Here are twenty true tales of murder most foul: dark deeds at the court of Mary, Queen of Scots; the great Victorian trials of Madeline Smith and Dr Edward Pritchard ('The Human Crocodile'); the grisly exploits of the body-snatchers Burke and Hare; and the still-undetected 'Bible John', who terrorised a famous Glasgow dancehall in the 1960s.

The famous Scottish murder cases gathered here are by no means straightforward crimes. Some are still unsolved; in some, the apparently innocent are found guilty, in others the guilty have surely walked free – some by means of that uniquely Scottish verdict, 'Not Proven'. The legal process could produce some unlikely results, leading to trials nearly as notorious as the crimes they sought to prosecute.

From the busy city streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow to the remote, desolate beauty of the Scottish Highlands, these cases are in turn chilling and heart-breaking, but never less than fascinating.