A Breath on Dying Embers

Longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize 2019

‘Absorbing . . . no run-of-the-mill tartan noir’ - The Times

‘You’ll have a blast with these’ - Ian Rankin

‘A top talent, and one to be cherished' - Quintin Jardine

‘Spellbinding . . . one of the UK’s most loved crime writers’ - The Sunday Post

‘A compelling lead . . . satisfyingly twisted plot’ - Publishers Weekly

‘Touches of dark humour, multi-layered and compelling’ - Daily Record

‘Striking characters and shifting plots vibrate with energy’ - The Library Journal

‘Daley is a character complete with depths, currents and sudden changes of the Atlantic ocean that crashes against Kinloch’s harbour walls. The remote peninsula and the claustrophobic nature of small-town life are perfectly painted.’ - Scotland on Sunday

‘If you like Rankin, MacBride and Oswald, you’ll love Meyrick’ - The Sunday Mail

‘Energetic, wry, and full of jolts' - Waterstones

‘The right amount of authenticity . . . gritty writing . . . most memorable’ - The Herald

‘All three books have a strong sense of place, of city cops trying to fit in to a small, tightly knit rural environment’ - Russell Leadbetter, Evening Times

‘Meyrick has the ability to give even the least important person in the plot character and the skill to tell a good tale’ - Scots Magazine

‘Following in the tradition of great Scottish crime writers, Denzil Meyrick has turned out a cracking, tenacious thriller of a read. If you favour the authentic and credible, you are in safe hands’ - Lovereading

‘DCI Daley is shaping up to be the West Coast’s answer to Edinburgh’s Rebus’-Scottish Home and Country

‘Well crafted and engrossing . . . Meyrick is well into his rhythm’ - Journal of the Law Society of Scotland

When the luxury cruiser, hastily renamed Great Britain, berths in Kinloch harbour, the pressure is on DCI Jim Daley. The UK Government are taking a high-powered group of businessmen and women on a tour of the British isles, golfing and seeing the sights, as part of a push for global trade. But when one of the crew goes missing, and an elderly local ornithologist disappears, will the pressure become too great?

The arrival of a face from the past, sends Daley’s world into a tailspin. And the lives of the passengers and crew of SS Great Britain, as well as the country’s economic future are in jeopardy. DS Brian Scott comes to the fore, and replete with a temporary promotion, is once more - most reluctantly, in his case - back at sea.

Daley faces a life and death struggle, but is this his last throw of the dice?