Pilgrim of Slaughter

About the Book: 

I fear that everything is pre-ordained, sir. There’s nothing we can do to change the course of events. The killer’s actions are predetermined. We’re all being slaughtered one by one.

Scotland, 1688. A nation bitterly divided by religion and politics where the King’s pro-Catholic policies have unleashed the sectarian hatred of extreme Protestants. Edinburgh is a powder-keg, packed with plotters planning revolution. The mob is on the High Street each night burning effigies of the Pope and causing mayhem.

When a nobleman is assassinated by a Catholic fanatic, Protestant anger reaches fever pitch. Investigative advocate John MacKenzie and his assistant Davie Scougall must investigate the killing, but their relationship is tested like never before when they find themselves on opposing sides of the political divide.

To make matters worse, a killer is stalking the stinking streets. A disciple of revolution. A butcher in the name of God. A pilgrim of slaughter.

Reviews: 

Move over Rebus. There’s a new – or should that be old – detective in town. MATTHEW PERREN, I-ON EDINBURGH, on Death of a Chief

About the Author:

DOUGLAS WATT is a historian, poet and novelist. He is the author of The Price of Scotland: Darien, Union and the Wealth of Nations, a well-received history of the Darien Disaster and Parliamentary Union between Scotland and England, which won the Hume Brown Senior Prize in Scottish History in 2008. He is also the author of Death of a Chief, the first novel in the series of pre-Enlightenment crime novels, featuring John MacKenzie, Investigative Advocate. Douglas Watt has also contributed opinion pieces to the Scotsman on financial, historical and political subjects. He lives in Linlithgow with his wife Julie and their three children.