by Rob McInroy

I enjoyed these stories immensely, which pay tribute to the traditions and language of Scottish storytelling while spanning a remarkable range of structure and technique. An award-winning crime writer that has attracted praise from Val McDermid, Rob McInroy steps only occasionally into that genre while delivering this collection which includes folklore, historical fiction, black comedy and contemporary literature.

These twenty tales are written both in short, sharp flash-fiction, and in longer pieces in poetic prose and in more brutal dialogue.

The range of the dialogue demonstrates the distinctions of Scots language as the stories travel through space and time from nineteenth century crofts to the streets of twentieth century Leith and the haunts of small-town Perthshire in the present day. I found these renderings of language and character as powerful as more well-known champions of Scots, such as Irvine Welsh and James Kelman, but there is also that beautiful and subtle drollness of the more authentic rural voices to be found in Robin Jenkins’ ‘Pearl Fishers’ and Stanley Robertson’s ‘Reek Roon a Camp Fire’.

The characters delivering the dialogue are just as varied, either beckoning the reader to listen more closely and on occasion, challenging readers perception of reality with all the beautiful (and repulsive) imagery reminiscent of Alisdair Gray – (there’s one such recurring misfit that you’ll love when you meet her). The situations we find the characters in are tense, emotional, awkward, frightening and sometimes darkly funny, but they always reveal the fragility and flaws of the inner workings of humans yearning to be loved and accepted.

McInroy’s crime-writing credentials are evident as he occasionally leads the reader down the wrong path, or misleads with sleight of hand, and it’s easy to see why his prize-winning extends to other genres as he skilfully draws this collection together by language and place so that this is more of an anthology than a collection.

The author’s notes inform us that some of these stories are based on characters from his novels, so I will definitely be adding those to my reading list.