First published 2013
Jack Laidlaw receives word that his brother Scott has died in a car accident in their hometown of Graithnock. The Glasgow detective returns to the small Scottish town where he grew up, ostensibly for the funeral. But Laidlaw cannot accept that Scott's death was simply an accident. He begins asking questions that make his family uncomfortable and stir up old resentments. The investigation forces Laidlaw to confront his own past and the choices that drove him away from home years earlier. As he digs deeper into his brother's final days, Laidlaw uncovers secrets that threaten to destroy what remains of his fractured family. The case becomes deeply personal as Laidlaw struggles with guilt over his long estrangement from Scott and questions whether he truly knew his brother at all.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, detective, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, personal-journey, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Graithnock, Glasgow
Period: 20th-century
Hardcover · Windsor