Exploring the dark side

Doug Johnstone, the author of The Courier’s new serial Fault Lines, tells Caroline Lindsay about his childhood in Arbroath and what inspires his books

A s regular readers will know, The Courier’s gripping new serial, Fault Lines by Doug Johnstone, started last week, something that Doug is rather chuffed about, especially as it’s the second book of his to be serialised in the paper.

“I’m totally thrilled,” says the Edinburgh-based author. “Fault Lines is a strange book in one sense – it’s kind of speculative fiction, set in an alternative Scotland that is a major earthquake and volcano zone.

“It’s set in Edinburgh and there’s a fictional new volcanic island in the Firth of Forth.

“But apart from that odd set-up, it’s in one way a conventional murder mystery – a woman finds a dead body at the start of the book and has to find out what happened.

“So hopefully readers will enjoy that mix of realistic action and inventive setting.

“It’s great The Courier decided to serialise Crash Land last year too,” he continues. “It’s a really interesting way to consume a story, in small discrete chunks. That novel was full of action and conflict, so hopefully the readers really enjoyed that aspect of it.”

Doug grew up in Arbroath and has many happy memories of his childhood. “I lived across the road from Keptie Pond for my whole childhood, so a lot of my memories are of mucking about over there,” he recalls.

“We’d be on the ice in the winter, of course, and I remember falling through more than once and having to be hosed down in the back garden to get all the pond mud off me.

“Apart from that I used to love going on walks along Arbroath Cliffs, which always had the whiff of danger about it – sheer cliff edges right next to the path!

“My parents and sister both live in Dundee, so I’m back in Courier Country quite often. I’ve seen the renovation of Dundee over the years, and it’s been so impressive. It still feels great to see the bridge over the Tay when I arrive in town.

With a degree in physics and a PHD in nuclear physics, Doug admits he had a pretty circuitous route to becoming a writer.

“Although I was writing stories at school, I was mostly interested in science and maths,” he says. “I studied physics at Edinburgh University, then worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry for a few years.

“All that time I was still writing, and I was also doing freelance music journalism.

“I decided to switch to that as a career, which inspired me to take my fiction writing more seriously at the same time.

“It still took a long time to get published, a good few years and two failed novels, but my first novel, Tombstoning, which is set in Arbroath at a school reunion, was published in 2006.

“Since then I’ve had another 11 novels published, all modern day thrillers set in Scotland.”

His latest book, The Big Chill, is the second part of a trilogy of books involving the women of the Skelf family. The first book, A Dark Matter, was publisher in January this year by Orenda Books.

“The Skelfs live in Edinburgh and run a funeral director’s and a private investigator’s, and the first book opens with them cremating Jim, the family’s patriarch,” Doug explains.

“The women left behind are his wife Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah, who have to take over the running of both businesses. In The Big Chill, they are coping with the trauma of the first book, dealing with other people’s grief with the funerals and investigating various mysteries.

“A car crashes into a funeral in the opening scene, and that leads to one investigation, while various other missing persons or deaths keep the women occupied. It’s a dark book about how we cope in times of stress and trauma, so I guess it’s pretty pertinent right now.”

Doug reveals he has always tried to write about ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations.

“I don’t usually write about police detectives solving crimes or international spies shooting people in glamorous locations. I prefer to write about people like myself or like any of my readers, and putting them into a moral conundrum, so that the readers then ask themselves what they would do in those same circumstances.

“I’m definitely drawn to the darker side of the human psyche, so the books deal with death, grief, mental health, suicide, poverty and deprivation, but hopefully they’re also written with some dark humour and empathy for the characters too.”

Originally inspired by the likes of Iain Banks and Irvine Welsh, more recently he’s been enjoying American crime authors such as Megan Abbott, Sara Gran and Laura Lippman.

“And even more recently I’ve been getting back into science fiction, that I used to love as a kid, and writers like Jeff Vandermeer and Sue Burke are fantastic,” he smiles.

So how has lockdown affected Doug’s working day?

“My actual working day hasn’t changed that much, as it turns out I was pretty much living as a hermit anyway,” he says.

“I like to write in the mornings, I find that my brain works better and I have more writing energy then, so I’ll do three hours or so, write maybe 1,200 words or more hopefully.

“Then after lunch I tend to do other stuff, of which there’s always loads. Answer emails, fill in questionnaires,

It’s a book about how people cope in times of stress and trauma, so I guess it’s pretty pertinent right now

Clockwise from top: Doug (on drums) with the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers; at Bloody Scotland, second from left; Doug as a boy; Doug’s author photo.