Here is my review of Mark Binelli’s excellent The Last Days of Detroit (The Bodley Head), which appeared in the Big Issue magazine a while back, but has only recently made it online. Thought this was a fantastic piece of non-fiction, very scary though. Some of the stats about levels of deprivation were rather mind-boggling.
Midfield maestro Billy Letford clashes with Joe Dunthorne
Here is a brilliant, brilliant half-hour Radio 4 documentary made by Joe Dunthorne about the England Writers Football Team’s visit to play the Scotland Writers Football Team in December.
Sure I’ve mentioned it once or twice, but I was playing that day, and we won 4-2. Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend, and this documentary is a great tribute to the sporting nature of proceedings. I think you can hear me shouting something in the background at some point. You should listen out for Graham Joyce’s hilarious German shower anecdote, worth listening to for that alone.
Had a fantastic weekend with the English lads, and we’re heading down there for a rematch sometime in the spring, details tbc.
Folks,
I have a NEW BOOK COMING OUT on 7TH MARCH.
It’s called GONE AGAIN and, as you can see, it has a beautiful, beautiful cover.
We’re having a LAUNCH EVENT at BLACKWELL’S, SOUTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH on THURSDAY 7TH MARCH, 6.30pm. Please come. I will be reading and chatting and juggling. Maybe not juggling. Then we’ll go to the pub, all of us.
Here’s the blether about the book:
**
‘It’s just to say that no-one has come to pick Nathan up from school, and we were wondering if there was a problem of some kind?’
As Mark Douglas photographs a pod of whales stranded in the waters off Edinburgh’s Portobello Beach, he is called by his son’s school: his wife, Lauren, hasn’t turned up to collect their son. Calm at first, Mark collects Nathan and takes him home but as the hours slowly crawl by he increasingly starts to worry.
With brilliantly controlled reveals, we learn some of the painful secrets of the couple’s shared past, not least that it isn’t the first time Lauren has disappeared. And as Mark struggles to care for his son and shield him from the truth of what’s going on, the police seem dangerously short of leads. That is, until a shocking discovery…
In the tradition of The Vanishing and Tell No One comes a brilliant, guess-until-the-very-end psychological thriller.
‘Moving and fiercely gripping, Gone Again hurls you along with a series of whipsmart twists that leave you breathless. Calling to mind the best of Harlan Coben, Johnstone shows us how quickly an ordinary life can take one dark turn and nothing is ever the same again.’ Megan Abbott
‘A quite literally heart-pounding thriller. I was turning every page with an irresistible mixture of dread and compulsion.’ Chris Brookmyre
**
If that doesn’t entice you, let me tell you that there is also a lot of Star Wars chat in it, a restraining order, the tooth fairy, pints of blood seeping between the floorboards, guns, a chase on Porty Beach, constipation, a playground punch up, dead bodies and chapped lips.
Early warning – this book is apparently making some people cry.
So come to the launch! Enjoy! Ask questions! Drink wine! Heckle!
Hopefully see you there.
Cheers all,
Doug
The best thing I read this month
However, amongst them were a desire to read more books NOT for review (I read virtually none last year outside of my reviewing list), read more screenplays and watch more films.
So, in a slightly OCD way, I’m keeping a note of what I’ve seen/read this year. Here’s January’s offering. Some of the books are re-reads, some old, some not even out yet. Some of the films are re-watches, too. I’m planning on a fair bit of screenwriting this year, so am immersing myself in it all, hoping some of the magic will rub off.
Anyway, here’s January’s list below. All thoughts welcome:
Books read for review
Mark Binelli, The Last Days of Detroit
Chloe Hooper, The Engagement
Warren Ellis, Gun Machine
Erin Kelly, The Burning Air
Belinda Bauer, Rubbernecker
Derek B. Miller, Norwegian By Night
Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King
Books read not for review
Tony Black, Long Time Dead
Sara Gran, Come Closer
Helen FitzGerald, The Cry
Chris Pavone, The Expats
George V Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Sara Gran, Dope
Films watched
Moon
Wind Chill
Defiance
Ecstasy
Knowing
Inglourious Basterds
Source Code
Fracture
Moonrise Kingdom
Weekend
Paul
Django Unchained
Lawless
The Adjustment Bureau
Tell No One
Scripts read
Source Code
Groundhog Day
Insomnia
Amour
OK, so here’s my review of Belinda Bauer’s Rubbernecker in The Independent on Sunday last weekend. Lots of good writing, but I didn’t find it very gripping, I’m afraid.
Folks, my fifth novel, GONE AGAIN, is out soon (7th March, to be precise)! If you’re a book blogger, reviewer or some such, and you’d like a copy, drop me a line and I’ll have Faber sling a copy your way.
Here the chatter from the back cover:
‘It’s just to say that no-one has come to pick Nathan up from school, and we were wondering if there was a problem of some kind?’
As Mark Douglas photographs a pod of whales stranded in the waters off Edinburgh’s Portobello Beach, he is called by his son’s school: his wife, Lauren, hasn’t turned up to collect their son. Calm at first, Mark collects Nathan and takes him home but as the hours slowly crawl by he increasingly starts to worry.
With brilliantly controlled reveals, we learn some of the painful secrets of the couple’s shared past, not least that it isn’t the first time Lauren has disappeared. And as Mark struggles to care for his son and shield him from the truth of what’s going on, the police seem dangerously short of leads. That is, until a shocking discovery…
Spread the word, people!
Dx
Specifically their reviewer Amanda Gillies, who made Hit & Run her number one book of 2012!
Thanks, Amanda!
Here’s my review of this Aussie literary psychological thriller. Didn’t really get on with this, I’m afraid. Lots of nice atmosphere, but some unconvincing characterisation and plot stuff. IMHO.
OK, so just finished the first draft of my next novel. It’s provisionally called THE DEAD BEAT. It’s about an obituary writer, suicide, mental illness and early 90s indie rock. Billy and Rose from Hit and Run make an appearance, as do Teenage Fanclub and The Afghan Whigs.
Only yesterday I posted this on twitter:
Fuck’s sake, this novel I’m writing is TOTAL AND UTTER DOGSHIT. Sort it out, Johnstone. #FirstDraftPanic
At that point, I thought I had about a week to go to the end. But I stopped today. Think I’d just had enough.
Now all that’s needed is to sort it the fuck out. I actually love redrafting and editing, or polishing a turd, as I like to think of it.
We have a phrase in my band, Northern Alliance. After every duff recording take on a guitar riff or a keyboard line we cannae be arsed re-recording: “Ach, we’ll fix it in the mix.”
Doug Johnstone 