Historical fiction set in Scotland

[Gastropod]

Love me a good historical novel, especially historical crime/murder mysteries. CJ Sansom, SJ Parris, etc. I've read loads set in medieval/Tudor England but am looking for good historical fiction set in Scotland, especially Edinburgh or Glasgow. Not Outlander, and preferably not written by Americans who appear to have never actually set foot in Scotland...

I just read a couple by Kaite Welsh - Sarah Gilchrist mysteries, which were OK, set in Victorian Edinburgh, not amazing though. I'd prefer something set a bit further back in time. I like a bit of grit and grime!

Any suggestions?

I listened to Clear via my library's audiobook app last year. I really enjoyed it too. Definitely worth a read.

If you read only one Scottish historical fiction book saga in your life try and make it The Tobacco Lords trilogy by Margaret Thompson-Davies. It’s wonderful. Set during the Jacobite Rising it follows the lives of two very different women, Regina a child of the slums and Annabella the daughter of a rich tobacco lord. It’s got everything, danger, twists, romance, rivalry. Oh I loved it. Sadly I could not get on with any of her other books

Thank you for all the suggestions. So much to look forward to.

In going through my kindle list it is quite obvious that I tend to read everything I can find by one author before moving on to someone else and that most authors are female.

Here are some of my suggestions.

Sara Sheridan's other historical novels are also very good and have stayed with me in a way that other stories don't.

The Burnings by Naomi Kelsey is based on a true story about the North Berwick witch trials. Quite hard going at times.

The Last Witch of Scotland by Philip Paris.

A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Glifford

The Edinburgh Skating Club by Michelle Sloan

The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen - set on North Uist at the time of Hercules the bear's escape.

The Ambrose Parry books

The Maggie Craig books

Sarah Maine books (some set in Scotland)

I second Reay Tannahill. Her book about Mary is actually my least favourite of hers but I loved A Dark and Distant Shore (18th century with a protagonist who's something of a Scottish Scarlett O'Hara), In Still and Stormy Waters (19th century but loosely based on the relationship between Mary QoS and Elizabeth I) and Passing Glory (first half of the 20th century and featuring one of my favourite Tannahill heroines).

The Huw Cullen books by Shirley McKay are good. There’s another series about a medieval doctor by an author with a similar name that I can’t recall

A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follet covers the practice of indenture of coal miners by the landowner in their coal mines. Set in the late 18th century. The indenture was a form of serfdom entered into by the Payment of Arles made at birth to parents of children already in service.

I found it fascinating that this was still a practice as late as the 18/19C. The book then follows the main character when he escapes to London and then moves to the Americas, the settlements in Virginia another favourite area in history.

The Huw Cullan series
https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-hew-cullan-mysteries-books-1-4/

The Margaret Kerr Series
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0841YXWQ7?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_sirpi

The Gil Cunningham Series
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0841YXWQ7?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_sirpi

The Long Drop by Denise Mina- set in the 1950s and based on a real crime.

His Bloody Project by Graham Macrae Burnett, a little different to what you're looking for but excellent.

Oooh yes, I like those. Know st Andrews well and loved recognizing the locations!

You’ve made my January, I’d never thought to see if there were more by her! Thank you

Also recommended this, bit different but I really enjoyed it.

I agree with Hurdlin - have a look at The Maiden and The King's Witches by Kate Foster. They're great and she has a new book based on Maggie Dickson coming out soon.

It has to be:
The Way of All Flesh, by Ambrose Perry

Dorothy Dunnett - start with The Game Of Kings.

Lexie Conyngham is very good.

I second The Fair Botanists, it was one of my favourite reads last year. The author focuses on female empowerment in the late Georgian era of Edinburgh, and is set around the moving of the botanic gardens.

Second whoever mentioned The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld - love her writing.

I am reading Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths at the moment - not out until next month but I got it on netgalley. It's brilliant - a dual timeline novel set in rural north-east Scotland and full of intrigue!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/greater-sins/gabrielle-griffiths/9781529929072

His Bloody Project by Graham Macrae Burnett, a little different to what you're looking for but excellent.
Agreed
Also The Observations. Such a good book, and often overlooked

I was going to recommend Rose Nicolson too, I loved that. Haven't read his other one and will look for it

The Tower by Flora Carr is the story of Mary QOS imprisonment in Scotland after she's first seized. TW for baby loss, but I liked it a lot. It really showed how Mary's appalling taste in men was the root of her downfall, and how feckless she could be.