Thanks to the generosity of Orenda Books, I’m running a giveaway for a hot-off-the-presses new mystery by Doug Johnstone. It’s the second in the Skelf family series. Three generations of women run funeral home and private investigation businesses? That sounds like a terrific premise! The previous novel, A Dark Matter, won praise from critics and readers alike. If you like dark humor and PI novels, be sure to read on for more information about The Big Chill and the giveaway. Thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me along on the tour!
The Big Chill by Doug Johnstone
Genre: PI mystery
Publication: June 20, 2020, by Orenda Books
Running private investigator and funeral home businesses means trouble is never far away, and the Skelf women take on their most perplexing, chilling cases yet in book two of this darkly funny, devastatingly tense and addictive new series!
Haunted by recent events, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors and a PI business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life.
While Dorothy begins to uncover a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles to deal with. 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 teacher that is fast turning deadly.
Something even more sinister lurks around the corner 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 them?
Following three generations of women, as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill reboots the classic PI novel while asking big existential questions, all with a fabulous dose of pitch-black humour.
About Doug Johnstone
Doug Johnstone is the author of more ten novels, most recently Breakers (2019), which has been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and A Dark Matter (2020), which launched the Skelfs series. 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.
Giveaway
To enter the giveaway, either like/comment on this post or RT the tweet on (where else?) Twitter. The giveaway lasts until July 24, 2020, midnight CDT.
If you’ve read the previous book in the Skelf series, A Dark Matter, what did you think of it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.