Shona Sandison

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Created by Philip Miller

“The man’s a fuckwit”
— Shona on a colleague in The Goldenacre

Is it all a just a lament for the “the way it used to be”?

Or is it a brutal running obituary for journalism as we once know it?

Either way, after over twenty years in the journalism trenches, veteran reporter  SHONA SANDISON is feeling it.

When we first meet her, in Philip Miller’s acclaimed (and Shamus-winning) The Goldenacre (2022), she’s a bitter, disillusioned, foul-mouthed crank who doesn’t mince words, working as senior reporter for the Edinburgh Post, a daily being nickel-and-dimed to death by the suits. She’s assigned to cover the murder of an acclaimed local painter found beaten to death, but when that’s followed in short order by a similar attack on a city councilor, one who’d stood firmly in the way of an extensive but dubious real-estate development, Shona smells a juicy scoop, and soon discovers the violence is somehow tied in with the recent authentication of The Goldenacre, an acclaimed watercolour, maybe even a masterpiece, by famous Scottish painter, Charles Rennie.

She may have to walk with a cane, but Shona it hasn’t slowed her down any — she’s one tough and dogged detective.

In the sequel, The Hollow Tree (2024), Shona, now working as a freelance journalist, is hoping her attendance at her bestie’s wedding will be a well-earned chance to relax and catch up with her old pal and colleague, Vivienne. But the night before the ceremony, Shona is the sole witness to the suicide of another wedding guest, who jumps off the roof of a building to his death.

Or was he pushed? Risking both her own life, and Vivienne’s friendship, Shona pokes around. Yeah, the wedding party set-up sounds pretty cozy-ish, but this ain’t no cozy, this ain’t no rollin’ around. Cozies really turn this dar and unsettling, as Shona ploughs through a pile of subterfuge, betrayal, and disturbing family secrets that have lurked in the shadows for decades.

You want it darker? In The Diary of Lies (2025), Shona, riding high after being nominated for a U.K. journalism award, digs into a story that may involvea top-secret new government project. Code-named Grendel, its agenda seems to involve sinking its claws deep into the lives of every citizen of the UK, and might be connected to  the murder of the son of a former MI6 director, intent on revenge.  It’s a dark and disturbing and tangled conspiracy worthy of, as Publishers Weekly points out, Mick Herron’s Slow Horses.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip Miller is a Scottish journalist, poet, and author. He was a newspaper journalist for twenty years and was twice named Arts Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. His previous novels include The Blue Horse, and All the Galaxies, while his poetry has been published online and in print. His first poetry collection, Blame Yourself, was published in 2024. He lives in Edinburgh

UNDER OATH

  • “A bitter journalist and troubled art expert risk their lives to find the connection between a legendary painting and a series of rash murders in this riveting, brutal journey into the high-stakes world of legacy art and inherited wealth”
    — Denise Mina
  • “The Goldenacre offers a slow-building but beautifully rendered amalgam of deceit, disappointments, and tragedy, delivered with noir stylings and a gasp-producing dénouement. Even at the end, there remain questions, and the administration of justice is credibly incomplete. A sequel is probably too much to hope for, but if Miller has more books in him, he can count on my reading them.”
    — J. Kingston Pierce (The Rap Sheet)
  • “… (a) riveting, brutal journey into the high-stakes world of legacy art and inherited wealth”
    — Denise Mina on The Goldenacre
  • “Miller’s outstanding third case… (offers)  striking prose and lovable characters… Miller doesn’t rush things, allowing the disparate strands of his sophisticated narrative to come together slowly, and he enriches the proceedings with striking prose (a stream runs “hard and clear, whitening with grinning teeth over boulders”) and lovable characters. Fans of Mick Herron will adore this.”
    — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on A Diary of Lies

NOVELS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

 

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