Hard-boiled Scottish mysteries set in the kitchens, bars, and back corridors of struggling hotels.

David Ray travels where permanent chefs refuse to go. Aging hotels. Seasonal resorts. Coastal towns holding on by habit more than hope.

Hired to steady failing kitchens and difficult staff, Ray arrives as an outsider every time. Long enough to notice what others ignore. Never long enough to belong.

But behind the dining rooms and harbour views lie disappearances, old grudges, financial pressure, and deaths the local police are often too busy, too tired, or too connected to fully examine.

The David Ray Mysteries are Scottish noir novellas rooted in the hospitality industry: stories of isolation, pressure, and the people trapped inside failing systems. 

Part travelogue, part mystery, part portrait of modern Scottish hospitality.