The Mash House

BY ALAN GILLESPIE UNBOUND £9.99

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Partial to Tartan Noir and a dram by the fire? Then this is a no-brainer. Gillespie’s prose is as intense as a peated single malt (a seriously macabre tone is set from the off with brutal descriptions of a cat lying on the road). Set in a fictional Highland village, there are more twists than the Bealach na Bà. An aggressive distillery owner sells narcotics alongside his Scotch, and his son goes missing. The characters’ ill-advised decisions only add to the suspense. My only bugbear? No speech marks are used which can cause confusion for tired eyes.