Published: 16/05/2019
Psychologically acute and profoundly moving, Breakers details the descent into crime and disillusion of a vulnerable young soul from the Edinburgh slums. Expertly paced and utterly absorbing, Johnstone’s dark vision is as much a portrait of a fractured, nihilistic underclass as a wire-taut crime thriller.
Shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2019
A pulsatingly tense, deeply moving and devastatingly dark psychological thriller from the Number One bestselling author of Fault Lines
A toxic family ... a fight for survival...
Seventeen-year-old Tyler lives in one of Edinburgh's most deprived areas. Coerced into robbing rich people's homes by his bullying older siblings, he's also trying to care for his little sister and his drug-addict mum.
On a job, his brother Barry stabs a homeowner and leaves her for dead, but that's just the beginning of their nightmare, because the woman is the wife of Edinburgh's biggest crime lord, Deke Holt.
With the police and the Holts closing in, and his shattered family in devastating danger, Tyler meets posh girl Flick in another stranger's house, and he thinks she may just be his salvation ... unless he drags her down too.
A pulsatingly tense psychological thriller, Breakers is also a breathtakingly brutal, beautiful and deeply moving story of a good kid in the wrong family, from one of Scotland's finest crime writers.
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 9781912374670
Number of pages: 300
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
It's a lovely, sad tale, beautifully told and full of understanding.' - The Times
'This may be Doug Johnstone's best book yet. An unsparing yet sympathetic depiction of Edinburgh's ignored underclass, with terrific characterisation. Tense, pacey, filmic.' - Ian Rankin
'It's as psychologically rich as it is harrowing. I've come to expect nothing less from Doug Johnstone' - Megan Abbott
'Doug Johnstone is for me the perfect free-range writer, respectful of conventions but never bound by them, never hemmed-in.' - James Sallis
'This is premier league crime writing.' - Martyn Waites
'Doug Johnstone's books are what the phrase "no filler, all thriller" was invented for. A tough, gritty and effective ride into the dark side of Edinburgh.' - Douglas Skelton
'Breakers is the most powerful and moving book from Johnstone yet - a calling card that no-one can ignore.' - The Scotsman
'Absolutely brilliant. A brooding, intensely dark thriller with a defiant beating heart.' - Miranda Dickinson
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“ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT!!”
Thank you to the publisher for this review copy...
I saw it on books at bedtime (on twitter) and thought oh this could be something special...
So it got added to my far to big to be read pile - but it wouldn't...
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“An intensely realistic portrayal of a tough world...”
About three years ago I reviewed a book by Doug Johnstone called The Jump , a book that remains as one of the best books I have ever read. In my original review I said that, “When people decry genre fiction as somehow... More
“Breakers, by Doug Johnstone”
If I was the Edinburgh Tourist Board, I would pay Doug Johnstone a retainer never to write about Edinburgh again. Tyler and his family do not live in the Edinburgh that tourists want to know about. They live in... More
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