Risingshadow
Speculative Fiction Books
  • About
    • Home
    • Articles
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Staff Members
    • Newsletter
    • Finnish (FI)
  • Books
    • New Releases
    • Coming Soon
    • Books of the Year
    • Bookshelves Activity
    • Recently Added
    • Advanced Search
    • Reviews / Comments
    • Genres and Tags
    • * Submit Book
  • Community
    • Discussions
    • - Recent Messages
    • - Recent Topics
    • - Hot Topics
    • - Popular Topics
    • - Search
    • CHALLENGES
    • - Reading Challenge
    • - Book Trivia Quiz
  • Home
  • Books
  • J M Dalgliesh
  • The Misty Isle
  • The Cuillin Dead

The Cuillin Dead

The Misty Isle #4 / 8
by J M Dalgliesh
The Cuillin Dead (The Misty Isle #4) by J M Dalgliesh
⧗ 9.34 / 3
1234567189210

Life is full of choices. Death... is chosen for you...When the body of a missing tourist is discovered slain in the foothills of the Cuillin Mountain range, it falls to D.I. Duncan McAdam and his small team to discover how he came to be there and who would have a motive to kill him.

The summer season is a welcome distraction following a brutal and challenging winter. The Isle of Skye is booming with a revitalised tourist trade after a tough few years, and the Misty Isle is on course for its best year for visitors on record. But one person has not received the warm greeting the islanders are famed for. Here, on the inner Hebridean island, long-held secrets, past crimes and burning resentment are set to be unveiled in the most brutal fashion.

Some people come to the island to experience a return to nature, others to detach from their hectic lives seeking a simpler existence. And then there are those who wish to escape their past and begin again. These people believe they are making a fresh start but overlook one universal truth, their sins come with them... and there will be a reckoning...

The Cuillin Dead is the fourth book in the new Amazon #1 bestselling Misty Isle series from the multi-million selling crime writer, J M Dalgliesh, the author of the Hidden Norfolk and Dark Yorkshire books.

Amazon: Check Best Offer

ThrillerMysteryCrime Fiction
Release date: June 30, 2024

Book Order
Amazon
Kindle
Audible
Amazon CA
Amazon UK
Amazon Europe

Your Rating
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Standard Shelves

Readers also enjoyed

The Name of the Rose
★ 8.18 / 27
A Calamity of Souls
★ 8.34 / 3
The Widow
★ 9.00 / 3
I Will Find You
★ 8.34 / 3
One Perfect Couple
★ 8.66 / 3
Holmes, Marple & Poe (Holmes, Margaret & Poe #1)
★ 8.66 / 3
Zero Days
★ 8.66 / 3

Join the Discussion
You can post as a guest or sign in for more features.
Have questions about this book or want to share your thoughts? Join the conversation!
J M Dalgliesh

J M Dalgliesh

Before he ever penned a crime scene or built the quiet tension of a small-town mystery, J.M. Dalgliesh was drawn to the shadows that linger at the edges of everyday life—the things left unsaid, the truths that hide beneath the surface. Raised in Norfolk, England, his early years were spent surrounded by the kind of windswept coastlines and weather-beaten streets that would later seep into the moody, atmospheric settings of his novels.

Dalgliesh didn’t follow the traditional literary path. His journey into writing came after years of working with people from all walks of life, experiences that gave him a sharp eye for the unspoken complexities of human nature. That empathy, coupled with a natural instinct for suspense, forms the backbone of his storytelling. His books often explore the fractures beneath seemingly tranquil communities, peeling back layers of civility to reveal the quiet violence that can lurk within.

Read more ...

Best known for his bestselling Norfolk and Hidden Norfolk crime series, and more recently for the brooding Misty Islenovels set on the Isle of Skye, Dalgliesh writes mysteries that prioritize character as much as plot. His detectives aren’t superhuman—they’re thoughtful, fallible, and deeply affected by the cases they take on. This emotional realism, paired with his love of bleak landscapes and slow-burn tension, has earned him a dedicated readership across the UK and beyond.

Dalgliesh’s work is grounded in the tradition of British crime fiction, but there’s a modern edge to his voice—a sensitivity to the moral gray areas of justice and the long shadows cast by the past. Whether it's the salt-stained villages of East Anglia or the haunting stillness of Skye, his settings breathe with as much presence as his characters.

He writes not to shock, but to understand—to explore what happens when ordinary people are placed under extraordinary pressure, and what the human cost of justice might really be.

The Misty Isle

Tucked between brooding skies and rugged coastline, The Misty Isle series whispers its secrets through wind-scoured cliffs and the echo of waves crashing on ancient rock. This is not the Scotland of postcards—it’s the darker, quieter version, where every stone seems to remember and every silence carries weight. In this shadowy corner of the world, D.I. Duncan McAdam returns to Skye, not just to solve crimes, but to face the ghosts that never quite left him.

Read more ...

Each installment unfolds like the mist itself—slowly, deliberately—revealing the island’s tangled loyalties, long-buried guilt, and the fragile thread that holds a fractured community together. McAdam, a man shaped as much by personal tragedy as professional resolve, navigates murder investigations that feel less like puzzles and more like excavations. These aren’t just crimes—they're ruptures in the surface of a place already worn thin by time.

Fans of slow-burn detective fiction with a psychological edge will find themselves pulled into a setting as compelling as the mysteries at its heart. There’s a gothic stillness to the storytelling, a sense that the island itself is watching, waiting, remembering. With taut prose and an immersive atmosphere, the series blends crime, isolation, and character-driven drama in a way that lingers long after the final page.

The Misty Isle doesn’t shout to get your attention—it draws you in, quiet as fog, and just as hard to shake.


The Misty Isle consists of seven books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

A Long Time Dead (The Misty Isle #1)
Unrated
The Dead Man of Storr (The Misty Isle #2)
Unrated
The Talisker Dead (The Misty Isle #3)
Unrated
The Cuillin Dead (The Misty Isle #4)
⧗ 9.34 / 3
A Dead Man on Staffin Beach: A D.I. Duncan McAdam Mystery (The Misty Isle #5)
⧗ 8.00 / 1
Death at Neist Point (The Misty Isle #6)
⧗ 8.00 / 1
The Missing Dead (The Misty Isle #7)
⧗ 9.00 / 2
The Misty Isle Book 8 (The Misty Isle #8)
Unrated


^ Top
Follow Us: Newsletter | Facebook | X | Mastodon | RSS
Hosted by Planeetta Internet Oy
© 1996 - 2026 Risingshadow. All rights reserved.
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Privacy Policy