Welcome to Arachnid Press
Arachnid Press Ltd is an independent Scottish publisher set up in late 2020. Our aim is to develop a full range of publishing services.
We are not currently open to submissions, but will announce here when that changes. At present we are focusing on a small number of projects beyond our latest publication, 'The High Road' by Ken Lussey and its sequel 'A Tangled Web'. These include our work with an external author on the production of a cookbook with a fascinating twist. Watch this space...
Our Story
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? You'd expect a book to come about because of a publisher. In our case, a publisher came about because of a book.
Arachnid Press grew out of the remarkable success of Carolyn Henry's superb compilation of 'Kirkliston COVID-19 Isolation Portraits'.
The story of the book is told in our page about it, together with that of the exhibition it spawned at St John's Hospital in Livingston. Suffice it to say that Carolyn's production of her book brought about the realisation that her skills, combined with those of Maureen Lussey, owner of the highly successful website Undiscovered Scotland, and those of author Ken Lussey, gave us everything we needed to begin to establish Arachnid Press Ltd as an independent Scottish publisher.
A Tangled Web
We published 'A Tangled Web' by Ken Lussey on 15 November 2023, initially as an eBook. This fast-paced contemporary thriller is set in northern Scotland.
Callum Anderson returns to north-west Sutherland to help local GP Jenny Mackay investigate the death of her husband. The authorities say he committed suicide but she’s convinced he was murdered.
As an accountant and a councillor, Iain Mackay was an upstanding pillar of society. Or was he? Callum soon discovers that Iain lied to everyone who thought he loved them: especially his wife and his daughters. He was also a philanderer, a blackmailer and thoroughly corrupt. The possible motives for both murder and suicide begin to mount.
What Callum discovers puts his fledgling relationship with Jenny under real strain. But that becomes the least of their problems when they come up against people who have already killed and would have no qualms about killing again.
- Buy the Kindle edition from Amazon.
- Find out more about the book on our page about it.
- Visit Ken Lussey's website to read excerpts and find out about the locations used.
The High Road
We published 'The High Road' by Ken Lussey on 15 September 2023, initially as an eBook. This fast-paced contemporary thriller set mainly in central Scotland and the far north-west.
Callum Anderson is in Scotland to scatter his father’s ashes when he’s asked by a cousin to look for her missing sister, Alexandra. With his life in London in tatters and suspended from duty by the Metropolitan Police, why not?
It soon becomes clear that Alex is on the run from a local criminal. But someone much more dangerous is after her too and sees Callum as a means of finding her and adding to a trail of bodies that extends across two countries.
After a brief entanglement with a Police Scotland anti-terrorist operation, Callum drops off the radar to follow the only lead he has left, which takes him to the far north-west of Scotland. But can he find Alex before his own hunter finds him?
- Buy the Kindle edition from Amazon.
- Find out more about the book on our page about it.
- Visit Ken Lussey's website to read excerpts and find out about the locations used.
Hide and Seek
We published 'Hide and Seek' by Ken Lussey on 26 May 2023. This fast-paced thriller is set in Stirling Castle and more widely across Scotland during World War Two.
It’s April 1943. Medical student Helen Erickson is followed from London to her aunt’s farm in Perthshire. What do her pursuers want?
Meanwhile Monique Dubois is attending a secret meeting at Stirling Castle when an old adversary is murdered in a chilling echo of a dark episode in the castle’s history. Bob Sutherland and the MI11 team are called in and discover that almost everyone who knew the victim had a motive.
Helen disappears and it becomes clear that national security is at stake. Monique sets out to find the missing woman before anyone else does, even if it means killing to protect her. Can Monique find Helen? Can Bob track down the killer at Stirling Castle? And just how dangerous have things become for both of them?
- Buy the paperback edition from Arachnid Press.
This may be signed and dedicated at no extra cost if you wish. - Buy the Kindle edition from Amazon.
- Find out more about the book on our page about it.
- Visit Ken Lussey's website to read excerpts and find out about the locations used.
The Stockholm Run
We published 'The Stockholm Run' by Ken Lussey on 26 May 2022. This fast-paced thriller is set largely in Edinburgh and Stockholm during World War Two.
It’s March 1943. The death of an intruder reveals a hidden military bunker at Dundas Castle near Edinburgh, a living relic of an anti-invasion scheme from earlier in the war. Bob Sutherland and the Military Intelligence 11 team follow a trail that leads to a much larger secret, buried beneath Edinburgh Castle.
As the mystery in Edinburgh unravels, Bob Sutherland and Monique Dubois are sent to Stockholm, a city supposedly at peace in a world at war. There they are to take delivery of a message of critical national importance.
Or is it all a carefully crafted trap? Both encounter ghosts from the past in Sweden. Can their relationship survive what they uncover? Will they live long enough for that to matter?
- Buy the paperback edition from Arachnid Press.
This may be signed and dedicated at no extra cost if you wish. - Buy the Kindle edition from Amazon.
- Find out more about the book on our page about it.
- Visit Ken Lussey's website to read excerpts and find out about the locations used.
Bloody Orkney
We published 'Bloody Orkney' by Ken Lussey on 29 June 2021. This is a fast-paced thriller set in Scotland, mainly in Orkney, during World War Two.
It’s November 1942. Bob Sutherland, Monique Dubois and the Military Intelligence 11 team fly in to review security in Orkney, home to one of the most important and most heavily defended naval anchorages in the world.
But an unidentified body has been found. It becomes clear that powerful men have things they’d rather keep hidden and MI11’s arrival threatens the status quo. Then Bob stumbles over a ghost from his past and things get far too personal.
He and Monique are called away to resolve a crisis at a secret experimental base at Gruinard Bay in Wester Ross. When they return to Orkney, they find that the rules have been rewritten and they are in very real danger.
- Buy the paperback edition from Arachnid Press.
This may be signed and dedicated at no extra cost if you wish. - Buy the Kindle edition from Amazon.
- Find out more about the book on our page about it.
- Visit Ken Lussey's website to read excerpts and find out about the locations used.
The House With 46 Chimneys
We published 'The House With 46 Chimneys' by Ken Lussey on 10 November 2020; an adventure story for young adult readers set in central Scotland during the early stages of the coronavirus lockdown.
- Buy the paperback edition from Arachnid Press.
This may be signed and dedicated at no extra cost if you wish. - Buy the Kindle edition from Amazon.
- Find out more about the book on our page about it.
- Visit Ken Lussey's website to read excerpts and find out about the locations used.
