GONE AGAIN is out again!

9c144c7dbc6f4cdda7a455cd414ee5ef

When my most recent novel, GONE AGAIN, was published in March, I know what you were thinking: ‘That trade paperback format is too big to fit in my pocket, Doug. And it’s a little too pricey, times are hard. If only there was a smaller, cheaper version of this amazing novel.’

Well now there is! GONE AGAIN is published today in mass market paperback format! It’s now about two-thirds of the size it was, and almost half the price. Oof! It also has a slightly different cover. Honest. The typeface is subtly changed, and the title is a different colour and everything.

Remember, this is the book that The Times, The Guardian and others went literally (not literally) nuts over. Megan Abbott and Ian Rankin said very kind things about it. My mum told me it was her favourite book of mine!

Faber are celebrating this momentous day by having buskers play Metallica songs all over London! Oh no, wait, that’s for the Metallica biography, Birth School Metallica Death, that they’re also publishing today. Which is excellent, by the way! ‘Bang that head that doesn’t bang’, and all that.

Aaanyway, GONE AGAIN is about a missing wife, and the relationship between the father and son left behind. ‘For fans of No Time for Goodbye, The Vanishing, and Tell No One,’ Faber say. If that sounds like your kind of thing, do please buy a copy from yer awesome local bookshop. Or from Faber here. Or if you’re so inclined, from Amazon here. The perfect Christmas gift for someone who likes harrowing domestic thrillers!

End of sales message.

Love y’all! Dx

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Reviews of Melissa Benn and Kate Adie books in Big Issue

illustration by Mitch Blunt

illustration by Mitch Blunt

Here is my latest double-header book review in The Big Issue magazine, What Should We Tell Our Daughters? by Melissa Benn and Fighting On The Home Front by Kate Adie, both dealing with feminism, kind of, but coming at it from very different angles. Enjoy!

Dx

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A review of Others of My Kind by James Sallis

others of my mind

Oof, here’s a late contender for my favourite book of the year. I reviewed it over at the Independent on Sunday and it totally blew me away. I read it in one sitting on a plane and couldn’t believe how much Sallis managed to pack into just over 150 pages. You all should buy this book, seriously. Check out the review for more effusive praise.

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My reviews of David Vann and Douglas Coupland in The Big Issue

illustration by Mitch Blunt

illustration by Mitch Blunt

Here are my Big Issue reviews of David Vann’s Goat Mountain and Douglas Coupland’s Worst Person Ever, both published by William Heinemann. One I loved, the other not so much. Find out which was which by clicking.

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Linlithgow Book Festival – A Night in the Gutter

note: this may not be actual venue

Linlithgow Palace. Note: this may not be the actual venue

I’m well chuffed to be appearing at the Linlithgow Book Festival this weekend as part of their Night in the Gutter event, in conjunction with Gutter magazine. Details of all events at the festival are here, and this event is on Saturday evening at 7.30pm, alongside Kona Macphee, Patricia Ace and Andrew Philip. Not sure what I’m gonna do yet, mibbes a short story or two, mibbes a bit of a novel. Why not come along and find out?

Dx

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My Big Issue review of Vic Galloway and John Higgs books

illustration by Mitch Blunt

illustration by Mitch Blunt

Here is my latest piece of blether in The Big Issue’s books section, this time reviewing the rather excellent Songs in the Key of Fife (Polygon) by Vic Galloway and The KLF (Phoenix) by John Higgs. A couple of cracking music books from out of leftfield for yer perusal.

 

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North Ayrshire Libraries’ Readers’ Day – this Saturday

There will almost certainly* be views like this of Irvine beach out the window. (*beach view not guaranteed)

There will almost certainly* be views like this of Irvine beach out the window. (*beach view not guaranteed)

I’m delighted to be taking part in North Ayrshire Libraries’ Readers’ Day this Saturday 26th October in Dreghorn. Details are here. It’s an all-day thing where myself and fellow authors Douglas Jackson, Shari Low and Marianne Wheelaghan talk to reading groups about our own work and a classic book that each of us has chosen. I’ve gone for James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity. Can’t wait to bang on about it. It’s only a few quid to come, and they chuck in lunch as well, so why not, eh? It’s a little known fact that I was born in Irvine, so technically this is me returning to my roots. That’s just FYI, likes, not important or anything.

Dx

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Dundee Literary Festival is coming this weekend!

Dennis the Menace poses with an enlarged version of the new Beano stamp in front of the Desperate Dan statue in Dundee-765443

Two Dundonian literary giants. Correction, three, Minnie the Minx is lurking at the back.

Aye so, Dundee Literary Festival is coming this weekend, 23-27 October. Check out their fantastic programme here. I’m on at 5.30pm on Friday with the wonderful Denise Mina at the Bonar Hall. The programme is full of treats like Sarah Hall, Jenni Fagan, William McIlvanney, James Robertson and a whole lot more. So come, or I’ll set Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan on you.

Dx

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My gig at the University of Otago, Dunedin

 

University_of_Otago__Clocktower

Aye so, the book and music gig I did at the University of Otago in Dunedin, NZ is up on their website. It’s an hour of me talking shite and playing songs and blethering and all that. For some reason I had to wear two mics for this gig. And play the guitar directly into a third mic. I don’t know much about life, but that seems like mic overkill. And still we didn’t have enough mics to hear the questions from the audience.

Anyway, enjoy, if you can bear it! There’s some interesting stuff in there about domestic v non-domestic drama, male v female protagonists and writers, Scottish crime writing, etc. This book has definitely thrown up more interesting questions than my previous ones, I think.

Huge thanks to Liam McIlvanney for making it all happen!

Dx

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My review of Liam McIlvanney’s Where the Dead Men Go in the Independent on Sunday

WtDMGo

Aye so, I was delighted to get to review Liam McIlvanney’s excellent Where the Dead Men Go (Faber) in the Independent on Sunday. A really fantastic, 21st century Scottish crime novel. Gutted I only got to write 200 words, I had much more to say about it! Better than nowt, though, eh?

Dx

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