Well, in a weird kind way I’ve spend most of my summer in Scotland.  True, I didn’t get any further east than Tennessee this summer in the real world, but in the world of tv, movies, and books, I’ve regularly found myself in the streets and countryside of Scotland.

It started early in the summer with Dept. Q on Netflix.  Dept. Q is a Scottish version of a Danish book series.  The story follows a London cop relocated to Edinburgh who is trying to make sense of his own near-death experience while also being tasked with a “cold case” office.  There’s not an awful lot of Edinburgh in the show, mostly the occasional “location” shot, but the story is solid if not a little bit gruesome in the end.

During my time in Tennessee, my folks and I watched Guilt on Masterpiece.  The show, which runs for three four-episode seasons, starts a couple of actors from Dept. Q (and ultimately one familiar face from Downton Abbey).  The story follows two brothers and what happens to them after they accidentally run over a man on the way back from a wedding.  It’s been compared to Fargo, which is actually quite fitting.  Definitely a darker comedy with a great soundtrack (and that ends surprisingly well).

When I got back from my time on the mainland, a friend and I caught 28 Years Later in the theater.  We had gone back to watch the earlier movies in the series (28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later) and were pretty excited for this installment of the not-quite-zombies franchise.  This installment was set in Scotland, first off the coast and then across on “the mainland.”  It’s a simple-but-intense movie with lots of great vista shots (including a couple of shots of Sycamore Gap, which no longer really exists in our world, alas).

And now, as summer turns into another school year, I’m enjoying a trip to Aberdeen, Scotland via the latest Rivers of London novel by Ben Aaronovitch.  Stone and Sky is the tenth novel in the series, and it takes most of the cast from the Folly in London to the Granite City.  I always learn more than I expect about the places Peter Grant and crew visit in their adventures.  So far it’s a wonderfully slow build that seems to involve merpeople (the British edition of the dusk jacket is embossed to feel a bit like fish scales) and creatures from another dimension (?).  I’m savoring the book one chapter at a time.  Not quite an endless summer vacation, but I’m okay with it lingering a little bit longer into the school year.