If you've ever visited Edinburgh, you'll almost certainly have seen Deacon Brodie's Tavern. Situated along the Royal Mile just across from St. Giles' Cathedral, it's hard to miss.

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What a lot of people don't realise in passing, though, is that it's named after a Scottish cabinet maker who lived a double life in the 1700s. By day, he was a respectable cabinet maker. By night, a burglar. Eventually, he was caught, he tried to run, and he was ultimately hanged.

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Robert Louis Stevenson's father owned furniture made by Brodie, and inspired, Stevenson wrote an unsuccessful play, Deacon Brodie, or The Double Life, about the man's strange dual existence. Despite the failure of the play, he remained fascinated by the topic, and he later wrote another story about someone with a double life - Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

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​8 British Mysteries Where a Real Person is the Fictional Sleuth - From Dickens as a detective to a sleuthing Jane Austen, these books borrow famous and historical people to solve their mysteries.

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Featured Selections...

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• ​From Scotland With Love by Claire Gillies - Successful businesswoman Lori Robertson returns to her Scottish village for her sister's sudden wedding, only to face old flames and unresolved feelings with her first love, Callum Macrae.
• ​No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara - When two children board a train but only one gets off, a frantic mother must unravel the web of lies and deceit surrounding her daughter's disappearance before it's too late.
• ​Alias Emma by Ava Glass - New secret agent Emma Makepeace must navigate London's surveillance-filled streets on foot to protect the son of Russian dissidents from assassins, all while her handler goes dark and trust becomes a deadly gamble.
• ​Murder at Hawthorn Cottage by Betty Rowlands - Melissa Craig's peaceful life in the countryside is disrupted when the bones of a young woman are found near her cottage, prompting her to investigate a mystery that reveals the village's dark secrets.
• ​Fake Death by Victoria Tait - Young widow Dotty Sayers, working at a Cotswolds auction house, becomes embroiled in a murder investigation after an unknown soldier is found dead following a Remembrance parade.

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• ​23 by NJ Miller - Raquel Fitzpatrick, a foodie and writer, makes a catastrophic mistake after befriending new neighbours, setting off a chain of events that could put her in jail. With her husband being a law-abiding police officer, she'll have to rely on her eccentric family to help her fix the situation before her world comes crashing down.
• ​Textbook Romance by Kristen Bailey - After discovering her husband's betrayal, Zoe Swift, a single mother and maths teacher, finds unexpected chemistry with Jack, a young supply teacher she meets again at school.
• ​New Starts and Cherry Tarts at the Cosy Kettle by Liz Eeles - Callie Fulbright is determined to focus on her new café after a failed romance. Her resolve is tested when her ex returns to the village, rekindling old feelings.
• ​Tidelands by Philippa Gregory - In a war-torn England, Alinor, trapped between widowhood and suspicion, unwittingly shelters a fugitive spy, risking her life and reputation as her dangerous secret threatens to expose her to a witch-hunting community.
• ​They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy's Story by Peter James - Whether you've been watching Grace or reading the Roy Grace novels, this one should be interesting. For the first time, we get the story from the perspective of his missing wife, Sandy.

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More to Read...

​9 Under-Rated British TV Mysteries on BritBox (US) - More than half are based on books.

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​16 of the Best British Railway Mysteries - Many are structurally similar to locked room mysteries - and the romance of the rails certainly makes a good atmosphere for a mystery.

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"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles​

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