Eager readers in Moray have proved they have an appetite for crime, with a grisly thriller emerging as the region’s most popular library book.
Stuart Macbride’s The Missing and the Dead centres on an investigation into the murder of a young girl whose body is found just outside Banff.
The ninth in the popular Logan McRae detective series was released last January, and spent the rest of 2015 flying off library shelves across Moray.
Yesterday the author expressed his gratitude to the residents who had made it the region’s most frequently borrowed book, particularly given recent library closure threats.
Mr Macbride said: “It’s really nice to see The Missing and the Dead being borrowed so heavily in Moray.
“It’s been a very challenging year for libraries in Moray, and the only thing that’s going to save them is if people get down to their local one and use it.
“I really hope the book has helped with that.
“Of course, the fact that the book roams from Portsoy to Peterhead probably doesn’t hurt its popularity in Moray, but I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who borrowed it – they are helping keep our libraries alive.”
On Thursday, Mr Macbride will release his 10th Logan McRae novel, In The Cold Dark Ground.
The second most popular Moray library book of 2015 was Personal by Lee Child, the 19th in the Jack Reacher action series.
It was followed in third place by John Grisham legal thriller Gray Mountain.