Tommy the Bruce: An unsettling, atmospheric noir set in the remote Scottish Highlands

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James Yorkston

Tommy the Bruce

An unsettling, atmospheric noir set in the remote Scottish Highlands

James Yorkston

$24.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Oldcastle Books Ltd
01 March 2025

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Crime & Mystery; Fiction: special features

Meet Tommy Bruce - he's washed-up already, marooned in a ramshackle hotel inherited from dead parents in the armpit of Perthshire, that's just too far off the main tourist trail to be viable. He's too young to be middle-aged, but too old to be what you could call young (and too lazy to care about it, really). Saddled with debt, grotty premises that are falling down around him and a crippling loneliness, Tommy is slowly but determinedly drinking himself and his business out of existence.

Until one day into the lounge-bar, and out of the blue, walks Fiona McLean. And before long she's moved behind the bar, into the hotel and (remarkably) into Tommy's bed. Fiona blows into Tommy's life and through the hotel, and with the light she brings, Tommy's fortunes might just be turning around; but in her wake has also slipped in darkness

names and faces from the past who mean Tommy no goodwill at all, criminal forces that threaten to ruin him, the hotel and what little happiness he's managed, haplessly, to cobble together.

Tommy the Bruce is a precise, chilling and all too believable crime novel

scored throughout with a genuinely unsettling menace, which is belied by the ease of Yorkston's storytelling and humour. It's a shot of Southern Gothic poured out in the central Highlands.

By: James Yorkston
Imprint: Oldcastle Books Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9780857305947
ISBN 10: 0857305948
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 March 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

James Yorkston is a singer-songwriter and author from the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. Since signing to Domino Records in 2001, James has released a steady flow of highly acclaimed, multi-instrument, acoustic based albums. James' 2021 album The Wide, Wide River was called 'another fascinating, curious contribution to the Scottish musician's constantly eddying catalogue' by the Guardian, 'a beautiful experience' by Clash and 'another career highlight' by the Scotsman. In 2014 Yorkston began playing with with Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, a trio embracing jazz, traditional folk, krautrock, the poetry of Ivor Cutler and Indian classical music. Their album Navarasa - Nine Emotions was named the Guardian's 'Folk Album of the Year' in 2020. In 2011 James' debut book It's Lovely to be Here - The Touring Diaries of a Scottish Gent was published by The Domino Press / Faber, and in 2016 Freight Press published James' first novel 3 Craws. His second novel, The Book of the Gaels, was published by Oldcastle Books in 2021. James also runs the music and poetry night 'Tae Sup wi' a Fifer', and co-hosts the podcast 46-30, dedicated to 'Quality Music of No Fixed Abode'.