10% off all books and free delivery over £40
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

Fault Lines

View All Editions

The selected edition of this book is not available to buy right now.
Add To Wishlist
Write A Review Read An Extract

LoveReading Says

LoveReading Says

Brilliantly constructed speculative crime fiction A classic whodunit Dark psychological suspense Doug Johnstone returns with his most explosive and original thriller yet...

Short, sharp, punchy. As a reimagined Edinburgh sits with a volcano on the doorstep, volcanologist Surtsey discovers the very dead body of her lover, and a split-second decision turns her entire world upside down. Doug Johnstone sets the pace from the very beginning, fast moving chapters kept my thoughts whirring. Surtsey is a fascinating character, living her life in the moment, her actions reverberated across the surface of the pages. I could feel her shock, her confusion, yet she didn’t allow me close enough to form a bond, consequently I found myself evaluating, sifting, perhaps even judging. It feels as though a reckoning is thundering towards Surtsey, and I sat waiting, expectantly tense, ready to view the outcome. ‘Fault Lines’ cranks up the volume on original, yet feels intensely raw, earthy, and real, for a short book, it packs a mighty wallop. 

Liz Robinson

eBooks of the Month

Find This Book In

Primary Genre Thriller and Suspense
Other Genres:
Recommendations:

About

Press Reviews

Author

You Might Also Like...

The Haunting of Strawberry Water

Tara Gould

Paperback

In Stock

£4.50 £5.00

Trouble in Mind

Jeffery Deaver

Paperback

In Stock

£8.99 £9.99

One Last Dram Before Midnight

Denzil Meyrick

Paperback

In Stock

£8.09 £8.99

My Face for the World to See

Alfred Hayes

Paperback

In Stock

£8.09 £8.99

The Clockwork Eyeball

Steven Poore

Paperback

In Stock

£6.29 £6.99

Wish You Were Dead: Quick Reads 2021

Peter James

Paperback

In Stock

£4.49 £4.99

Reader Reviews

See All

Fault lines is a great murder mystery that has you page turning from the start. A classic who done it with intrigue, love and an unknown motive. Great read!

Fault Lines is a great read that has you hooked from the first few pages.
The main character Surtsey is a volcanologist working on an amazing Island called the Inch but she has fallen for a married colleague and an incident on the Inch causes a series of lies and traumas that almost end it all for Surtsey.
I love crime dramas and was impressed with the way that Doug Johnstone weaved the personal family drama of Surtsey with a shocking incident that casts her morality in doubt.... Read Full Review

Ian Watkin

Fault Lines is a gripping novel with secrets as dark as the black volcanic sand and rock of The Inch itself.

Set in an alternative Edinburgh where a volcanic island has sprung up in the Firth of Forth, we meet Surtsey, a volcanologist, whose life is about to implode in ways she could never have imagined.

She sets out on her boat to secretly meet her lover, Tom, a married professor. But when she gets to the island of The Inch, their usual meeting spot, hidden from prying eyes, she discovers his body, his head caved in, being eaten by birds.

Panic setting in, she rows herself back to the mainland and tells no one what she saw.

But someone saw her.

“I know you were there”, said the text message. 

Like a message from the island itself.... Read Full Review

Gwen McGinty

A rich dark emotional thriller with so many twists and turns that will keep you guessing right to the end.

Fault Lines is a well constructed psychological thriller that I couldn't put down and kept me guessing right to the end.

The story opens with a young volcanologist called Surtsey travelling to a new volcanic island in the Firth of Forth to meet Tom, her boss and much older married lover with whom she had been having a clandestine affair for several months. Instead she finds his murdered body and makes the decision to keep her discovery and their affair a secret. She finds and pockets his phone that was only used for calls between them. However she is horrified to receive a text on this phone from someone who claims to know she was there on the island. After the body is discovered, she and the rest of the team are interviewed by the police and this is the start of lies to protect her secret.... Read Full Review

Patricia Dewey