Drones, gangland vendettas, a missing choir singer, disturbances in the cemetery, PTSD, panpsychism, and secrets from the past ... This can ONLY mean one thing! The Skelfs are back, and things are as nail-biting, tense and warmly funny as ever! 'Hurroo! The Skelfs - Edinburgh funeral directors and part-time private eyes - are back ... the persistence of love in the Skelf household, no matter what fate flings at it, is reassuring and life-affirming' The Times Book of the Month _ The Skelf women are back on an even keel after everything they've been through. But when a funeral they're conducting is attacked by a drone, Jenny fears they're in the middle of an Edinburgh gangland vendetta. At the same time, Yana, a Ukrainian member of the refugee choir that plays with Dorothy's band, has gone missing. Searching for her leads Dorothy into strange and ominous territory. And Brodie, the newest member of the extended Skelf family, comes to Hannah with a case: Something or someone has been disturbing the grave of his stillborn son. Everything is changing for the Skelfs ... Dorothy's boyfriend Thomas is suffering PTSD after previous violent trauma, Jenny and Archie are becoming close, and Hannah's case leads her to consider the curious concept of panpsychism, which brings new danger ... while ghosts from the family's past return to threaten their very lives. Funny, shocking and profound, Living Is A Problem is the highly anticipated sixth instalment of the unforgettable Skelfs series - shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Best Scottish Crime Novel and Theakston Old Peculier Crime Book of the Year - where life and death become intertwined more than ever before...

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Doug Johnstone is the author of Fourteen novels, including The Great Silence, the third in the Skelfs series, which has been optioned for TV. In 2021, The Big Chill, the second in the series, was longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2020, A Dark Matter, the first in the series, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Independent Voice Book of the Year award. Black Hearts (Book four), was published in 2022, with The Opposite of Lonely (book five) out in 2023. Several of his books have been bestsellers and award winners, and his first science fiction novel, The Space Between Us, was a BBC2 Between the Covers pick. He's taught creative writing, been writer in residence at various institutions, and has been an arts journalist for twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin' Crime Writers. He lives in Edinburgh.