BOOK REVIEW: Kirtomy author's debut novel is a dark and twisted mystery
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The Bone on the Beach by Fiona Gillian Kerr
It’s September 2017 when Meghan, a high-flying London based lawyer, arrives at a small village on the far north of mainland Scotland reminiscent of many such settlements well known to readers of the Northern Times.
The purpose of her peregrination is to escape the obsessive attentions of her lover Richard who, despite protestations of everlasting attention, obstinately refuses to leave his wife.
Together with her sole companion, a diminutive Cairn Terrier named Cassie, she takes up residence in a recently renovated barn where, almost immediately, both she and her canine companion – finder of that crucial bone named in the book title 'The Bone on the Beach' - experience an atmosphere of threat.
That feeling persists as her stay lengthens and she gradually begins to uncover the sad, secret and sinister story of the beautiful Deirdre, a green-eyed redhead like Meghan herself who, after a childhood enriched by possession of the second sight but marred by the unwanted attentions of her abusive father, has vanished without trace.
Also missing from the villagers’ tales is Sebastian St John Carlyle, Oxford educated suitor of Deirdre, though twice her age. With a name like that he just has to be the local landlord but has not been seen on his estate since the disappearance of Deirdre.
Though ostensibly set in the contemporary Highlands, The Bone on the Beach harks back to much earlier times when the spirit world, if such exists, played a much greater part in the regional psyche than it does today.
However, such is the author Fiona Kerr's skill in weaving the interlinked stories of Deirdre and Meghan that the references to the occult seem all too plausible. Though all the loose ends appear – at first sight – to be tied up in the denouement there is left just the ghost of a chance that the tale may somehow continue. I’ll look forward to that!
Fiona is of Scottish extraction but was educated in Sri Lanka and has spent much of her life in the USA.
She has had a varied career in teaching, investment analysis, magazine advertising, international airline reservations and PR while still finding time to bring up the four sons she shares with her lifelong partner, Don.
They divide their time between Houston, Texas, where their sons stay and her restored croft cottage in Kirtomy.
Her debut novel, The Bone on the Beach was launched at Inverness Library on the September 28 in the Ness Book Fest.
There will be a further event at Thurso Library on the October 13 from 5.00 – 6.30 pm when Fiona will read an excerpt, sign copies and discuss the inspiration behind her novel.
