by Iain Banks
First published 2013
Stewart Gilmour steps off the train in Stonemouth, Scotland, after five years of forced exile. He has come back for Joe Murston's funeral, the patriarch of the family that once wanted him dead. The estuary town north of Aberdeen stretches along a five mile beach, beautiful in sunshine but menacing under gray skies when sea fog rolls in with its cargo of gangsters and cheap drugs. The suspension bridge looms over everything, a magnet for those who have given up hope. Stewart knows he walks through a minefield of old grudges and unfinished business. His last encounter with the Murstons ended with him fleeing for his life. Now he must face his guilt and reckon with everything he lost when he ran. But Stonemouth holds darker secrets than he remembered, and his homecoming becomes more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Genres: drama, mystery, crime, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Aberdeen, Scotland, Stonemouth
Period: 20th-century
448 pages · Paperback · Pegasus Crime
Content warnings: death, violence