Tombstoning by Doug Johnstone. July 2012. Epub £1.71. 256 pages (estimated).
This deliciously disturbing tale was first published by Penguin in 2006. In July of this year it became available in Kindle format and can be purchased in either version from Amazon.
TOMBSTONING is Doug Johnstone’s first novel and is simply fabulous. Although it is less polished than his latest book, HIT AND RUN (still my Eurocrime Number 1 for 2012), it radiates with the talent that Johnstone is chock-full of and I love it. This is another book that messes with your head: a sure fire way to get onto my favourites list.
David Lindsay was born and raised in Arbroath. His best friend falls off a cliff in mysterious circumstances just before his 18th birthday, and David is the last person to see him alive. Churning with more questions than answers, he turns tail and runs, all the way to Edinburgh, where he stays and tries to forget. One day many years later he receives an email, from a certain Nicola Cruikshank, that turns his comfortable, if tedious, life upside down. Nicola has news of a school reunion and David, or Dave, as he now calls himself, is invited. David’s heart does a double flip, as Nicola was the girl at school that he fancied. He nervously replies and ends up meeting Nicola for her to arm-twist him into going to the reunion. Delighted that Nicola is still extremely attractive, he agrees to go and a few Saturdays later finds himself driving northward on a journey that will bring him head on with his childhood traumas. Instead of being a cathartic putting to rest of the past, the trip uncovers a whole hornets’ nest of trouble and once again David finds himself seeing the broken body of a friend, dead at the bottom of the cliffs. Who, or what, is the cause of this latest ‘accident’? Its timing is too good to be a coincidence and, with a finger of suspicion pointing at him, David takes it upon himself to find out the answers.
By far the best part of TOMBSTONING, for me, is Johnstone’s vivid description of David’s feelings towards the school reunion and the subsequent behaviour of his supposed ‘grown up’ school mates, that were nasty back in the day and are still pretty unpleasant people. I love the way the story keeps you guessing and hoping that things turn out OK (that’s the thing with Johnstone – there is no guarantee of a happy ending). The central characters are well developed and likeable and the pace of the story keeps you hanging on, wondering.
I have given this book 4 stars in my Amazon review. While I like it enormously, it isn’t as good as Johnstone’s later offerings, so I can’t give it 5 stars. Having said that, I do think this author is awesome and am delighted to have two more of his books waiting patiently on my ‘to be read’ pile!
Nice review. Possibly a bit too "black" for me but will check it out. I misread "parrot" for "parent" and was a bit fazed....until I read it properly!
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