The old man sits on a stool at the end of the bar counter in the Covenanter Bar. What few people know is that he is an expert at solving abstruse problems. One who does is Inspector Adam Bailey. When he has a difficult case to which he can see no solution, he goes along to the Covenanter Bar and puts the facts to the old man, hoping that he can see a way through the problems to a solution. In this volume the old man solves sixteen cases that have baffled the police by the use o logical deduction.

In Green Pastures, a wealthy man is murdered but all his family have alibis. When further murders occur, DS MacRae goes for the wrong killer. But DCI Forsyth solves the mystery by using logical deduction In Hostage Crisis, DS MacRae believes that a hostage situation is a cover for another crime, but an Inspector takes credit for solving the mystery. When DCI Forsyth returns from holiday, he makes sure that both the criminal and the Inspector get their due deserts. In Whose Finger on the Trigger,after three men are shot in Edinburgh the connection is found and it is seen that a fourth man is likely to be targeted. Although he is kept under surveillance, he is killed in mysterious circumstances and it is left to DCI Forsyth to solve the mystery by the use of logical deduction In Private Hospital, a man wakes up in hospital having suffered an accident of which he has no memory. A doctor attempts to help him regain his memory but without success. But all is not what it seems and there is a surprise in store.

In MURDERS OF NOTE DCI Ian Forsyth sees more in the mugging of a student after he has left an Edinburgh city centre bar than DS Alistair MacRae does. His version is justified when one of the people involved in the mugging is murdered. When a further person involved is found dead in his tower block flat, Forsyth is able from the clues available to deduce who is responsible for the killings and obtain the necessary evidence to convince a jury that his solution is the correct one. In THE ISLAND OF DEATH a number of people are lured to an island off the east coast of Scotland, trapped there and killed off one by one. The Chief Constable is unconvinced by the solution proposed and asks Forsyth to come out of retirement and look at the case. He gets MacRae to do his leg work for him and, when MacRae reports, Forsyth is able to deduce who was responsible for the killings and obtain the concrete evidence that shows that his deductions are correct,

This book contains two of the cases of DCI Ian Forsyth. In the first, a number of men are tortured and killed, but there seems, at first, no connection between them. With Forsyth on holiday, DS Alistair MacRae and his team establish the connection and find the two people who complete the circle. When one of these two is killed, MacRae puts forward a solution to the mystery. But it is left to Forsyth to deduce who is really responsible when he gets back from holiday. In the second case, the son of wealthy, professional parents is abducted. When the paying of the ransom goes wrong, the kidnapper states that he will kill the child because the police have been brought in. leading MacRae to believe that the child may have been taken by the kidnapper to revenge himself on one of the parents. But Forsyth is able to deduce the real reason for the abduction and to return the child to his anxious mother.

DCI Ian Forsyth and DS Alistair MacRae are baffled as to why elderly people are being killed by being shot in the head while asleep in bed. They are also investigating the murder of the eldest son of a local landowner and business man. Forsyth is eventually able to work out why the old people are being murdered and to show that the two investigations are related. When a local villain is found dead in the snow in the landowner's garden, MacRae is astonished when Forsyth informs him that he has logically deduced who the killer is but that he has no proof that would convince a jury of the correctness of his solution. But, when he is able to interpret an altered version of the poem 'The Soldier' that was found he villain's car, he realises that he now has the necessary proof.

When Joseph Carrington kills a man for whose alleged murder he has just spent twenty years in prison, DCI Forsyth and DS MacRae are keen to find out who told him of the victim's new identity. There are a number of suspects, but Carrington refuses to point the finger at any of them. When Carrington and a crony of his, Keith Edwards, are murdered, MacRae is astounded to find that Forsyth is prepared to take a case to the Procurator Fiscal because of what Edwards had to eat just before he died. But Forsyth is not fooling and the team are amazed by the brilliance of the solution that Forsyth has arrived at by the use of logical deduction.

When the two Merton brothers are tortured and murdered, there is no shortage of suspects. Principal among these are the Merton sister, the two Douglas brothers, whose family have been feuding with the Mertons for centuries and various inhabitants of the town of Auchenbland, which is controlled by the Mertons, who have suffered from the Mertons' arbitrary decisions. After an arson attack on the Mertons'family home and the torture and murder of the present tenant of the Merton Arms, Detective Sergeant Alistair MacRae is convinced that the former tenant of the inn, who was thrown out by the Mertons about a year previously, is responsible for the crimes. But Detective Chief Inspector Ian Forsyth shoots down his theory and, after a further murder, is able to arrive at the identity of the murderer by the use of some brilliant logical deductions.

