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Douglas Johnstone

Fault Lines Kindle Edition

by Doug Johnstone (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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When volcanologist Surtsey finds her married lover dead, she pockets his phone and makes the fatal decision to keep her discovery secret … but someone has been watching…

‘A cracking and highly original thriller’ Mark Billingham

‘You don’t read Fault Lines so much as you white-knuckle your way through its twists and turns’ Megan Abbott

‘A superb, highly original psychological chiller’ Steve Cavanagh

____________________

In a reimagined contemporary Edinburgh, where a tectonic fault has opened up to produce a new volcano in the Firth of Forth, and where tremors are an everyday occurrence, volcanologist Surtsey makes a shocking discovery.

On a clandestine trip to new volcanic island The Inch, to meet Tom, her lover and her boss, she finds his lifeless body, and makes the fatal decision to keep their affair, and her discovery, a secret.

Desperate to know how he died, but also terrified she’ll be exposed, Surtsey’s life quickly spirals into a nightmare when someone makes contact – someone who claims to know what she’s done…

____________________

‘An explosive thriller’ Daily Record

‘A cracking-good thriller with some seriously good writing and some beautifully designed characters … Here’s a writer pushing the thriller envelope, giving the reader not just a good novel, but also a unique one’ David Pitt, Booklist

‘Novel and elegant … it is the book’s thought-provoking and heart-breaking moments that carry the reader through the story and which resonate most at the end’ Scotsman

‘Both a meditation on the volatility of human nature and a gripping thriller with plenty of twists and turns … An original and addictive thriller, as intelligent as it is shocking’ Foreword Reviews

‘Richly characterised, beautifully crafted, this is a book that you truly inhabit’ Emma Kavanagh

‘Scotland’s truest exponent of noir’ Chris Brookmyre

'A subtly off-kilter speculative thriller that builds to a truly explosive ending’ Eva Dolan

‘A pacey, gripping read’ Louise Voss

‘Sexy, fearless and addictive’ Helen FitzGerald

‘Johnstone weaves his compelling and original tale with great skill and elegance from the gripping beginning to a tense and explosive ending' Amanda Jennings

‘Brilliantly unputdownable’ Martyn Waites

‘Superb’ Luca Veste

‘Blending powerful imagination and plotting, this is the work of a writer at the top of his game’ Stuart Neville

‘Plays with every single emotion’ Susi Holliday

‘This had me hooked from the first page’ Cass Green

‘Poignant, gripping and packed with seismic shocks’ Paddy Magrane

‘Incisive, intelligent and imaginative’ Michael J. Malone

‘I was completely swept away’ Caroline Mitchell

‘Hits you lie a seismic shock’ Douglas Skelton

‘Grabs you by the throat in the first chapter’ Neil Broadfoot

Print length

219 pages
Language

English
Publisher

ORENDA BOOKS
Publication date

22 March 2018
File size

461 KB
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Review

'A cracking and highly original thriller. Johnstone never fails to deliver.' Author: Mark Billingham

'A subtly off-kilter speculative thriller which builds to a truly explosive ending. Once again Doug Johnstone shows why he's at the forefront of Scottish crime fiction's new guard; Fault Lines is original, ambitious but always grounded in relatable and complex characters.' Author: Eva Dolan

'Brilliantly unputdownable.' Author: Martyn Waites --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

"A cracking and highly original thriller. Johnstone never fails to deliver." --Mark Billingham, author, Lazybones

"An original and addictive thriller, Fault Lines is as intelligent as it is shocking." --Foreword Reviews

"A superb, highly original psychological chiller. Fault Lines is a masterclass in suspense." --Steve Cavanagh, author, The Defense

"a cracking-good thriller with some seriously good writing and some beautifully designed characters...Downright brilliant." --Booklist

"Johnstone is Scotland's truest exponent of noir. He writes novels that are punchy, fast-paced and sometimes gruellingly dark; unflinchingly challenging his readers by taking them to places that are emotionally and ideologically uncomfortable." --Chris Brookmyre

"A subtly off-kilter speculative thriller that builds to a truly explosive ending." --Eva Dolan

"A pacey, gripping read." --Louise Voss

"Brilliantly unputdownable." --Martyn Waites

"Johnstone weaves his compelling and original tale with great skill and elegance from the gripping beginning to a tense and explosive ending." --Amanda Jennings

"Richly characterised, beautifully crafted, this is a book that you truly inhabit." --Emma Kavanagh

"Sexy, fearless and addictive." --Helen FitzGerald

'You don't read Fault Lines so much as you white-knuckle your way through its twists and turns, toward its thrilling end, your breath held and your nerves tingling. And it's as psychologically rich as it is harrowing. I've come to expect nothing less from Doug Johnstone, one of the genre's premiere writers." --Megan Abbott, author, You Will Know Me

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B078GYSHDQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ ORENDA BOOKS; Reprint edition (22 March 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 461 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 219 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 279,154 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 712 in Alternative History
- 1,018 in Alternate History Science Fiction
- 1,521 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
105 ratings

About the author

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Douglas Johnstone

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Doug Johnstone is the author of thirteen novels, most recently The Great Silence (2021). His previous book, The Big Chill (2020), was longlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year. Several of his books have been bestsellers and three, A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015), were shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions over the last two decades including festivals, libraries, universities, schools, prisons and a funeral directors.

