A suspicious scarecrow, an unprovoked assault, and a missing person baffle Scottish police. . .

It is a serendipitous encounter for the hapless DI Greg Byrne when retired sleuth James Munro stumbles upon his crime scene. And perhaps also for Munro himself who, his protégé Charlie West having firmly snapped his apron strings, needs other lambs to wean.

The day is far less auspicious for the victim in the affair, the unfortunate property developer Rebecca Barlow who has been trussed up like a scarecrow in her yard.

Though occurring off DI West’s Ayrshire patch, the investigation will soon intertwine with one of her own. But just what does the young drug pusher she is tracking have to do with a bizarre, apparently ritualistic death involving a rowan tree?

With superstition running rife and an individual pertinent to the inquiry nowhere to be found, West might just need the help of Munro after all.

PENURY is the twelfth book in a series of witty murder mysteries set in the south west of Scotland. All of these books are available free with Kindle Unlimited and paperback. Most are also available as audiobooks.

The full list of titles in the series is as follows:

1. SHE
2. AVARICE
3. ENMITY
4. DUPLICITY
5. TERMINUS
6. TALION
7. PERDITION
8. RANCOUR
9. PENITENT
10. TURPITUDE
11. HUBRIS
12. PENURY
13. RUSE