Jane Renshaw Books In Order

Publication Order of Pitfourie Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Jane Renshaw
Jane Renshaw discovered early in her ‘career’ that she did not have what it takes in order to be a scientist, she shuffled sideways into medical and scientific editing, which has got the big advantage that she is able to do it as she watches “Bargain Hunt”.

Jane lives in the northeast of Scotland, by mere coincidence just a half mile or so from the little hamlet in which Jane Renshaw, her great-great-grandma and wife of a shoemaker, brought up her eight kids and where she’s buried under a lichen covered headstone in the graveyard. She hopes that she would not mind Jane’s borrowing her name.

“The Sweetest Poison” is the first novel in the “Pitfourie” series and was released in 2019. Helen Clack (when she was just eight years old) got bullied so mercilessly that she was pushed to a desperate act. Now she’s getting targeted yet again, however this time around the identity of her tormentor is shrouded in doubt.

Once her life begins disintegrating, she flees back home to the wilds of northeast Scotland, and to the only man that she knows is able to help her: Hector Forbes, who is the dubiously charismatic Laird of Pitfourie, with whom she’s been hopelessly in love ever since her hellish days in the school playground, back when he was her protector, her eleven year old hero, and her rescuer.

However is Hector truly somebody that she can trust? And can anybody protect her from the horrible secret that she is keeping?

“Risk of Harm” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2019. Just how far would you go in order to protect your child?

Flora Parry has got an outwardly idyllic life with Neil (her scientist husband) and Beckie (adopted daughter) in a chocolate box pretty cottage out in the country. However when Beckie’s psychotic biological family track them down, Flora knows that they have to flee. She is determined to protect Beckie, whatever it takes.

Lorraine Johnson, the foul-mouthed ‘family from hell’ matriarch and Beckie’s biological grandma, is just as determined to get Beckie back.

While they each fight for her, each of the women learns that neither woman is what she appears, and that there’s nothing she’ll not do for the child that they each love.

“The Child Who Never Was” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2020. Her child was taken, however nobody believes her.

Oliver (Sarah’s beautiful baby son) has vanished. And she’ll do anything, absolutely anything, in order to get him back. However there’s a problem. Everybody around Sarah, even Evie (her beloved identical twin) tells her that she never even had a son, that he is just a figment of her imagination, that she is not well, and needs help.

And on one level, they are right. Sarah is in need of support. She’s suffered some massive trauma in the past and now she is severely agoraphobic, rarely leaves her house, and avoids all contact with people. However fragile though she might be, Sarah knows deep in her heart that Oliver is in fact real, that the love she feels for him is real.

And this can mean just one thing, somebody’s been planning all of this. And they have taken her baby.

“No Place Like Home” is the third stand alone novel and was released in 2021. They had dreamed about a peaceful life out in the country. Now they are fighting to survive.

Kirsty, Bram, and their two kids make up the Hendriksen family, and they left the rat race of the big city and moved into this beautiful custom built house in the gorgeous Scottish Highlands. They’re living the dream, and loving the peaceful slow paced life.

However a dead crow shows up on their washing line, their vegetables get weedkilled, and somebody shoots at the family’s gentle guide dog, named Bertie.

The cops say that it is nothing to worry about, it is only some bored local teens hanging out in the woods. However Bram is certain that there are more sinister forces at work, that these events might be connected to a horrible secret in Kirsty’s past.

While the campaign against them continues to escalate, the family’s pulled down into this relentless spiral of violence and terror until the home that they always dreamed about becomes a nightmare out of which they might never escape.

“The Stepson” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in 2021. He lost one family, now he is ready for another.

Lulu (a psychotherapist) is certain that she is the luckiest woman alive. She’s got a wonderful job and is married to Nick, the love of her life, who also happens to be fabulously wealthy and ridiculously handsome. However a shadow has now fallen upon her perfect life.

She is able to see that Nick struggles with some demons from his past. When he was just sixteen, his whole family vanished without a trace and Nick’s always insisted that his stepmom, whom he hated, was the one to blame for it, that she did something awful to his beloved dad and little sister. And this trauma left him feeling that anybody he loves is in danger, and could disappear in a heartbeat.

So he’s obsessed with her safety. He must know where she is 24/7, insists that she carry a can of pepper spray, and is constantly watching out for any possible threats.

Lulu is able to see that this extreme anxiety is wearing him down. And as a therapist, she knows that the sole way to heal this trauma is to face it. So she persuades him to go back to the country house from which his family disappeared.

However right after they’ve arrived in this sleepy little rural community, another person goes missing. While Lulu is forced to question everything that she knows about Nick and his missing family, some dark secrets emerge from the past. The certainties of her old life fade and get replaced by a terror that she never could have imagined in her wildest of nightmares.