Iain’s in town with his thriller of a new book
An acclaimed East Kilbride author will be signing copies of his latest novel in the town next week.
Iain Kelly will be showcasing historical thriller All We Cannot Leave Behind at Waterstones in Centre West on Saturday, March 16, from 2pm-3pm.
In the book, The Barra Boy author reveals how the struggles of women remain the same, even 100 years on.
It is 1920 in Edinburgh and three children are missing – abducted from the poorhouses of the city. When a body is found near the town of Liberton, Dr Thomas Stevenson, still suffering from the trauma of the First World War, finds himself drawn into the police investigation. But suspicion falls on the woman with the mysterious past who lives with Thomas. Could she be guilty of the brutal murder?
With time running out and lives at stake, Thomas must prove her innocence, but to do that he has to find the real killer and unlock the truth about her secret past. A past that casts a long, dark shadow.
Iain, 43, lives in Nerston and is dad to nine-year-old twins Caden and Chloe.
A graduate of the University of Glasgow with a master’s degree in English literature and film and television studies, he is an editor in the television industry working on programmes for Channel 4 and 5 with a 17-year spell as a BBC programme editor.
And any spare time is spent reading and writing stories.
His first novel, A Justified State (2018), was followed by political thrillers State Of Denial (2019) and State Of War (2020) and
The Barra Boy (2023). Revealing the story behind his latest thriller, Iain explains: “Liberton is the home of the paternal side of my family. In the local church (which features in the novel) there is a family gravestone.
“When I saw this for the first time, 15 years ago, I held on to the idea of setting a story here, in the past. So although I have only ever visited Liberton briefly, I felt a connection to the place and explored this through writing this book.
“The names of my two main characters – Thomas and Jessie – are the names of my paternal grandparents, who lived in
Liberton. It was fascinating to research Liberton and Edinburgh and discover so much about the place where my family once lived.
“The inspiration for the story came from the erosion of women’s rights, particularly the repeal of the Roe v Wade ruling in America. It seemed to me that this was a step backwards, and by telling the story of a woman a hundred years ago, a young single mother abandoned by society and forced to struggle with no social welfare, this could reflect a light on some of the current issues women face around the world today.
“The darker parts of the book – child abduction, infanticide and murder and the life in the poorhouses – are examples of where we, as a society, can end up when we leave the most vulnerable without any support or options.”
Another important topic that the book deals with is mental health, and the awareness of mental health issues. The novel is set just after the end of the First World War, when the idea of posttraumatic stress disorder was still a new idea.
Iain added: “In the UK, we are at a crisis point with our own NHS and the welfare system, and I feel we need to be very careful over the next few years about thinking how we want to look after the more vulnerable people in our society.
“Veterans from the war who had survived unthinkable horror were expected to return to some sort of normal life without any support.
“The title, as well as referring to the past of the main characters, also refers to this idea of being unable to escape these traumatic episodes.
“And of course, the title also refers to society and humanity as a whole being unable to learn from the mistakes of the past – within 20 years, another world war had erupted.
“While the book touches on these serious issues, it is a crime thriller and hopefully readers will enjoy the mystery at the heart of the novel as they read it, as well as thinking about some of the issues in society that it raises, and thinking about them beyond the boundaries of reading the novel.”
All We Cannot Leave Behind was released on February 28.