Doug is a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow and works as a mentor and manuscript assessor for many organisations, including The Literary Consultancy, Scottish Book Trust and New Writing North. He's been an arts journalist for over twenty years and has also written many short stories and screenplays. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club.

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Customer reviews

5 star		41%
4 star		27%
3 star		20%
2 star		9%
1 star		2%

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Susan Hampson

Loved the setting and mystery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 May 2018

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This book made for a very fascinating and unusual setting, one that I knew but was at the same time alien to me. Edinburgh, a place that I have visited and read about many times but now it felt more like an alternate version. Volcanic activity in the Firth of Forth had occurred creating The Inch, an island where the dead body of man was to be discovered. Surtsey, his lover, work colleague and volcanologist was use to the tremors that struck the city every day but someone knew about her and her relationship with Tom. To say that the ground she walked on was shaky just doesn’t do it. Something was brewing and going to blow and it wasn’t just the volcano.
Surtsey is quite a character, pretty, and an intelligent young woman but one that is still holding on to a bit of a rebellious side. She, like Edinburgh, has her faults which can’t always be seen at first glance. She parties hard but has to have the release that makes it possible to hold on to her sanity. She is living life on the highs of booze and smoking pot and the lows dealing with her mum’s cancer besides the death of Tom her lover and unknown person that is now taunting her.
I played Jenga with Doug Johnstone’s characters, pulling each one out of the story to try to work out the mystery person that had turned into a killer and still was after more. The story builds gradually with spikes of nearly clues, like almost remembering something then it’s gone sort of thing. The characters are quite a mixed bunch or people who are at times forced together by circumstances rather than want, which brings its own tensions in the story. I loved how the volcano activity and the life of Surtsey reflected each other with a pretty spectacular conclusion. Highly recommended.

5 people found this helpful

Spicewalker

Murder and mystery in a reimagined Edinburgh

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 May 2018

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I love Edinburgh. Quite possibly my favourite Scottish city. I’ve visited a few, by no means all, but enough to be able to say that at least. I used to spend my summers on a camp site in Mortonhall. With therapy, I’ve been able to put that behind me, but I do still have a fascination with the city, the familiarity of the landscape I knew as a child and which I have recently become re-acquainted with by virtue of having to open a depot on the edge of the city. So when I heard that this book was to be set in a reimagined version of this beautiful city, I was intrigued. And when you couple with the fact that it’s written by an author with the pedigree of Doug Johnstone, and published by Orenda, whose taste in literary offerings I trust implicitly and preorder without hesitation, I was expecting to find something quite special here.

I was not disappointed.

What an opening. As scene setting goes, this was pretty dang perfect. You knew the what, you knew the where and you knew the who. All you were missing where the how and why. And there is where we find the main focus of this story – determining just who may have been responsible for the brutal murder of Surtsey’s Professor and lover, Tom. Needless to say, their clandestine meetings, indeed Surtsey’s presence at the scene of the crime soon after the murder, make her a prime suspect as far as the police are concerned. But someone knows the truth, someone who is determined to taunt and harass Surtsey, but to what end you have to read to find out.

From the very opening scenes, Doug Johnstone creates such a sense of place that you will feel you know every inch of the city, every line of the beach and this new coastline that he has created in his novel. Even if you don’t know the city you will never feel lost as the book takes you to into the scene, planting your feet firmly in the middle of the action, the descriptions so vivid that you will feel as though you are there. In fairness, even a native would be a little uncertain of this new landscape, a volcanic island, ‘The Inch’, dominating the Firth of Forth, earthquakes interrupting the natural peace that we take for granted, but within a few pages, you are ready to accept this as the norm. That ‘The Inch’ has always been there. That maybe it actually exists. That is how real this book makes it all feel.

And yet this is all a story. All make believe. As incredible as the Forth opening up to reveal a new island, new life, may be, there is nothing unrealistic about murder, nor the emotions and interactions between characters that you witness in this novel. The friendships, the family ties, even the family rifts, they are all so believable, natural in their portrayal, that you know that you have met someone just like them, somewhere in your real life. Doug Johnstone has captured modern living perfectly, albeit with a slight twist, and turned the emotional baggage, mistrust and poor communication against the characters to create a really thrilling and intriguing mystery.

