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Douglas Johnstone

Smokeheads Kindle Edition

by Doug Johnstone (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

117 ratings

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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.

A wild trip to the Scottish Highlands, Doug Johnstone's debut on the Faber crime list is a classic violent thriller, doused with black humour.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Faber & Faber
Publication date

3 March 2011
File size

914 KB
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Product description

About the Author

Doug Johnstone is the author of a number of acclaimed thrillers, including Gone Again, Hit & Run and, most recently, The Jump. He is also a freelance journalist, a songwriter and musician, and has a PhD in nuclear physics. He lives in Edinburgh. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004G5Z1KO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber; Main edition (3 March 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 914 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 304 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 538,658 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 25,459 in Contemporary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 192,777 in Genre Fiction (Books)

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117 ratings

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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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Top review from Australia

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MisterHobgoblin

Islay Single Malt Fiction

Reviewed in Australia on 18 February 2014

Smokeheads follows the fortunes of four men on a lads' weekend away to Islay, the famous Scottish whisky island. Islay whisky is often smoky, hence whisky tourists are known as "smokeheads".

Smokeheads is a pacy story - perhaps not entirely credible - but is an amusing short read. It is quite violent and that may not be apparent from the cover blurb but it is really nothing that fans of tartan noir can't cope with. There's plenty of atmospheric scenery - peat bogs, rugged coastline, Bowmore's round church, abandoned villages and all. This makes up a little for the lack of deep characterization. The Edinburgh hedge fund manager, the whisky shop assistant, the tour guide, the bar maid and the dodgy policemen are just a little bit hackneyed.

Where Smokeheads scores is the understanding of the psyche of a Scottish island. It's a community where people don't necessarily like one another; they don't always help one another but they will go to any length to avoid interference from outside. Hence, the end of the action is not the end of the novel - fully one third of it is dedicated to trying to find a face saving way out for all concerned.

Where Smokeheads is less successful is that it wears its research quite heavily. There are repeated references to whisky tasting notes, almost all dredged up from Jim Murray's Whisky Bible. There is a geography lesson to teach us where the different distilleries are and some of the favourite distillery tour guide phrases are trotted out. There's even a detailed explanation of Laphroaig Distillery's "Friends" loyalty programme. Even for a whisky nerd like myself, it left the dialogue sounding stilted and pretentious.

Oh, and for future reference, a whisky barrel's bung is in the middle, not the end. If you want to remove the end of a barrel, the only way to do it is to take off the metal hoops so the staves come apart. The end won't just pop out if you pull it.

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Giles Guthrie

Gritty Witty Fiction

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 November 2012

Verified Purchase

I bought this after a friend heard I was visiting the Isle of Islay and said that it was great. He wasn't wrong. Obviously, having just been to the isle upon which the novel is set, the place descriptions resonated very strongly with me. Also, the descriptions of whisky and whisky drinking were very close to my heart.

The book is gritty and unfiltered. The language and attitudes between the four friends who are on a distillery visit is coarse, but conveys very well the intense levels of rudeness than bloke friends operate at. The female characters offer their own strength to the story, and represent more than just window-dressing. The only characters I wasn't too keen on were the "bampot villains". I felt they were a little over-egged, although their extreme villainy does impart a good note of tension to the tale.

I really enjoyed reading it. So much so that when it ended I wished it had been longer.

One person found this helpful

Sandra Davies

Unable to sufficiently suspend belief.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2013

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It was only quite okay. Galloped along, fast enough, reasonably believable in places but ... the unlikeableness of most of the characters, the lightness of Adam!! ... and the several holes in possibility (survival of blood loss, snow and immersion in an icy loch) refused to let me suspend the sense of being told a story sufficiently to ever be fully absorbed.
I also hoped the final pair would do the decent thing, returning from Port Ellen.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Pleasantly surprised

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2012

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Not the usual genre I go for, however I chose this book as it was set in Scotland - Having read other reviews where the characters were not deemed very likeable, I would say this adds to the story as they are shown flaws and all and not intended to be likeable. Almost felt the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Island and the close knit community. This book hooked me in. It was well written and had a lot of twists and turns and I enjoyed it immensely.

One person found this helpful

Sue

Flavours of dark peat and lemon zest

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2012

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What a surprising novel. Not only an unput-downable read, romping over Islay in terror, but a lesson in distilling and tasting whiskey too. The well-crafted, hard-hitting style suits a story that pulls no punches and leads to reflection on the nature of island communities. There's even a forlorn love story in there, and much about the endurance of friendship. Great characterisation, a few laughs in among the gore - what more could you want?

One person found this helpful

Malcolm Mcneill Esq

Accurate Location Detail

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2013

Verified Purchase

I was impressed by the amount of detail when talking about the Oa, the American Monument, Upper Killeyan, Stremnish and Kinnabus Loch.
My grandmother was born and brought up in Cragabus in the Oa and I have visited many, many times over the years.
I wasn't too impressed with the storyline around the Ardview pub in Port Ellen - it's never been a favourite haunt of mine.
Story-wise, there's plenty of action, sometimes a bit unbelievable. I finished the book which is a good sign.
Well worth a read if you like Islay and the taste of malt Whisky!

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Smokeheads Kindle Edition

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Douglas Johnstone

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