Coming Soon: Beattie Cavendish and the Highland Hideaway by Mary-Jane Riley

Published by Allison & Busby
19 February 2026

The second book in the Beattie Cavendish series.

 1949. The Cold War is intensifying and rumours abound that the Russians are close to creating an atomic bomb. Beattie Cavendish, special operative for a covert section of GCHQ is sent to Scotland, to the listening station at Kilbray. Beattie’s arrival is greeted with suspicion by the station’s staff. She faces an uphill battle to turn things around. When Beattie discovers that her uncle Howard, who lives nearby, has gone missing, she becomes convinced his disappearance is more sinister. She learns Howard has been visiting a remote Highland lodge used during the war to hide out of favour special operation executive officers. As she delves deeper, there is no one she feels she can trust except for private detective Patrick Corrigan. But Corrigan has troubles of his own as he needs to get out of London after crossing the Kutsnetsov brothers, a pair of notorious Russian gangsters. As the snow begins to fall hard and fast, Beattie realises the search is putting her life and that of Corrigan’s in danger, and that the answers she is looking for lie buried in her wartime past.

Mary-Jane Riley wrote her first story on her newly acquired blue Petite typewriter, when she was eight. When she grew up, she had to earn a living and became a BBC radio talk show presenter and journalist. She has covered many life-affirming stories, but also some of the darkest events of the past two decades. Then, in true journalistic style, she decided not to let the facts get in the way of a good story and got creative. She wrote for women's magazines and small presses. She formed WriteOutLoud with two writer friends to help charities get their message across using their life stories. Now she is writing crime thrillers drawing on her experiences in journalism. She has four books set in East Anglia and featuring investigative journalist Alex Devlin, Her most recent series features Beattie Cavendish. There are two books in this series. 

https://www.maryjaneriley.com