TBC
Monday 26 October 2026, 6pm. Colinton Library, 14 Thorburn Road, Colinton, EH13 0BQ
Writing as E S Thomson, Elaine Thomson is the author of six historical crime novels featuring Victorian Jem Flockhart. The most recent, Underground, a dark and gothic tale, is set in cholera-stricken London of 1854. She has now turned her hand to writing ghost stories that focus on the supernatural. As Elaine says, “Doesn’t everyone love a ghost story? And if you’re one of those rare people who doesn’t, why not try these anyway and become immersed in the haunting beauty of Scottish landscape and history”.
Written under the name Elaine Thomson is Hawthorn: A Scottish Ghost Story, published in 2025. It is the first in a quartet of ghost stories, each set at a supernatural turning point in the year: Samhain (Hallowe’en), Midsummer, Midwinter, and Beltane.
Saltwater: A Midsummer Ghost Story, published in June 2026, follows Tom Torrance to the Isle of Stroma in 1896, tasked with finishing a lighthouse in treacherous waters. Amid endless summer light and growing isolation, his rational convictions are tested by forces the sea cannot explain..
“It is the second in a quartet of exquisitely haunting ghost stories set in the wilds of Scotland.” – Goodreads
Pentlands Book Festival: Nov each year 