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"This is writing and literature at its best. Imagine Stephen King combined with maybe Cormac McCarthy and a bit of Edgar Allan Poe tossed in"
Bestebookreviews
"Beautifully written...compelling...literary fiction/tartan noir/thriller/zany black comedy...Logan dances on a literary knife edge...blazing talent"
Linda Gillard, author of A LIFETIME BURNING
THE SURVIVAL OF THOMAS FORD
Thomas Ford is the only survivor of the car crash which killed his wife. He is also the only witness who would be willing to identify the young, reckless driver who caused the crash. But the driver has no intention of ever letting himself be identified, not to mention what his father’s intentions are…or those of his girlfriend, Lorna, the hospital cleaner.
The young driver’s father is Jack McCallum, the powerful entrepreneur who has built a housing empire, McCallum Homes, on the high hills surrounding the city. Jack has his own dark secret to protect, as well as his business edifice to hold onto. There is no way in the world that Jack McCallum will ever let anything threaten the future of McCallum Homes.
Robert Ferguson, the passenger who was with the young driver on the day of the crash, curses himself for ever getting into the car. He watches carefully to see what the universe will do about it all, and he thinks he can hear the gears and chambers of the universe’s engine, rolling terribly towards them, out of the future, and he knows he can’t cope with that, not even if he takes his medication.
In the end, destiny will pull them all far out of the city, some of them to the moonlit hillside, where white butterflies and mysterious gas fill the air, and wild cats wrap themselves around cold trees. Jack McCallum’s trusted Polish foreman, Lanski, will recognise the place from the folklore-wilderness of his own childhood, a place where death can come stalking in the form of a white wolf, but perhaps also redemption can appear, for those like Thomas Ford who seek it.
In any case, the young driver has it in mind to take his destiny into his own hands now, which will soon lead to the life of a second young woman hanging in the balance, awaiting salvation or destruction, perhaps only the Fates, or the wind that blows through the trees, know which.
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John A. A. Logan is the author of five novels: THE SURVIVAL OF THOMAS FORD, STARNEGIN’S CAMP, AGENCY WOMAN, THE MAJOR, and ROCKS IN THE HEAD.
He is also the author of STORM DAMAGE, a collection of short stories available on Kindle.
His fiction has been published by PICADOR, VINTAGE, EDINBURGH REVIEW, CHAPMAN, NORTHWORDS, NOMAD, SECRETS OF A VIEW, and SCRATCHINGS; with reviews of his work in SCOTTISH STUDIES REVIEW, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY, THE SPECTATOR, and THE HINDUSTAN TIMES.
His work has been published internationally in anthologies edited by A L Kennedy, John Fowles, Ali Smith, Toby Litt; and he has been invited to read his work at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. He wrote monthly columns and film reviews for the magazine, 57 NORTH, in Aberdeen, where he was also president of Aberdeen University’s Creative Writing Society for three years, while attaining his MA (Hons) English degree there, which included study under the novelist, William McIlvanney.
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Comments about John A. A. Logan’s work:
“Bold” SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
“New talent” THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
“Writerly prowess” THE SPECTATOR
“Logan writes in very original terms” SCOTTISH STUDIES REVIEW
“A blistering, tough book, tempered with tenderness and mystery”
Alan Warner, author of THE STARS IN THE BRIGHT SKY
