The Bone Yard See Review by
Bob Cornwell
The Bone Yard, Paul Johnston's second novel is set in Edinburgh. It is Hogmany 2021. New Labour has failed, and in the disastrous break-up of Britain city states have formed fiefdoms, walling themselves off from other warring parts. Edinburgh, the 'perfect' city republic is ruled by Platonic Guardians, supposedly from duty as Plato argued. Electricity, food and even sex is rationed. Clothing vouchers are issued to citizens and there is a ten pm curfew. Television. private cars, telephones, holidays and cigarettes are banned. The city is drug free and crime is almost non-existant.
When the mutilated body of a man is found, private investigator Quintilian Dalrymple is called in to investigate. The killer's calling card is a cassette inside the body. It is a recording of Eric Clapton playing 'Tribute to Elmore.' When two more bodies are found the City Guardians realise that a psychotic serial killer, with an obsession with the blues, is on the loose. But what is the connection between the small blue tablet which can cause a massive increase in mental alertness and sexual potency and the cassette playing 'Electric Blues'? Why does the Medical Directorate try to cover up the murder of an old man and what is the significance of The Bone Yard? The Bone Yard is an Orwellian vision of the future - a novel about the morality of power and the violence bred by corruption. 'Impressive follow-up to the award-winning Body Politic... Johnston's conceit with Edinburgh is brilliant and there's a mordant Scots wit... stylish' Guardian
'A sly satire and gruesome thriller' Mike Ripley, Daily Telegraph
'First-rate crime fiction with an original twist' Sunday Telegraph
'A powerful, fantastical thriller' Mail on Sunday
'More than just a murder story. If Dalrymple and Davie are the moving parts in the machinery of the novel, the menacing structure within which they work is the city itself.' The Scotsman
Body Politic Winner of the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first crime novel of the year
An independent city where television, private cars and popular music are banned, where the citizens are dedicated to the tourists attending the year-round Festival, and where crime is virtually non-existent, Edinburgh in the year 2020 has its drawbacks for blues-haunted private investigator Quintilian Dalrymple.
But the brutal killing of a guardswoman - the first murder in five years - is enough to scare the Council of City Guardians out of complacency. It looks like the Ear, Nose and Throat Man has returned. And they are forced to turn to the man they demoted to uncover a conspiracy of violence and sexual intrigue that reaches into a dark heart of corruption and threatens to dismember the body politic. 'Think of Plato's Republic with a body count' The Sunday Times
'A hugely entertaining fantasy ... engagingly imagined' The Times
'An intricate web ... Johnston is a Fawkes among plotters... Quint's career looks set to blossom Observer
'Fascinating and thought-provoking' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'A thrilling hunt-the-psyche novel with countless twists ... accomplished ... offers real proof of the vigour and class of current Scottish crimewriting' Ian Rankin, Scotland on Sunday
'Imaginative ... remarkable ... shows that crime fiction can be not only thrilling but intellectually exciting as well' The Economist
The Bone Yard
See Review by
Bob Cornwell
The Bone Yard