A GARTOCHARN-based crime writer is setting off on a tour of Scotland and beyond to help promote his latest published work.

Denzil Meyrick, 51, is preparing to embark on a number of literary festivals with what is being billed as his best work yet.

His latest work is titled 'Well of the Winds' which is based on the small island of Gairsay, off the Kintyre peninsula.

The local postman-cum-police and fire officer discovers that the Bremner family have vanished from their farm.

There’s a pot on the stove and food on the table, but no sign of three generations of a family long-believed to be Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.

As a result a World War II mystery is revealed as investigations begin and various branches of the security services take an interest in the case.

When DCI Daley comes into possession of a journal written by his wartime predecessor in Kinloch, Inspector William

Urquhart, he soon realises Gairsay (a fictionalised Isle of Gigha) has many secrets.

Assisted by his indomitable deputy, DS Brian Scott, and new boss, Chief Superintendent Carrie Symington,

Daley finds that he must solve a wartime murder to reveal not only the shocking events of the past, but new horrors of the present.

This new DCI Daley thriller brings the strongest elements of Meyrick’s storytelling together to make his latest novel a

pageturner with a convincing plot, an atmospheric setting and trademark dark humour.

Kristian Kerr, publicity officer at Birlinn Polygon, said: "Denzil’s summer schedule includes a number of festivals in Scotland and abroad – he will be at Bute Noir, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Bloody Scotland and in Cologne for their literary festival, and a short-story collection launches in September."

Denzil studied politics and has worked as a police officer, distillery manager, freelance journalist, and company director.

His detective, the protagonist DCI Jim Daley first appeared in Whisky from Small Glasses in 2012 and

has since featured in three further novels.

The books have been a sensation in print, ebooks and are now available as audiobooks read by David Monteath.

Denzil grew up in Campbeltown in Argyll, but now lives with his wife Fiona in Gartocharn.