Reviewed by Rod McLary
Detective Inspectors Georgie Lennox and Richard Stewart from Police Scotland return in this new crime thriller set in the Scottish Highlands. It is indeed an atmospheric and bleak narrative. While it is a stand-alone novel, there are a number of references back to The Wolf Tree – the author’s debut novel and the one which introduces our two protagonists. What happened there on the Scottish island of Eilean Eadarm continues to reverberate through this novel and the reader new to the author is at a slight disadvantage. But that doesn’t detract from the tension and edge-of-the-seat moments in The Cursed Road.
The novel begins with the discovery of a young woman’s body on a remote stretch of road in the Highlands. While at first glance, it appears the death may have been a tragic accident, closer examination locates a name carved into the young woman’s arm – the name of a missing woman from ten years previously and never located. Enter DIs Lennox and Stewart who are charged with the responsibility of investigating the death and the connection with the missing woman. It is evident that Georgie continues to struggle with the aftermath of the events on Eilean Eadarm and this affects the professional dynamic between her and Ritchie. This adds another dimension – a far more personal one – to what is essentially a crime thriller and, rather than distracting from the narrative, it strengthens the engagement of the reader.
The road where the young woman’s body was found is called An Rathad Damainte or the Cursed Road – and the name is very appropriate as our protagonists soon discover. Ancient feuds and grudges – never resolved – continue to fester between the two properties bordering the road; and one ancient family has a unique and chilling method of ensuring that its family line doesn’t die out. There are even touches of gothic horror as the police investigations unfold – Fairgrieve Castle is characterised by an environment of fear and the intrusion of the past into the present – and compounded by a hint of supernatural events – and all within the ruined castle with its crypt and dungeons. Georgie observes on her first visit to Fairgrieve Castle that it has fallen victim to the years. The grimy windows let little light into the foyer; what does come through only highlights the deterioration; carpets worn so thin that the floor peeks through; … cobwebs suspended between the prongs of the wrought-iron chandelier [127].
While there is much to appreciate in the early parts of the narrative, it is towards the end that the pace and the tension markedly accelerate and Georgie and Ritchie close in on their targets. It is a very satisfactory crime thriller with engaging dynamics between the two detectives.
The Cursed Road
[2026]
by Laura McCluskey
Harper Collins
ISBN: 978 1 4607 6559 3
$34.99; 343pp