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Dubray Review

Fans of Iain Banks fans will be delighted by his latest novel Stonemouth as, once again, he tackles the classic themes of return and rites of passage. His 26 year-old central character, Stewart Gilmore, revisits his home town five years after being hunted down and chased away by local gangsters. His encounters reveal Gilmore’s life in a new light, triggering memories of formative relationships and unfurling his past for the reader. It is easy to empathise with Gilmore’s contrasting relief and frustration at the familiarity of his childhood roots, as well as the uncertainty of the welcome he receives. His experiences are portrayed with great sensitivity, while the threat of imminent violence simmers subtly below the surface. I thoroughly enjoyed this masterfully described story – particularly its shocking finale.

- Sandra Martin, Galway

Description

Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with it's five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day. On a bleak one it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. And although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option, and as he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories, and his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated. Tough, funny, fast-paced and touching, Stonemouth cracks open adolescence, love, brotherhood and vengeance in a rite of passage novel like no other.