Moray readers have maintained a fascination for the macabre, with a grisly thriller by a north-east crime novelist emerging as the region’s most popular library book for the second consecutive year.
The book borrowed most often in 2015 was Stuart Macbride’s The Missing and the Dead, about the murder of a young girl whose body is found near Banff.
And the writer’s subsequent release, In The Cold Dark Ground, proved the most popular fiction title among Moray residents in 2016.
Ian Rankin’s Even Dogs in the Wild came second on the list, followed by Make Me by Lee Child.
Yesterday, Mr MacBride thanked readers in the area for maintaining an interest in his works, and keeping up their passion for literature.
He said: “I’m really pleased that the fine folk of Moray have been hitting the libraries and borrowing not just my books, but the books of everyone on the list.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of using our libraries, because if we don’t then councils have reason to close them.
“It’s gratifying to know Logan’s trials and tribulations are so popular up in lovely Moray, the area is always great for getting inspiration when I’m writing.”
In The Cold Dark Ground is the 10th book in the popular Logan McRae detective series, and was released last August.
Mr MacBride offered local fans an insight into his work at Elgin Library’s Moray Book Festival in September.
The area’s most popular non-fiction book was Bill Bryson travelogue, The Road to Little Dribbling, and David McKee’s Elmer and the Rainbow was the most borrowed children’s title.
