Nellie’s bookworld

All titles are available at Amazon

Why should you read books by Nellie Merthe Erkenbach?

Because you long for Scotland, enjoy a good laugh and want to experience real people and amazing stories. She leaves the usual stereotypes to the tourism industry and lives what she writes.

Instead of struggling through German literature studies in Freiburg with Kleist and Mörike, the young student kicked up her motorcycle and headed to Glasgow to study Scottish history and literature. Ever seen pictures of the turret-adorned university? That’s why you ride 1,500 km on a 27-horsepower machine.

She became a journalist for a public broadcaster to produce films about Scotland that go beyond Highland cattle, Loch Ness hysteria, tartan, and whisky. Okay, that didn’t quite work out. For various reasons, she ended up doing other stuff.

Highland Crime – Scotland Mysteries that Get You Hooked

Scotland offers both like no other country: gripping mysteries full of sea air, quirky Scots, and deadly secrets. What else could Nellie Merthe Erkenbach do but join the ranks of crime-writing journalists?

New and undiscovered crime scenes invite you to explore them on your next vacation. But beware: don’t read Highland Crime on an empty stomach – there’s plenty of delicious food. The author learned the joy of cooking over her years on the island and the cuisine is better than its reputation.

The writing spot: the most beautiful writing cabin beyond the Tweed, with a view of the sea and the Highland mountains. She might never leave again if it weren’t for the man in the house.

Her style: Tartan Blue – A New Take on Scottish Crime Fiction

Scotland has long been the setting for dark and gripping crime novels. While Tartan Noir thrives on hard-edged detectives, moral ambiguity, and relentless weather in the streets of Glasgow or Edinburgh, Tartan Blue takes a different path. Erkenbach’s crime stories unfold in the remote and often mystical Highlands, where the landscape speaks just as much as the people who inhabit it. Here, silence is not merely a backdrop—it echoes the past. Less noir, more melancholy. Less raw violence, more psychological depth. Tartan Blue blends atmospheric suspense, deep character studies, and the haunting mysteries of a rugged, ancient land. The Highlands are not just a setting—they are a character in their own right, steeped in legends, shadows, and untold truths.

The investigators: Detective Inspector Robert Campbell, a deep-thinking man of few words with a passion for food. German translator Isabel “Issy” Hartmann, whose empathy and natural curiosity never let her give up. And Finnish pathologist Dr Janne Asikaninen, a drummer in a heavy metal band when he’s not performing autopsies in Inverness on the bodies Issy and Robert come across.

Nellie Merthe Erkenbach should have long been turned into films and sold millions of copies by now. Until then, the Harley-obsessed editor with a cliché-phobia casually continues her killings. When she’s not feeding the badgers with her Scottish partner in the evening, hanging out in cemeteries, or stylishly carrying instant coffee in her thermos into the wilderness.