A writer of popular science fiction stories, which bear little resemblance to reality, takes a trip to the moon on a space ship. But how will he cope with the tricks that the crew will play on him? Because every robot has the Three Laws of Robotics implanted in his brain, he is unable to harm a human being. How then can robots, who are vastly superior to humans in every respect, attain their goal of becoming masters of the universe? A man goes back in time to kill his grandfather? But how is it possible for him to do so when, at the time of the killing, his father has not yet been born? A robot, who has suffered a mental breakdown, is fond in a securely locked room with a dead man and the gun with which he has been killed. Can Inspector Bailey solve the mystery, knowing that he will be hounded from his job and finish up on the breadline by the all powerful Robots Inc if he comes to the conclusion that the robot committed the murder? These and eight other inventive science fiction are in this volume.

When a naked body is found in a room in a prestigious hotel in Edinburgh, and nothing is known about him except his name because his registration document has been stolen, DCI Ian Forsyth and DS Alistair MacRae are at a loss to know how to proceed until they learn that he had made arrangements to visit four forms involved in an export drive organised by Councillor Benson. When the head of one of the firms is also murdered, the pair are convinced that the killer suffered from a knife wound inflicted by the victim, but examination of all the suspects fails to reveal such a wound. After a disastrous attempt by the squad to root out the killer leads to a further death, Forsyth applies logical deduction to interpret a clue left at he scene by the victim, is able to explain the failure to find the knife wound and brings the case to a successful conclusion

A financier, who is proposing to write his autobiography, is found murdered with a visiting card in his hand. Sergeant Alistair MacRae is astounded when Chief Inspector Ian Forsyth is able to deduce that the hand had originally held a playing card and is able to name the people who placed the cards in the hand. Suspicion for the murder falls on the financier's four university friends, now respectable citizens, whose careers would be blighted if revelations of youthful indiscretions were now revealed. When an attempt is made to steal what exists of the manuscript, Forsyth and MacRae are convinced that the son of the financier knows more about the crime than he is confessing. When the son is murdered in a room where the window is securely fastened and the door under the surveillance of a policeman, all MacRae and the rest of the squad can come up with is that the policeman was bribed. But Forsyth, by the use of logical deduction, is able to arrive at a solution that explains the impossible crime.

With DCI Forsyth on holiday, his squad investigates the murder of a couple in what looks like a gangland killing, and it turns out that the couple have lied as to how they obtained their wealth. When DS MacRae hears of a previous, similar killing, the squad is able to make the connection between the two incidents and trace other people involved, who may also be at risk. But none of the others is prepared to cooperate and, when two of them are murdered in St Andrews, MacRae joins an Inspector from the Fife Constabulary in trying to find who is behind the murders, but without success. When Forsyth comes back early from holiday, he takes over the investigation and, by the use of logical deduction, arrives at the identity of the murderer.

When a man murdered in a house near Edinburgh turns out to be a spy, Detective Sergeant Alistair MacRae wonders whether MI6 might be behind the killing, although there are plenty of other suspects who wanted the spy dead. When the spy's valet is murdered after having attempted to enter the guarded premises of the spy's house, MacRae is sure there is contraband material hidden in the building, but an expert insists there is no booty concealed anywhere and the guard is removed. When the house is then broken into and something taken from a cache in a skirting board, MacRae is furious until Detective Chief Inspector Ian Forsyth admits that he knew of the cache and is now able, by logical deduction, to arrive at the name of the killer. But, with MI6 involved, things are not that simple and events take a sinister turn before Forsyth explains all.

