A Winter Grave: a chilling new mystery set in the Scottish highlands

Product Information

Anyway, I have recorded a video message if you want to know more about my news, and upcoming books, you can hear it straight from the horse’s mouth… I wrote no new book in 2021. Instead, I took time out to write music and make use of a new studio I created above my garage. So Scotland seemed like an obvious place I should set the book. I know the people, I know the country, I know the culture. And it suited the purposes of the picture I was painting in terms of climate change,” Peter said. In July, there was another virtual event. The British Crime Writer’s Association awards ceremony for 2021.

In the run-up to the 2004 Beijing Olympics, great swathes of the city were demolished by armies of hammer-wielding workmen, transforming the capital in the space of little more than twelve months into a bustling modern metropolis, with little sign of the history and hutongs that had been so apparent when I first arrived. Here is a video of me at the awards ceremony, receiving the Barry Award from George Easter. The video might not be very clear, but the audio quality is good enough to hear my speech. And although it might seem strange to say that I was uplifted, even inspired by this letter, that is exactly how I felt. It was sent to me by an editor called Philip Ziegler, and his words of praise and encouragement are perhaps the only things that sustained me through all the difficult years that lay ahead.But the story doesn’t end there. Because 42 years later, Philip Ziegler is still going strong, and still being published himself. His latest book, “ Olivier”, is the definitive biography of the actor Lawrence Olivier, and is published by Quercus who also publish my best-selling Lewis Trilogy.

Peter said: “At the end of the day people want to read about people not issues or subjects. They want to read human stories and to identify with people and feel their pain and be lifted by their joy, all those human emotions. When it came to books, I seemed to be almost prescient. In the first of my China Thrillers, “The Firemaker”, I wrote about the introduction of a genetically modified strain of rice which goes wrong. Within a couple of years of publication the genetically modified “Golden Rice” appeared on the scene to be met with huge opposition from environmental and anti-globalisation activists. It has taken nearly twenty years for its successor to get tentative approval for commercial cultivation. A physical launch tour for the book was out of the question because of social distancing restrictions, so this year there was a whole new approach… a virtual tour undertaken from that very music studio. Interviews with journalists began in January and carried on into February and March. There is traditionally a launch party for the new book in London with all the top book reviewers having a meal in London with me and my publisher. This year it was replaced by a virtual launch and a hamper of specially chosen food, drink and delights from South West France, was delivered to the homes of the journalists. We then met up and enjoyed the fare together on a video call. In May, I made the final shortlist for the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s “Dagger in the Library” a prize awarded by British librarians.It took a month or two for the award itself to reach France, but here I am with the “Dagger in the Library”… in the library! Looking forward to 2022 I left Beijing empty-handed on that trip, but had learned a great deal, and was even more determined to use China as a setting for my next book. No one had set a crime thriller in Beijing at that point, just as no one had used Moscow as a setting before Gorky Park. I was absolutely intent on being the first to do it in China. Through this countrywide network, a writer who was unknown to American readers, could get on the road and let people know about his work.

I feel privileged to have experienced Beijing and China as it had once been, and to have borne witness to its metamorphosis. The China Thrillers could hardly have been set at a time of greater change. And so I view the books now almost as modern historical documents. They tell us not only about the evolution in the relationship between Deputy Section Chief Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell, but bear testament to one of the most astonishing cultural transformations in recent history. Speaking of which, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous New Year! George”, with all his warmth and wisdom and wry wit, was a pleasure to be with, and I’m sure that readers will enjoy catching up once more with the character that he inspired. I went away and spent the next eight years reading everything I could about the country – its history, its politics, its culture, its cuisine – and watched with the rest of the world as the horrors of Tiananmen Square unravelled before me on my television screen in 1989. I don’t think the picture I paint is wrong, but it is one of several possibilities and no-one knows for sure how it is going to go – but the fact it is going to go is beyond question.

And the future of Scotland’s politics and government is another area Peter had to think through for his novel. Enzo used to be a forensic expert, working on spine-chilling cases. But as with every exciting murder mystery, the expert must return to the field. People who have a taste for crime thrillers and murder mysteries will find the name Peter May familiar. Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival and the Centre of Irish & Scottish Studies at the University of Otago present I was pleased to have the chance to spend time with him again, and this was a good opportunity for us to get to know him a little better.

Arriving during an ice storm, Brodie and pathologist Dr. Sita Roy, find themselves the sole guests at the inappropriately named International Hotel, where Younger’s body has been kept refrigerated in a cake cabinet. But evidence uncovered during his autopsy places the lives of both Brodie and Roy in extreme jeopardy. Maybe if bestselling Scottish thriller writer Peter May hadn’t started reading around climate change and its effects in the run-up to COP26, he would never have written his new book set in the future. The new book, Peter May's A Winter Grave is set in a world affected by climate change.It was dated January 25th, 1971, which seemed auspicious since it was also the birthday of the great Scottish Bard, Rabbie Burns.