Blurb........
Four friends, one weekend, gallons of whisky. What
could go wrong?
Driven by amateur whisky-nut Adam, four
late-thirties ex-university mates are heading to Islay - the remote Scottish
island world famous for its single malts - with a wallet full of cash, a stash
of coke and a serious thirst.
Over a weekend soaked in the finest cask strength
spirit, they meet young divorcee Molly, who Adam has a soft spot for, her
little sister Ash who has all sorts of problems and Molly's ex-husband Joe, a
control freak who also happens to be the local police. As events spiral out of
control, they are all thrown into a nightmare that gets worse at every turn.
Once started it was a decent read, some likeable
characters and some less so. There’s plenty of drug taking, alcohol consumption
and a bit of an education in the production of Scottish malt. There were
humorous moments and a fair measure of violence throughout. Roddy, the
hard-nosed, coke-snorting trader mate of Adam’s and Joe the island
bully-cum-policeman cross swords early on and then the lad’s weekend takes a turn
for the worse.
I did find the plot or the premise for Adam’s dream
a tad implausible, but that could have been the author’s intention.....Adam the
dreamer, Adam the fantasist, Adam the loser.
Overall it was better than average, whilst I wasn’t
totally invested emotionally in the outcome, I was keen to reach the journey’s
end. Probably a 3 from 5, maybe 3.5,
This was my first encounter with Doug Johnstone’s
writing..... reminded me a bit of Scottish Deliverance, without the banjo
playing and pig-squealing! I have another book of Johnstone’s on mount TBR –
Tombstoning which I will get to at some point. I wouldn’t put anyone off
reading this, but neither would I be urging them to pick it up either.
The copy I read came from my local library.
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