The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries Series

In a quirky flat in the Westend of Glasgow, during the tension preceding the second Gulf War, Bruno walks in on Justin exercising and gives in to his pleading to massage taut muscles. As Justin groans in pleasure, Bruno reads him a strange astrological dream, a dream which begins to echo eerily in various narratives of family and friends as the dream turns to nightmare. Imogen is more concerned with the drama of getting through her teaching course and Clara is busy running the NHS and they have their own opinions about the reality behind the dream – and also about Bruno’s mental health. But even they find the increasing coincidences hard to explain away. When the front door slams and Bruno seems psychically led to the scene of a murder, Imogen puts aside her doubts to help him fight his monsters from the Id. The Bruno Mysteries are aimed at intelligent readers of mystery novels who like characters who they can identify with rather than slick Bond-types. Particular aspects of this series are the move away from the ‘gritty Glasgow’ genre, which has become predictable, and the faithful reflection of the strategic use of dialect in different social situations – which many readers (Scots or not) will recognise. Alan Ahrens-McManus describes his qualifications as a novel writer as, "a life of getting into scrapes and out of them while hanging out with people so extremely different they wouldn’t be seen dead with each other; years of living and working in dodgy situations in even dodgier countries; a Highland grandmother who passed on her gift of various experiences of second sight; a fascination with the peculiarities of people and a total inability to stop my words jumping around merrily on the page. I also have a respect for my characters, which are only vaguely my own creation, and the patience to let them tell me in their own time and in their own way what they’ve been up to since I wrote about them last." "Tricks of the Mind", rather than just a form of escapism, allows reflection on 'real life' as the main characters are multi-faceted and develop as they learn from experience and each other, a development continued in "The Lovers", "Shades of the Sun", "Qismet" and "Tìr nam Bàn"..

Bruno’s father has dementia and neither the unusually hot Scottish summer nor even Justin’s habitual strip-teasing can take his mind off the slow ebbtide of Alzheimer’s. Justin’s suggestion of going to a Psychic Fayre leads to Bruno overhearing a tarot card reading, with cards on the table also for him, then meeting the questioner, Bernadette – who isn’t just the pretty, dumpy, intelligent and deeply lonely nurse she seems. When Imogen and Clara move out for the summer, a new tenant destabilises the house bromance and Bruno flees in tears, running across a sequence of tarot tableaux from The Fool to The World. It all comes crashing down when Bernadette reveals who she really works for and why the lives of thousands of patients depend on recovering an item of proof. But it isn’t only the lives of others that are at stake as the villain of the piece reveals that his deadly threat wasn’t playacting after all. The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries are aimed at intelligent readers of mystery novels who like characters who they can identify with rather than slick Bond-types. Particular aspects of this series are the move away from the ‘gritty Glasgow’ genre (which has become predictable) and the faithful reflection of the strategic use of dialect in different social situations – which many readers (Scots or not) will recognise. Alan Ahrens-McManus describes his qualifications as a novel writer as, "a life of getting into scrapes and out of them while hanging out with people so extremely different they wouldn’t be seen dead with each other; years of living and working in dodgy situations in even dodgier countries; a Highland grandmother who passed on her gift of various experiences of second sight; a fascination with the peculiarities of people and a total inability to stop my words jumping around merrily on the page. I also have a respect for my characters, which are only vaguely my own creation, and the patience to let them tell me in their own time and in their own way what they’ve been up to since I wrote about them last." "The Lovers", rather than just a form of escapism, allows reflection on 'real life' as the main characters are multi-faceted and develop as they learn from experience and each other, a development started in "Tricks of the Mind" and continued in "Shades of the Sun", "Qismet" and "Tìr nam Bàn".

Bruno finally turns forty and proposes to his friends that they open a small school. Unbeknownst to Bruno, Clara has inherited a property with some money and her organisational skills make this unlikely project possible. Justin and Imogen and other friends are persuaded to join the new venture. But not Simone, who asks Bruno if he ever hears noises in the school. Sad noises. All are busy in preparation until things go bump in the night and Johnny barely escapes with his life. Tensions rise as one by one those who enter the building are clearly not themselves. Which means Bruno and Clara have to find out who, or what, is the connection between the former owner of the building and the coded letter Max scratches out of the skirtingboard. Crossing the line between the quick and the dead, Bruno and his friends find out just what meddling with forces they cannot control may lead to. Fair thoughts and happy hours are their only protection. But how to ignore a force that feeds on terror? Alan Ahrens-McManus describes his qualifications as a novel writer as, "a life of getting into scrapes and out of them while hanging out with people so extremely different they wouldn’t be seen dead with each other; years of living and working in dodgy situations in even dodgier countries; a Highland grandmother who passed on her gift of various experiences of second sight; a fascination with the peculiarities of people and a total inability to stop my words jumping around merrily on the page. I also have a respect for my characters, which are only vaguely my own creation, and the patience to let them tell me in their own time and in their own way what they’ve been up to since I wrote about them last." "Qismet", rather than just a form of escapism, allows reflection on 'real life' as the main characters are multi-faceted and develop as they learn from experience and each other, a development which started with "Tricks of the Mind", and continued with "The Lovers" and "Shades of the Sun". The latest novel in the series is "Tìr nam Bàn".

