Fault lines

released OUT NOW! 216 pages | Paperback/ebook

Author doug Johnstone Publisher Orenda Books

When the first chapter of a novel features the protagonist feeling like she’s in “a corny novel by some middle-aged Oxbridge guy”, alarm bells start to ring. The context is that young volcanologist Surtsey (she’s named after an Icelandic island) is having an affair with her married, middle-aged boss. Having your characters comment on the cliché does not excuse the cliché.

A page later the middle-aged boss turns up murdered and Surtsey, hoping to keep their affair a secret, doesn’t report it. It’s a dynamic start which then goes absolutely nowhere. The book has all the trappings of a thriller, yet it feels very static because Surtsey is so passive – apart from lying to the police she does barely anything to affect the plot. Much of the tension centres around anonymous texts she receives from the killer, yet she’s not driven by finding out who it is. She sinks deeper into trouble because of what she doesn’t do, rather than what she does.

You may be wondering what the fantasy element is: the book’s set in an imagined Edinburgh where there’s a volcano in the Firth of Forth. But aside from a few mentions of a cult that worships it (which feels like it’s going to become an important plot element, then doesn’t), this spends most of the novel as a background detail that has made little difference to the world. Maybe that’s why Surtsey is so drawn to it. Eddie Robson