Tricks of the Mind

In a quirky flat in the Westend of Glasgow, during the tension preceding the second Gulf War, Bruno walks in on Justin exercising and gives in to his pleading to massage taut muscles. As Justin groans in pleasure, Bruno reads him a strange astrological dream, a dream which begins to echo eerily in various narratives of family and friends as the dream turns to nightmare. Imogen is more concerned with the drama of getting through her teaching course and Clara is busy running the NHS and they have their own opinions about the reality behind the dream – and also about Bruno’s mental health. But even they find the increasing coincidences hard to explain away. When the front door slams and Bruno seems psychically led to the scene of a murder, Imogen puts aside her doubts to help him fight his monsters from the Id.
The Bruno Mysteries are aimed at intelligent readers of mystery novels who like characters who they can identify with rather than slick Bond-types. Particular aspects of this series are the move away from the ‘gritty Glasgow’ genre, which has become predictable, and the faithful reflection of the strategic use of dialect in different social situations – which many readers (Scots or not) will recognise.
Alan Ahrens-McManus describes his qualifications as a novel writer as, "a life of getting into scrapes and out of them while hanging out with people so extremely different they wouldn’t be seen dead with each other; years of living and working in dodgy situations in even dodgier countries; a Highland grandmother who passed on her gift of various experiences of second sight; a fascination with the peculiarities of people and a total inability to stop my words jumping around merrily on the page. I also have a respect for my characters, which are only vaguely my own creation, and the patience to let them tell me in their own time and in their own way what they’ve been up to since I wrote about them last."
"Tricks of the Mind", rather than just a form of escapism, allows reflection on 'real life' as the main characters are multi-faceted and develop as they learn from experience and each other, a development continued in "The Lovers", "Shades of the Sun", "Qismet" and "Tìr nam Bàn"..