All the Hidden Truths: one shocking crime: three women need answers

Our summary description

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

In the wake of the Three Rivers College shooting, Edinburgh looks for certainty. The facts are quickly gathered. Names, times, sequences. What remains absent is the reason, and the absence weighs heavily.

Three women are left to carry that weight. DI Helen Birch works the case with care and persistence, aware that clarity may not bring comfort. Ishbel, the mother of the first victim, moves through grief that resists explanation. Moira, the killer’s mother, searches for some understanding of the son she thought she knew.

Their lives circle the same unanswered question. As public anger sharpens and the need for blame grows louder, the truth seems to recede rather than come into focus.

This is literary crime fiction rooted in character and restraint. It considers grief, responsibility and the stories people reach for when meaning feels out of reach, asking what is lost when certainty is demanded too quickly.