Why I Wrote The Medicine
The idea for The Medicine didn’t begin in Scotland. It began on my sofa.
I was watching the Netflix documentary series How to Change Your Mind, based on the work of Michael Pollan. In one episode, a woman described her experience of taking MDMA under strict medical supervision.
While under its influence, she revisited a traumatic event from her past. Not metaphorically. Not vaguely. She relived it in full detail. And in doing so, she was able to process and move beyond it.
As a writer of psychological suspense, my mind went somewhere else.
What if you took a psychedelic substance expecting healing and instead uncovered something you were never meant to see? What if, in confronting your past, you stumbled upon a crime?
That question became the seed of Ashley’s story.
From America to Scotland
Readers of my previous novels will recognise the fictional Scottish town of Byreburn. Though The Medicine broadens its geographical scope, the emotional centre of the story remains rooted there.
Byreburn, with its tight-knit community and quiet tensions, is once again the backdrop against which secrets unfold.
If you’re new to my work, Byreburn has featured in all my previous novels.
This time, however, Ashley’s journey takes her beyond Scotland. In researching the story, I explored the use of Ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic brew traditionally used in parts of South America.
Ayahuasca ceremonies are often described as transformative, confronting and emotionally intense. For Ashley, travelling abroad to take part in one is meant to be a step towards healing her unresolved trauma.
It is also the moment everything begins to unravel.
As a writer, I relished the opportunity to briefly step outside Scotland briefly to write about a new landscape, new culture, and the disorientation of being far from home.
That physical distance mirrors Ashley’s emotional vulnerability. She believes she is travelling to find clarity. Instead, she finds something far more disturbing.
Natural Healing and Psychological Risk
I’ve always been interested in natural approaches to wellbeing. In my own life, I tend to reach for therapeutic oils like peppermint, lemon and protective blends for day-to-day ailments such as coughs, colds and headaches. I believe there is value in plant-based remedies when used responsibly.
That interest made Ayahuasca a compelling narrative device. It is both ancient and controversial. Revered and debated. Healing and destabilising.
In The Medicine, I wanted to explore a difficult question: when we open ourselves to healing, what else might we release?
There is something unsettling about surrendering control, especially in an unfamiliar setting. Psychedelic experiences are often described as illuminating. But illumination is not always comforting.
Sometimes it reveals things we would rather keep hidden.
A Darker Turn for Byreburn
While my previous novel, Follow Me, was also rooted in psychological suspense, The Medicine is undoubtedly darker.
This is a Scottish psychological thriller set in Scotland, but it pushes further into moral ambiguity. It asks whether we truly know the people closest to us. Whether memory is reliable. Whether truth is ever clean.
Ashley believes she understands her past. She believes she knows the people in her life. But when her Ayahuasca experience reveals a violent image she cannot explain, doubt creeps in.
Was it a hallucination? A metaphor? Or evidence of something real?
The tension in this story is not driven by car chases or dramatic confrontations. It is driven by uncertainty. By the slow erosion of trust. By the creeping suspicion that the life you recognise may be built on something false.
If you enjoy slow-burn psychological suspense with emotional depth, The Medicine was written for you.
Why This Book Matters Now
We are living in a time when conversations around mental health and trauma are more open than ever. Psychedelic therapy is being studied seriously in clinical settings. At the same time, misinformation and unregulated experiences are increasingly accessible.
The Medicine sits in that tension.
It is not a manifesto, or an endorsement. It is a story.
A story about vulnerability. About the danger of certainty. About what happens when we look too closely at the past.
And, perhaps most unsettling of all, it is about the possibility that the greatest threat is not a stranger, but someone we already trust.
What You Can Expect
- A tightly woven psychological narrative
- A familiar return to Byreburn
- An international setting that heightens tension
- Themes of trauma, healing and truth
- An atmosphere of unease that builds gradually
This is a book designed to leave you questioning.
Do we really know the people around us?
Do we truly know ourselves?
If You’re New to My Work
I write psychological suspense rooted in place — particularly Scotland. My novels explore family dynamics, buried secrets and the emotional consequences of hidden truths.
If you are looking for a Scottish psychological thriller set in Scotland that blends emotional depth with unsettling tension, The Medicine may be the right place to start.
Read The Medicine
The Medicine is available now.
If you enjoy immersive psychological thrillers, morally complex characters and stories that linger after the final page, I invite you to step into Ashley’s world.
But be warned.
Healing is not always gentle.
About Emma Dhesi
Emma Dhesi is a Scottish novelist who writes women’s fiction set in Scotland about motherhood, secrets, and transformation. Her novels explore how women find the courage to rebuild their lives when everything falls apart.
