DI Buchan Book 8 - ALL THE DEAD POETS - Out Now

Added at 10:44 on 03 November 2025

So far in the DI Buchan series, the villainous protagonists have killed authors, publishers, painters, cinematographers, composers and filmmakers. I think the only reason the killers of Buchan’s Glasgow have yet to turn their attention to poets, is that I try not to think about poets. But at last, the time has come.

I started writing ALL THE DEAD POETS thinking there’d be some sort of bloodbath of the poets, like Anakin cutting a swathe through baby Jedi, but it didn’t really turn out that way. As close followers of the inside of my head will know, I never start a book with any idea of what’s going to happen in chapter two, never mind further into the narrative or at the end. So it turned out the way it turned out, with little poetical carnage.

The narrative is set in Glasgow over a long, bakingly hot weekend, and while the storyline may be a little far-fetched as ever, there’s nothing that happens that’s more far-fetched than Glasgow having a long, bakingly hot weekend.

Here’s the blurb:

The warrior poets of the Scottish environmental movement have gathered in a Glasgow hotel to debate the coming climate apocalypse, and how Scotland can continue to lead from the back.

But where there’s a climate conference, there’s money, and where there’s money, there’s discord and conflict. And, before the first day of the conference is even in the bag, there will be murder.

DI Buchan and his team return in a dark and gripping crime thriller, set over a long, hot weekend, where tensions rise, tempers flare, and only the blood runs cold…

Click here to share in the magic.

Buchan will return in REQUIEM in 2026.