After Bruno suffers a long-expected family bereavement, Justin and Imogen get him a fun present: a mystery weekend at Corpington Manor at Old Yule. All’s fun (although very weird) until they lose a night, are imprisoned in a freezing cellar and escape back home where Clara tells them to get some therapy for their PTSD. Their Scooby-Doo type adventure stops being comic when relationships break down and Bruno is sacked from his job – for actions which he can’t remember doing. Hiking the West Highland Way, alone with Justin, Bruno relaxes away from stress. Until they meet a sinister traveller on the road. Nothing is solved until Imogen persuades them to return to Mad, Bad and Dodgy Manor at Midsummer for a New Age healing retreat. What Bruno learns there has him running scared, all the way to a bloodstained body on a Glasgow street. Will Bruno ever find out what happened in the past or will he have to live with its mystery? Alan Ahrens-McManus describes his qualifications as a novel writer as, "a life of getting into scrapes and out of them while hanging out with people so extremely different they wouldn’t be seen dead with each other; years of living and working in dodgy situations in even dodgier countries; a Highland grandmother who passed on her gift of various experiences of second sight; a fascination with the peculiarities of people and a total inability to stop my words jumping around merrily on the page. I also have a respect for my characters, which are only vaguely my own creation, and the patience to let them tell me in their own time and in their own way what they’ve been up to since I wrote about them last." "Shades of the Sun", rather than just a form of escapism, allows reflection on 'real life' as the main characters are multi-faceted and develop as they learn from experience and each other, a development which started with "Tricks of the Mind", and continued with "The Lovers". Next is "Qismet" and the latest novel in the series is "Tìr nam Bàn".

In what should be the happiest time of his life – teaching at a good school, with great friends, a lovely lover and a child to raise jointly on the way – Bruno Benedetti stands weeping on a bridge over the motorway that passes through Glasgow's Charing Cross. Under the midnight rain, poised between truth and lies, Bruno is overwhelmed by the fear that the person he was most sure of has been deceiving him for years. This despair drowns out his persistent sense that something is deeply wrong even though he's been asked, by sympathetic police officers, not to ignore his psychic gifts and to report any of his 'hunches' – no matter how foolish they seem to him. Even Pride Carnival in Edinburgh, that's usually an occasion of joy, leaves him blank and finally alone. But life has to go on, even when Bruno's rising anxiety means he's missing time over the months and waking up in strange places, unaware how he got there. Isolated, heartbroken and afraid, he tries to divert his obsessive mind by casting astrological transits to the natal chart as a gift for the child's first birthday. All seems well until he notices that the same celestial clock, auguring good fortune for the child, is a ticking time bomb for a local landmark Art Deco cinema, 'The Astra'. Feeling a fool, caught between hope and despair, as the police prove him wrong yet he is certain that international dignitaries are choosing to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, Bruno can't trust his instincts which have been so wrong for so long. As the clock counts down to terror, how can Bruno counter the malefic influence of the stars? ‘Transits of Terror’ (still at a discount pre-order price!) is the sixth of the Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, which start with ‘Tricks of the Mind’ and continue with ‘The Lovers’, ‘Shades of the Sun’, ‘Qismet’ and ‘Tìr nam Bàn’.

The mysterious silvered words of prophecy on a tapestry of Irish linen just seem part of the Hebridean island charm of Tìr nam Bàn, where Bruno and his friends are taking kids on a school trip for a week’s retreat in a rebuilt Old Catholic Nunnery. Despite the uptight Abbess, and Justin’s fear of nuns, students and teachers are having a lovely time on what seems to be a simple island paradise. Entranced by the Aurora Borealis, by the beauty of the island, and more in love than ever with his athletic lover, Bruno has much more to think about than the lights appearing to the north-east of the island when they go skinny-dipping in seas that are freezing even in August. When Bruno and Imogen get drunk after accepting an invitation to an Open Evening at a New Age centre of eco-spirituality, he can’t believe his eyes at a momentary vision of evil in paradise and neither can his friends, but his unease grows. However, when an afternoon cycle ride turns into drug-fuelled lovemaking with an old friend, then a morning swim with seals leads him to an encounter with elemental forces beyond his ken, Bruno loses all grip on reality and tensions rise as the others have to shoulder his work. Bruno feels mad, bad and dangerous to know but, unbeknownst to him, someone who has been with him from the beginning of the trip believes his wild story and together they rescue lives that others are selling to the highest bidder - but not without paying a high price. Tìr nam Bàn is the fifth of the Bruno Benedetti Mysteries, which start with Tricks of the Mind and continue with The Lovers, Shades of the Sun and Qismet.

A summer holiday week with friends and family in an old stone cottage in pretty Pencarden village, in the lovely woodland grounds of the Police College where Bruno is teaching a course in emotional reception as an aspect of situational awareness. Bruno gets lost in the pathways that wind among the Scots pine, horse chestnut, larch, beech, oak, sycamore, yew and elms and is drawn to the estuary with its mudflats, and the haunting cries of curlews. A faded photograph of a Late Victorian lady in white muslin, with a Chinese parasol, draws his attention. As his practical course stimulates the students in unexpected ways, the past seeps into the present and a persistent presence is felt – and seen. The I-Ching shows the way and Imogen, reluctantly, forces Bruno to face a truth he has long avoided. Last in the series, The Marrying Maiden draws The Bruno Benedetti Mysteries to a close.