A review by amothersmusings1
Fault Lines by Doug Johnstone
4.0
'In a reimagined contemporary Edinburgh, in which a tectonic fault has opened up to produce a new volcano in the Firth of Forth, volcanologist Surtsey makes a shocking discovery. On a clandestine trip to The Inch - the new volcanic island - to meet Tom, her lover and her boss, Surtsey finds his lifeless body. Her life quickly spirals into a nightmare when someone makes contact - someone who claims to know what she's done....'
The intensity of the geographical and geological description of the island of Inch and its surrounding area was just stunning and so atmospheric, I actually felt like I was standing on the island in the opening chapter looking through the eyes of Surtsey.
There's a very deep emotional story running behind the dark psychological crime plot that had me quite tearful and I had so much empathy for sisters Surtsey and Iona watching and waiting for their mother to die.
I didn't particularly like any of the characters but I think that's how we as readers are expected to feel these days. We love to dislike characters and although Surtsey was particularly unlikable I couldn't help feeling sorry for her and this made me empathise with her more. Although she was a complete mess and troubled, I fully understood her actions.
There has obviously been a lot of research carried out into volcanos and geology in general and knowing Edinburgh particularly well myself and loving all things Scottish, I adored this book and devoured it over a weekend. I'll be checking that no fault lines have appeared when I visit Edinburgh in the next couple of weeks and hope there's no tremors when crossing the new Forth bridge!
A frighteningly tense and scary scenario concluded this brilliant book. I thought the whole premise for the story unique, original and very clever. I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it and I will be definitely reading more by the author Doug Johnstone. I so like his writing style, I find him creative, intelligent and very talented and wouldn't hesitate to recommend him or his book "Fault Lines" published by the well respected Orenda books.
4 stars
The intensity of the geographical and geological description of the island of Inch and its surrounding area was just stunning and so atmospheric, I actually felt like I was standing on the island in the opening chapter looking through the eyes of Surtsey.
There's a very deep emotional story running behind the dark psychological crime plot that had me quite tearful and I had so much empathy for sisters Surtsey and Iona watching and waiting for their mother to die.
I didn't particularly like any of the characters but I think that's how we as readers are expected to feel these days. We love to dislike characters and although Surtsey was particularly unlikable I couldn't help feeling sorry for her and this made me empathise with her more. Although she was a complete mess and troubled, I fully understood her actions.
There has obviously been a lot of research carried out into volcanos and geology in general and knowing Edinburgh particularly well myself and loving all things Scottish, I adored this book and devoured it over a weekend. I'll be checking that no fault lines have appeared when I visit Edinburgh in the next couple of weeks and hope there's no tremors when crossing the new Forth bridge!
A frighteningly tense and scary scenario concluded this brilliant book. I thought the whole premise for the story unique, original and very clever. I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it and I will be definitely reading more by the author Doug Johnstone. I so like his writing style, I find him creative, intelligent and very talented and wouldn't hesitate to recommend him or his book "Fault Lines" published by the well respected Orenda books.
4 stars