The High Island is the first in the Orcadia Mysteries, an offshoot of the Dr Rhona MacLeod series, this time starring DI Erling Flett. Rhona readers will have first met Erling in Paths of the Dead, then in None but the Dead set on Sanday, and later in The Killing Tide and in the latest Rhona book, The Dead and the Dying, where Erling’s teenage past comes into direct conflict with the investigation.
I have long wanted to fully feature Erling’s role as a police officer in Orkney, a place he left as soon as he could, only to find himself drawn back. Being a gay detective inspector in a place where everyone knows your name and your personal history, including your troubled teenage years, is a challenge.
So too, is policing an archipelago of seventy islands, rich in Neolithic and Viking archaeology, twenty of them inhabited by both native Orcadians, and folk who have chosen to make the islands their home. Not to mention the daily thousands of international cruise ship visitors during the summer months, and the influx of workers in both the oil and ever more prominent renewable energy industries.
Orkney isn’t Scotland. It’s very much its own place, with its own problems. Some of these problems arrive by sea or air. Some are here already. That’s Erling’s beat and I’m delighted and excited to introduce both fans of Rhona MacLeod and new readers to his world in this new book.
In The High Island, Erling has to initially deal with a clash between locals and newcomers, when a wealthy London couple buy a disused croft on Hoy, with plans to build an eco holiday home there.
With tensions running high, the work is abruptly halted when the remains of a young mother and child are unearthed on site, preserved in the peaty soil.
DI Erling Flett’s first priority is to identify the woman and child and discover how they died and when, but the fallout from the discovery keeps getting bigger as a family feud over the sale of the croft, its surrounding land, and the bodies found there, threaten both his investigation and the lives of those involved.
The High Island, is published in hardback (UK) and as an eBook (UK & USA) on 30th July 2026, with USA hardback publication on 3rd November 2026.
Pre-order now from Waterstones or Amazon (UK) or Amazon (USA) or from Bookshop.org.
The High Island, is published in hardback (UK) and as an eBook (UK & USA) on 30th July 2026, with USA hardback publication on 3rd November 2026.
Pre-order now from Waterstones or Amazon (UK) or Amazon (USA) or from Bookshop.org.
~o~