A volume featuring thirteen of DCI Ian Forsyth's cases narrated by DS Alistair MacRae. How can a woman under observation vanish without trace? How can half a dozen diamonds not be found in a room where they have been hidden by a thief? Why are the police unable to find a room in which a murder was seen to take place? How is it possible for a woman to be killed in an abandoned factory inside a police cordon and the murderer still escape? How can a killer leave the scene of a murder without leaving any traces in the deep snow around the house? These and eight other abstruse mysteries are solved by DCI Forsyth by the use of logical deduction

DCI Forsyth amd DS MacRae are called to a house from which a young lady has been kidnapped and where they find the sister and brother of the victim at loggerheads about the involvememt of the police. The first attempt to pay the ransom is aborted when the bug hidden in the money is found to have been removed by one of a small number of possible suspects. At the second attempt, the room in which the ransom is to be handed over is under surveillance by MacRae. He sees the brother go in but no-one comes out. When he goes to investigate, he finds the brother stabbed to death and the money gone. The squad attempts to find a solution to the impossible crime but without success and it is left to Forsyth to arrive at an explanation of the mystery and the identity of the kidnappers by the use of logical reasoning.

An old school friend of Detective Sergeant Alistair MacRae of the Lothian and Borders Police appeals to him for help after he and his girl friend are subjected to a series of harassing incidents. MacRae is able to ensure that the harassment comes to an end and, in the process of doing so, is led to the identity of the person who can tell him where an infamous fraudster is enjoying his ill-gotten gains. Along with Detective Chief Inspector Ian Forsyth, he goes to arrest the fraudster only to find that the man is dead after apparently being subjcted to violent torture. MacRae and his squad arrive at the name of the man that they think is responsible for that and another death. But Forsyth shows that they have got it wrong and, by the use of logical deduction, is able to arrive at the name of the guilty party.

When a body with no identity is found in an Edinburgh hotel, Detective Chief Inspector Ian Forsyth is able to deduce that the body has not been killed in that room and find out the name of the dead man, who was a faith healer. The wife of the healer is then murdered at a function to celebrate the life of the dead man. Finally, another member of the faith healing entourage is murdered by being shot in the back with an arrow during an archery contest and is found with a Xmas light in his hand. D C Collins, and the rest of the murder squad separately, come up with two different solutions. But it is left to Forsyth to arrive, by logical deduction, at the one and only solution that explains all the anomalies, why the last victim was killed in the way that he was and why he had the light bulb in his hand.

In the living room of his house is found the body of a retired builder who has managed to drag himself to a table and who has a china rabbit in one hand and an orange pip in the other. Two days later, in the family home is found the body of his former partner who has managed to reach the house through snowdrifts without leaving a single footprint. The current head of the building firm is shot dead in an attic room of the house at the same time as the butler is wounded. While DS Alistair MacRae is floundering, it is left to DCI Ian Forsyth to arrive by logical deduction at a solution that explains all the anomalies thrown up by the three murders.

When an ex-army man is killed during a burglary, Chief Inspector Forsyth suspects that one of the family is involved. When another member of the household is found shot at close range in a room where entry by the window is impossible and no-one is found in the room after the shots are fired, it requires all Forsyth's ingenuity to arrive at a solution of both murders by logical deduction.

A young woman's body is found in woodland near Edinburgh but no-one of that description is on a missing list. When Chief Inspector Forsyth solves that mystery, it becomes clear that the death is connected with an amateur theatrical company. The man who ran the company is found dead after being tortured and the death of one of the sponsors follows. It seems clear that someone is taking revenge for the death of the young woman and, though everyone else is baffled, Forsyth applies logical deduction to arrive at the name of the killer

When six professors are drugged at a dinner and then humiliated by being smeared with unpleasant substances, Sergeant MacRae is baffled, but Chief Inspector Forsyth forsees a related incident which turns out to be the murder of a lecturer notorious for seducing local wives and female undergraduates. When a campus wife, who was having an affair with the lecturer, is also murdered on a lonely beach at the time that her husband is holding a departmental party, everyone is at sea except Forsyth who comes up with a solution to all the incidents by the application of some brilliant logical deductions.

Sergeant MacRae's first case with Chief Inspector Ian Forsyth, explaining their odd relationship and giving a humorous insight into the Scottish university scene. A lecturer is murdered in Inverforth University and MacRae is appalled when Forsyth lets an academic committee loose on the investigation, making a bet with the University's Principal on who will solve the crime. A second murder occurs and MacRae is in despair, fearing for his job, when an academic admits he has solved the mystery and the other two say likewise. But it emerges each has fastened on a clue relevant to his own discipline and they have come to three different solutions. Forsyth again triumphs by using logical deduction to name the killer.