THE NIGHT BEFORE MORNING
Alistair Moffat
(Birlinn, £8.99)
The question “What if the Nazis had won the Second World War?” spawned an entire publishing genre, but Moffat shows that there’s life in it yet. With London wiped out by an atomic bomb, Normandy veteran David Erskine battles his way through occupied Scotland at the head of his own tiny Resistance cell, convinced he can somehow make a difference. Given that their country’s future literally depends on their efforts, they act with ingenuity and selfless heroism. But the simple pleasures of heroic action, clever plans, convenient distractions and nick-of-time rescues are undercut by the terrible cost to rural communities, where the occupying regime tries to discourage Erskine by killing townsfolk as brutally as possible. And with so many British people taking the side of the invaders, it’s hard to know who to trust. Moffat stretches the tension to breaking point in a gripping but dark thriller in which no-one’s survival is guaranteed.
WHAT YOU CALL FREE
Flora Johnston
(Ringwood, £9.99)
The backdrop to Johnston’s debut novel is the conflict between Kirk and Covenanters in 17th-century Scotland. But it opens with pregnant 18-year-old Jonet Gothskirk in sackcloth, shunned for unwittingly falling for a married man. To spare her some humiliation, Jonet’s mother sends her to stay with her sister, who Jonet discovers is a Covenanter, and whose neighbour, widow Helen Alexander, frequently aids and harbours their leader, James Renwick. Jonet is shocked, seeing them as people ensnared by a dangerous cult, one that could get them all arrested. However, when her marriage to a sleazy old merchant is arranged, she is drawn closer to Helen and the Covenanter cause. Once opened, this tale of division, persecution and clandestine gatherings is hard to close again, Johnston ably evoking sympathy for her characters’ plights in a climate of oppression and jeopardy in which high stakes accompany even the slightest defiance of Kirk and King.
THE GOVERNESS
Wendy Holden
(Wellbeck, £8.99)
The Crown may have cornered the market in weaving fiction from the private lives of the Royal Family, but it still left room for others to explore the story of “Crawfie”, the governess to the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, who was ostracised by the Royal household for writing about them. One of the characteristics that appealed most to Wendy Holden was Marion Crawford’s modernity, and this novel examines how a progressive Edinburgh teacher of the early 1930s, dedicated to improving the lives of slum children, came to terms with teaching two princesses, living among the elite and denying herself a private life until she left her position after 16 years of service. Although the Crawfie in this novel is very much Holden’s own creation, she is solidly rooted in Marion Crawford’s writings, and the author provides an engaging take on life in the royal household with some vibrant characterisations of the main players.
ALASTAIR MABBOTT
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