Buy Sheila Garvie: Mastermind or Victim by A. M. Nicol, get his novel Liberation half-price! This deal allows you to grab two of Nicol’s non-fiction novels for just £15 (plus P&P) – the perfect bundle for any true crime fan interested in learning more about cases related to Scotland. This offer is exclusive to this festive period, so don’t miss out!
Sheila Garvie: Mastermind or Victim by A. M. Nicol
Sheila Garvie: Mastermind or Victim is a novel faithfully based on a sensational real case that took place in Kincardineshire in 1968 and the salacious details of which, with naked parties, sex orgies, drugs and alcohol, fast cars, violence and aristocracy, gripped the whole of Scotland. It will undoubtedly be a major addition to Ringwood’s collection of True Crime books.
One murder. Three versions of the story.
A gunshot ends the life of Maxwell Robert Garvie on a May night in 1968. Three people are accused of the crime: his wife, his wife’s lover and a young man whom Max had never met. They offer conflicting versions of what happened, practically the only commonality being that Max is dead.
And yet, this story is not about Max. It is about his wife Sheila.
Sheila, more than either of her co-accused, stands as an enigma for the detectives working the case, as a wronged innocent for the lawyers hired to help her. She is branded by the media as a scandalous femme fatale, a murderous mastermind, a Lady Macbeth.
The narrative seeks to uncover, as far as it can, the truth regarding Sheila’s involvement in her husband’s death. Including flashbacks and new theories, the book suggests that appearances can be deceiving and reveals the shortcomings of a system uncaring about abuse victims. Through the point of view of several characters involved in the case, the narrative is made dynamic and gripping, and Sheila is revealed to be deeply flawed, but also deeply human.
ISBN 978190-1514698
Liberation by A. M. Nicol
Midnight in Glasgow, 28th of July 1950: a stolen car drives backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards over a prone, broken body. A mother of two is brutally murdered. Away from her body, on the edge of the pavement, two faux-leather shoes sit innocuously, the first clue for police that this is not just a simple traffic accident.
A family man; a religious devotee, honoured member of the mysterious Plymouth Brethren: more than this, P.C. James Robertson was a man of the law. How can he be connected to a case of this nature?
The involvement of a respectable bobby in an unmarried mother’s murder made for one of the most scandalous High Court trials in Glasgow’s history. The brutal murder and unlikely suspect are only the first striking details of this case, however. Robertson’s performance in the witness box and his total disregard for his eventual fate at the gallows baffled hislegal advisers and continues to mystify students of the case even today. A.M. Nicol’s incisive novel stays true to the known facts of the case whilst examining how the blind faith of a devout can co-exist with the cold-blooded indifference of a murderer.
‘Allan Nicol is not only an excellent storyteller, he takes you right into the world in which these real events occurred.’
– Donald Findlay.
ISBN: 978-1-901514-56-8
About the author:
Allan MacKenzie Nicol was a Procurator Fiscal Depute for 12 years. He qualified as an Advocate in 1993 and then defended clients charged with more serious offences until 2011, when he re-joined Crown Office and became an Advocate Depute, prosecuting in High Courts throughout Scotland. His book Manuel: Scotland’s First Serial Killer was published by Black & White Publishing; the 2nd edition appearing in 2016 and coinciding with the television series In Plain Sight, for which he was script adviser. The Monster Butler: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer was similarly published by Black & White in 2011. His novel Liberation, the first to be published by Ringwood Publishing, came out in 2021.