Blog tour: Doug Johnstone's Crash Land, set against the harsh Orkney landscape

Having reviewed  the fantastic The Jump by Doug Johnstone last year and interviewed the man himself, I was really looking forward to Crash Land do when a review copy landed on my doorstep I was only to eager to start reading.



Johnstone's uncompromising style, his sassy dialogue and his quirky mind jumps make Crash Land a cracking read.  Orkney is the unlikely setting, but Johnstone manages to sex it up, making its dark grimness a unique selling point.  Finn Sullivan and Maggie Pierce are inspired characters to

deliver a compelling read that deals with every human frailty from greed to lust to murder and back again.
Maggie's sexy and dangerous femme fatale persona hooks Finn Sullivan from the get go.  His decision to intervene on her behalf sets in motion a series of events that made me pause as I contemplated on the way a single decision can pivot our life in unknown directions.

For me though, what really stood out about  Crash Land was that I was three quarters of the way through the book before I even realised.  It is refreshing to pick up a book that so immerses you in its story that you don't register the turn of each page.  Johnstone has a light touch that makes the words fly off the page so convincingly that you don't even realise you're hooked till you're almost done... and that's when that sinking feeling you get at the end of an amazing experience hits you and you wish you'd slowed down and savoured each word, not bull dozed through to the climax.   

Follow the rest of the Crash Land Blog tour here:

I thought The Jump would be a hard act for Johnstone to follow, but in Crash Land he's upped his game and to quote an Americanism, he's 'knocked it out the ballpark'  or if you prefer a Scottishism 'he has fair wheeched it over Skara Brae till it hit John O' Groats' 
A bloody awesome read - buy it- you won't be disappointed.
Available here on Amazon kindle £3.79, PB £12.08 or free on audible trial