Welcome to Arachnid Press

Arachnid Press Ltd

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 books, 'The Eye of Horus' by Ken Lussey, which we are publishing on 18 June 2024, and the same author's contemporary thriller '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'.

Cover 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.

Due Soon: The Eye of Horus

Cover of The Eye of Horus

'The Eye of Horus' is an atmospheric World War Two thriller with settings that move from the Highlands of Scotland via Gibraltar to Malta. We will be publishing it in paperback and Kindle on 18 June 2024.

It’s June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland are on honeymoon in Kyle of Lochalsh when an unexpected visitor arrives to spoil their idyll.

They agree to travel to Malta to search for two missing men, a young naval lieutenant and an MI6 officer who has disappeared while looking for him. The aerial siege of the island is over and the tide of war has turned but, after three years of bombing, Malta remains a shattered place.

The available leads produce more questions than answers and progress is impeded by lies. As Bob and Monique come closer to discovering what became of the two men, events take a dangerous turn and their priority shifts from enjoying their honeymoon to surviving it.

A Tangled Web

Cover of 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.

World War Two Thrillers


Cover of The Eye of Horus

'The Eye of Horus' is set in June 1943. Bob and Monique are on honeymoon in Kyle of Lochalsh when they are asked to travel to the war-shattered island of Malta to search for two missing men, a young naval lieutenant and an MI6 officer who has disappeared while looking for him.
• Find out more here.
• Buy the paperback edition.
• Buy the Kindle edition.

Cover of Hide and Seek

'Hide and Seek' is set in April 1943. A grisly murder at Stirling Castle echoes a dark episode in the castle's history and the disappearance of a young woman threatens national security. Bob Sutherland investigates the murder while Monique Dubois hunts for the missing woman.
• Find out more here.
• Buy the paperback edition.
• Buy the Kindle edition.

Cover of The Stockholm Run

'The Stockholm Run' is set in March 1943. A violent death reveals a secret buried beneath Edinburgh Castle. But then Bob Sutherland and Monique Dubois are sent to Stockholm, a city supposedly at peace in a world at war, to take delivery of a message of critical national importance.
• Find out more here.
• Buy the paperback edition.
• Buy the Kindle edition.

Cover of Bloody Orkney

'Bloody Orkney' is set in 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 naval anchorages in the world. But then an unidentified body is found and things get far too personal.
• Find out more here.
• Buy the paperback edition.
• Buy the Kindle edition.

Contemporary Novels


Cover of A Tangled Web

'A Tangled Web' is the second in the Callum Anderson series. Callum 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. Things soon get very dangerous.
• Find out more here.
• Buy the Kindle edition.

Cover of The High Road

'The High Road', is a fast-paced contemporary thriller. 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?
• Find out more here.
• Buy the Kindle edition.

Cover of The House with 46 Chimneys

'The House With 46 Chimneys' is a spooky adventure story for younger readers involving a two-century-old family mystery and the haunting of Dunmore Park, a ruined house in central Scotland. Set against the background of the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown it captures a singular moment in time.
• Find out more here.
• Buy the paperback edition.
• Buy the Kindle edition.