Published by Orenda Books as an ebook on 20th June 2020 and in paperback on 20th August 2020.
Read August 2020.
After the events of A Dark Matter, Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah Skelf find themselves trying to regain some semblance of normality in their lives, but the violence visited on them by Jenny's ex-husband Craig has left its mark - not to mention that trying to run a funeral directors' and a private investigation business from home does tend to bring misery and mayhem to your own door.
When a car crashes into an open grave at a funeral that Dorothy is conducting, ending the life of the driver and almost killing her in the process, she finds herself on an obsessive hunt for the identity of the young man at the wheel - a hunt that draws in both Jenny and Hannah too.
Dorothy also becomes involved in the search for one of her music students, a teenage girl called Abi, who has mysteriously gone missing - although her parents don't seem all that concerned.
Meanwhile, Jenny and Hannah have issues of their own, and the spectre of Craig hangs over them all as his trial approaches...
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The first Skelf book, A Dark Matter, introduced us the the three amazing Skelf women - the matriarch Dorothy, her daughter Jenny, and Jenny's daughter Hannah - who found themselves in charge of both a funeral directors' and a private investigation business. following the death of Dorothy's husband - and what an absolute corker of a book it was!
This time around, our three women are still reeling from the chilling truth about the part Jenny's ex-husband Craig played in the dark misdeeds visited upon them, and the orgy of violence that brought matters to a shocking head. Still battered and bruised, although seemingly healed on the surface, Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah are each looking for a way to deal with the scars they are hiding deep inside.
Dorothy throws herself into her work, on both the funeral and investigation fronts, which leads to her becoming emotionally involved in more than one case - that of the dead driver of the car that nearly ran her down, and the missing teenager Abi - and through these she uncovers some heartbreaking truths, while making a kind of peace with her situation, and possibly introducing a new member to the Skelf family of waifs and strays.
Jenny finds solace in her burgeoning relationship with the much younger Liam, who she met during a case of marital strife in A Dark Matter, but Craig is playing games from behind bars that seem to deny her the chance of happiness once again - there are still scores to be settled on that front.
Hannah is struggling most of all with the horrific truth about her father, and the part he played in the death of her friend. She is drowning and can't seem to find anything firm to cling to, despite the best efforts her her girlfriend Indy. When the new found friendship she has made with an elderly professor ends in tragedy too, she can't help but question the apparent meaningless of existence.
In this second installment of the story of the three generations of Skelf women, Doug Johnston really pulls out all the stops and plays mercilessly with our emotions. Coming as we do, from the standpoint of knowing bags about our lovely Skelf women, and their inner strength, the groundwork has already been laid for us to be tipped straight into the action from page one - and boy, does he put them all through the wringer.
There is a real sense of sadness in the story line following Dorothy's need to know the identity of the young homeless man that dies in the car accident right at the start of the book, and it allows Doug Johnstone to shine a poignant light on the social problems that dictate the fate of those that find themselves on the streets of a city like Edinburgh. The combination of this thread of the story with Dorothy's search for the missing Abi really brings to the fore our matriarch's need to mother and protect.
Hannah's story line is also rather interesting, and much more philosophical than that in Dark Matter. She is at a complete loss, being carried along by the tide of events, and facing a deep existential crisis, that cleverly gives us the most wonderful and thought provoking of book titles for this second Skelf book, but she is much stronger than she realises.
However, it is in Jenny's part of the big picture where our author's talents in playing with a sense of insidious darkness come to the fore. Jenny is so close to finding happiness, but Craig cannot let matters lie, and she really does not seem to think she deserves it either. Craig is even more of a monster in these pages, manipulating the women around him, like a spider sitting in the middle of a rather unpleasant web of lies and intrigue, spinning his threads and tugging with just the right amount of pressure to get them to play his macabre game - all the while, his intimidating shadow hangs over them like some sort of dreadful puppet master....and it's thoroughly delicious!
I also loved that the Skelf women do seem to be finding their feet running both a funeral and investigation business in this book and there was just the right amount of mix of each, with them feeding nicely into each other to make a satisfying whole, with a core of pitch black humour - and it made me chuckle each time someone brought up the fact that mixing and funerals and investigations was more than a little odd!
This gripping book thoroughly engrossed me from start to unsettling finish and I cannot wait to find out what happens next!
The Big Chill is available to buy an ebook from your favourite book retailer now and will be available in paperback from 20th August 2020.
Thank you to Doug Johnstone and Orenda Books for proving me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour.
From the cover of the book:
Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver ’s shadowy life.
While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly.
But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears, and
suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves immersed in an unbearable darkness – but could the real threat be to themselves?
About the author:
Several of his books have been bestsellers and award winners, and his work has been praised by the likes of Val McDermid, Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions – including a funeral home, which he drew on to write A Dark Matter – and has been an arts journalist for twenty years.
Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also player-manager of the Scotland Writers Football Club. He lives in Edinburgh.
Thanks for the blog tour support xx
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