Murder Up the Glen

"The folk here wouldn’t go out at Beltane if you paid them."

Whilst on a walking holiday in the Western Highlands of Scotland Lorin Weir is camping one evening in a deserted corrie. Waking in the middle of the night, he witnesses a terrifying spectacle - a man being pursued and brutally murdered by the legendary spectre known as the Black Walker, who is said to haunt the area surrounding a nearby ancient burial mound. As investigations into the death proceed, Weir keeps silence lest he should be suspected of the crime. But if he didn't murder poor Duncan Grant, who did? As he becomes increasingly caught up in the life of the local Highland community, the dark beauty of the region is the backdrop for a deep and insoluble mystery. But there must be a reasonable explanation... mustn't there?

Originally published in 1933, and betraying the influence of, among others, Agatha Christie, M.R. James an John Buchan, Colin Campbell's novel is the haunting story of a murder that may just be unsolvable. Part murder mystery, part ghost story, it is underscored by an evocative depiction of the wild scenery of the Western Highlands. As the book's preface states, this unique novel offers a heady concoction: "a little love, a sprinkle of humour, a dash of melodrama, and above all a mystery more or less unsolved".