As dusk approaches a townland near Dublin in the summer of 1985, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Reilly, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 13-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox--his partner and closest friend-find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past. Richly atmospheric and stunning in its complexity, Dublin Murders is utterly convincing and surprising to the very end.

2019 TV series based on the Dublin Murder Squad-series

Three friends in Edinburgh, Scotland, interview and select a new flatmate. He's hardly moved in than they discover him dead in his room. An ethical dilemma ensues when they discover that he possessed a large amount of cash. Things get worse as the men whose money it was search for it, and the three friends start to turn on each other.

Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, the novel recounts the corruption of a boy of strict Calvinist parentage by a mysterious stranger under whose influence he commits a series of murders. The stranger assures the boy that no sin can affect the salvation of an elect person. The reader, while recognizing the stranger as Satan, is prevented by the subtlety of the novel's structure from finally deciding whether, for all his vividness and wit, he is more than a figment of the boy's imagination. This edition reprints the text of the unexpurgated first edition of 1824, later 'corrected' in an attempt to placate the Calvinists.

Created from the novels by award winning crime writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland follows DI Jimmy Perez and his team as they investigate crime within the close knit island community. In this isolated and sometimes inhospitable environment, the team have to rely on a uniquely resourceful style of policing. Set against a hauntingly beautiful landscape, Shetland is based on the best selling books such as Red Bones, Raven Black, Dead Water and Blue Lightning.

BBC Scotland crime drama television series, 2013–

Spooky noir-ish dramas with (sometimes loosely) Celtic ties. A list in progress... The template: An anti-hero must solve a complex mystery that triggers their own person demons. 

Mixed: Celtic / Tartan Noir

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eliza

Mood Rules. Plot and realism can kick rocks. A list in progress... 

2003 American-Japanese comedy-drama film by Sofia Coppola

Movies: Dream Baby Dream - Neo-Impressionism

Color Color Color. Color. A list in progress... 

Movies: COLOR-Full

Simply the best - you know the lyrics. A list in progress... 

2006 German film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Movies: Better than all the Rest

What lies beneath the slightly too perfect, icy Nordic facades. A list in progress... 

The rules: Simple stories, lacking metaphor. Sense of place. Morally complex characters and conflicts. Flawed anti-heroes. The stillness of bland liberalism contrasted with the undercurrents of hidden and elusive corruption. 

Mixed: Celtic / Tartan Noir

More lists by eliza

Movies: Dream Baby Dream - Neo-Impressionism

Movies: COLOR-Full

Movies: Better than all the Rest

TV: Scandinavian Noir