Talking Location With N S Brooks – SCOTLAND

3rd February 2025

#TalkingLocationWith… N S Brooks, author of Fraud – SCOTLAND.

The story starts in the West Highlands of Scotland in my first novel – Betrayed – and uses Scotland as a platform for the plots through all three subsequent books in the series. Scotland is a beautiful country; its landscape is haunting and ethereal because of its ruggedness. It allows a thriller writer to add more depth to the location’s atmosphere. Rannoch Moor is an excellent example of an atmospheric landscape, unchanged since time began, typifying the place’s utter bleakness.

‘The back of the house faced towards Glencoe and the Moor, and in winter, he could imagine the souls of the dead MacDonalds roaming around the house.”

The first book’s plot starts in Ballachulish, just north of Rannoch Moor and Glencoe on the southern end of Loch Leven. Overlooking the loch is the monument to James of the Glen, who was hanged in 1752 for a murder (The Appin Murder)  that he apparently never committed. Robert Louis Stevenson based his novel Kidnapped around the story of the Appin Murder.

My protagonist, Will Slater, is particularly sensitive to this story as he is suspected of a murder he didn’t commit. The Ballachulish Hotel was where Will Slater stayed on two separate occasions, pivotal to the first book’s story.

The second novel – Revenge – is based entirely in the Highlands, with the protagonist hiding away close to Killin and Loch Rannoch

Killin, on Loch Tay, has a rich history and, for a period in the Dark Ages, was the front line in the wars between the Picts of Scotland and the invading Gaels of Ireland. More recently it has more contemporary connections with the location of Alfred Hitchcock’s Thirty Nine Steps and the haunt of the Rabbit of Caerbannog of Monty Python and the Holy Grail fame.

PHOTO: Scotland Off The Beaten Track

The Western end of Loch Rannoch provides a perfect hideaway as no road goes further west. Further east down the loch stands the famous Fairy Mountain – Schiehallion – with its perfect conical shape and its mystic folklore. Accounts of a ghostly dog haunting the lower slopes of Schiehallion and a haunt of the ancient winter goddess of Scotland reinforce the atmosphere of the area and helps the reader to feel the bleakness of the environment as the story unfolds.

“The boards creaked under his feet as he took each step. Will stood at the top and looked down the long, dark corridor. A wisp of air brushed his cheek as if someone had breathed on him.”

My third novel – Fraud – is not set entirely in Scotland, but part of the plot takes part in a remote Western Highlands area. Some of the action takes place in a bothy.

A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge, in remote mountainous areas of Scotland.

“The hoot of two owls echoed eerily through the dense forest. In the distance, Will heard the bark of a stag deer. It was a warning noise.”

Will Slater and his wife are forced to take a perilous journey to save their lives, ending in a remote settlement of Tarbet on the edge of Loch Nevis, where the only exit is via a daily ferry to Mallaig.

Scotland provides a fantastic backdrop for any thriller writer.

Author N S Brooks spent forty years working in the City of London as a Chartered Accountant, before writing his first thriller – Betrayed – featuring lawyer Will Slater. The sequel, Revenge, will be followed by a third book in the series, Fraud, is out 30th January 2025

Connect with the author via his website / Twitter X / Instagram

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