A Small Death in the Great Glen
A Novel
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
A gripping and atmospheric novel of suspense, set in the Scottish Highlands in the 1950s, featuring a small-town newspaper staff.
In the Highlands of 1950s Scotland, a boy is found dead in a canal lock. Two young girls tell such a fanciful story of his disappearance that no one believes them. The local newspaper staff—including Joanne Ross, the part-time typist embroiled in an abusive marriage, and her boss, a seasoned journalist determined to revamp the paper—set out to uncover and investigate the crime. Suspicion falls on several townspeople, all of whom profess their innocence. Alongside these characters are the people of the town and neighboring glens; a refugee Polish sailor; an Italian family whose café boasts the first known cappuccino machine in the north of Scotland; and a corrupt town clerk subverting the planning laws to line his own pocket.
Together, these very different Scots harbor deep and troubling secrets underneath their polished and respectable veneers—revelations that may prevent the crime from being solved and may keep the town firmly in the clutches of its shadowy past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1956 in an isolated village in the Scottish Highlands, Scott's slow-paced debut centers on the death of eight-year-old Jamie Fraser, who's found in a canal, the apparent victim of a tragic accident. Hoping to turn the local paper, the Highland Gazette, into something more than a sleepy weekly gossip rag, new editor John McAllister investigates Jamie's death, with the help of part-time typist Joanne Ross, who has a troubled home life, and eager young cub reporter Rob McLean. In one of several less than relevant side plots, a strange man suddenly turns up soon after the discovery of Jamie's body, claiming to be a Polish war refugee from a nearby ship. He initially sought help from the Travelers the nomadic "walking people" of Ireland and Britain in escaping an abusive captain, but the villagers are suspicious of all foreigners, particularly anyone with ties to the Travelers. By the end, few will care about the killer's identity.