I really liked the character of Surtsey. She was very human, if that makes sense? By that I mean that she was flawed, as many protagonists are, but in a very natural and relatable way. They way in which she struggled with her mother’s illness, her sister’s apparent lack of compassion or understanding and her own feelings, torn as they were between her two lovers, one married, one oblivious to her affair. She makes bad decisions, ones which come back to haunt her, but she also has an inner strength which carries her through the trials she is faced with, also makes her blind to the dangers around her. I wanted her to come good, wanted her to find her answers, wanted her to succeed. I also wanted her to just be honest for once, although the gentle honesty of her passion for the land, inherited from her mother, was something which really endeared her to me. I do think she may divide readers a little but for the most part, they should be on her side.

As for the central story – the murder of Tom and the menacing messages Surtsey subsequently receives – well it is a slow burner at first, the author taking his time over setting out the full story, allowing Surtsey’s own story to build as the investigation unfurls around her. In spite of this I found myself flying through the book – relatively short at 300 pages – and in the dying pages the action and threat comes thick and fast. I had an inkling at one stage as to what may happen, perhaps finding one of the characters a little unsettling, but this didn’t dull my enjoyment. Maybe the ‘I knew it’ moment even enhanced it a little.

I have to say the ending still surprised me a little, not entirely what I was expecting and certainly this is the point in which you feel your pulse begin to spike as the threat level increases massively. The build in tension is echoed in the narrative, as the tremors caused by the island increase in frequency and volume, all foreshadowing the impending showdown, one which happens in a most dramatic way.

If you are looking for a pacey thriller, one with a fierce and determined character, a little obsessed with rocks it has to be said, and a killer (literal and figurative) twist, then you definitely need to read this book. This was a very cleverly plotted look at the whole idea of infatuation and obsession. It was my first Doug Johnstone title (I know – I have already admitted many times to being useless) but it won’t be my last. I am thankful Orenda chose something that little bit different, where the threat comes as much from nature itself as from the people who seek to control it. I loved it.

6 people found this helpful

Kevin McAllion

Seismic suspense

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 May 2019

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Earthquakes and after-shocks have become so routine for the people of Edinburgh in this reimagined version of Scotland's capital that they are met with almost a shrug of the shoulders. And for volcanologist Surtsey, seemingly destined for such a career after being named after a volcano in Iceland, it's other things that rock her world and leave her dizzy and disorientated. The book begins with her heading to the Inch, the volcanic island that has appeared in the firth of Forth, for an illicit encounter with her married tutor Tom. But she finds him lying dead on the beach and flees in panic when the killer contacts her via messages on the secret mobile phone Tom used to conduct their affair. The suspense builds beautifully from there, with Surtsey left wondering who is messing with her head as the police begin to view her as the prime suspect. To add to her pain, Surtsey also has to cope with the impending death of her mum from cancer and a sister whose only way to deal with this is drowning herself in a sea of alcohol and one-night stands. Johnstone does a great job of of delving deeper into Surtsey's complicated life while keeping the main plot line ticking along. The invention of the Inch adds another fascinating layer to the book, its dark presence providing the perfect backdrop for this intriguing novel. It's well worth a visit.

One person found this helpful

Kelly Van Damme

Recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2019

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Fault Lines is set in a reimagined contemporary Edinburgh, in which a tectonic fault has opened up and produced a volcanic island, The Inch. Protagonist Surtsey is a volcanologist obsessed with The Inch. Surtsey is also having an affair with her married boss Tom… Until she goes to meet him and finds him dead as a doornail. Oops! Death doesn’t stop there, it seems to follow Surtsey around and in the meantime she keeps getting creepy messages on Tom’s clandestine phone that she’s nicked, she’s trying to make the most of the time she has left with her mum who’s terminally ill and she’s trying to reconnect with her sister.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Caroline Guthrie. She has a lovely Scottish accent that regularly made me smile, but she does quite a simple narration, she doesn’t really tweak her voice all that much to accommodate the various characters, which was most noticeable during conversations. Still, I liked it enough to keep listening (I also have the eBook so I could have switched).
Suspenseful, mysterious, but with a heart, recommended!

One person found this helpful

A. W. Skinner

Not my thing!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2020

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This was the third of Mr Johnstone's books that I have read, and it will be the last. I have had problems with the characters, and plots, in all three books. This one is mainly populated with women and, frankly, I don't think Mr Johnstone likes women at all, since most of them are drunken, drug-using sluts. His plots are, in places, completely ludicrous - in this one, Edinburgh suffers almost constant earthquakes - and his dramatic endings are so over the top that I get the feeling he hopes his books will be made into Hollywood blockbusters.
There is definitely some talent there, and his description of Edinburgh is very accurate, but he really needs an honest editor.

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