A riveting and stimulating read, this tenacious thriller grabs your attention and refuses to let it go. Set in Scotland, just after the Second World War, when men who had survived the horrors of conflict returned altered, damaged, different; Ferris shows us another world, a grey, dark place of grit, guts and tenacity. The author successfully hooks you from the very first chapter as an old adversary of the narrator Brodie returns to life. The two main players vigorously roll off the page as they attempt to grasp hold of justice and integrity in the face of adversity. Likeable despite (and probably because of) their flaws, you cling on to their coat tails as they desperately try to find answers and help a man condemned to die. The unexpected twists and turns deliver a story that just keeps on giving. By the end, you will likely find yourself hunting down the next Brodie novel Bitter Water.
Glasgow, 1946. The last time Douglas Brodie came home it was 1942 and he was a dashing young warrior in a kilt. Now, the war is over but victory's wine has soured and Brodie's back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Hugh was dead, shot down in the war. Perhaps it would have been kinder if he had been killed. The man who returns from the war is unrecognizable: mutilated, horribly burned. Hugh keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect.
Hugh claims he's innocent but a mountain of evidence says otherwise. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one time friend. Working with advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls the mean streets of the Gorbals and the green hills of western Scotland in their search for the truth. What they find is an unholy alliance of troublesome priests, corrupt coppers and Glasgow's deadliest razor gang, happy to slaughter to protect their dark and dirty secrets. As time runs out for the condemned man, the murder tally of innocents starts to climb. When Sam Campbell disappears, it's the last straw for Brodie, and he reverts to his wartime role as a trained killer. It's them or him.
'We might just have found a new Ian Rankin.' DAILY MAIL
Author
About Gordon Ferris
Gordon Ferris is an ex-techy in the Ministry of Defence and an ex-partner in one of the Big Four accountancy firms. Maybe that's where he gets his interest in spies and crooks. He writes about the important things in life: conflicted heroes and headstrong women embroiled in tangled tales of life, love and death. He is the author of the No. 1 bestselling eBook The Hanging Shed in the Brodie series as well as Truth Dare Kill and The Unquiet Heart.
