottish writer who has lived in Edinburgh for over twenty years and feel a deep affinity for the city. Edinburgh is known for its festival and its castle, which are the parts of the city that the tourists flock to, but there is so much more to it than that. I like books that show the city in a different light: the ones in which Edinburgh itself becomes a character and not just a backdrop; the books that invoke the darker side of Edinburgh, the bits that stay hidden, the bits that only the locals know about. 

Catriona's book list on showing the hidden parts of Edinburgh

Catriona Child Why did Catriona love this book?

Ross Sayers is one of my favourite contemporary Scottish authors. His books are always unique and humorous with genuine characters. This book looks at the subject of memory, how we can yearn to go back to a particular moment in time, how we can be trapped by things that have happened in our past and asks if we can really trust our own memories. It contains dual timelines alternating between 2019, with Hannah’s first day working at Memory Lane in Edinburgh, and 1975, inside the memory of John Valentine as he relives his wedding day over and over again. It’s a compelling work of speculative fiction that forces the reader to confront their own memories.

By Ross Sayers,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Everliving Memory of John Valentine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2019 - It's Hannah Greenshields's first day at Memory Lane, a memory clinic in the centre of Edinburgh. She soon learns that Memory Lane possesses advanced technology which allows clients to relive their favourite memories for a substantial fee.
1975 - John Valentine, a Memory Lane client, is reliving his wedding day over and over again, hoping to change one key event he can't forget. However, as proceedings become less and less familiar, John realises his memory isn't such a safe place after all.
When Hannah and John's paths meet, they must work together to get John back to the…


Book cover of The History of Edinburgh. by Hugo Arnot

Elizabeth Ford Author Of The Flute in Scotland from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century

From my list on eighteenth-century Scotland.

Why am I passionate about this?

I dropped out of law school to pursue a PhD in music at the University of Glasgow and to write the history of the flute in Scotland. Essentially, I wanted to know that if Scotland was a leader in Enlightenment thought, and if there were hundreds of publications with flute on the title page, and since the flute was the most popular amateur instrument in the eighteenth century, why was nothing written about the flute. I obsessively read Scottish mythology as a child, and was always drawn to the stereotypical wild misty landscapes of Scotland without knowing much about it. 

Elizabeth's book list on eighteenth-century Scotland

Elizabeth Ford Why did Elizabeth love this book?

Published in 1779, this book shows far more about Enlightenment Edinburgh than it does Edinburgh history, and should be read for that reason. Full of myth, legend, bloody Scottish history, and contemporary events, it is written with the perspective of the historical enquiry of the Enlightenment as described by Broadie. Plus, it’s just fun to see how historic people saw and expressed themselves.

By Hugo Arnot,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The History of Edinburgh. by Hugo Arnot as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Rich in titles on English life and social history, this collection spans the world as…


Book cover of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Book cover of How to Survive Everything
Book cover of Under the Skin

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Interested in Edinburgh Scotland, Jacobitism, and treason?

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