Borderline
£11.99
When the system isn’t working, work outside the system.
A search for a missing man thrusts Rand Scott into the dark realms of homelessness, drug dealing and sex clubs.
Kirsty Moore wants to find her brother Johnny, a one-time rock star.
The police also want him – for murder.
And there are others looking who don’t play nicely.
A simple job turns deadly as Rand uncovers a world where money talks louder than the screams of innocent bystanders.
Graeme tells the story behind the story
A few months before Covid struck, I went to see a Thin Lizzy Tribute band. I didn’t expect to get the full Lizzy experience… and I didn’t. But it was good to hear the songs played live again and the band were very good musicians. In the lead up to the gig, I spent about two weeks immersed in Thin Lizzy’s songs, and was reminded that a lot of them are stories. In the space of a few short minutes, they conjure up tales of cowboys and gangsters and addiction, sleazy bars and drug dealing and gunfights. It’s like pulp fiction set to music.
The term pulp fiction covers a range of genres, of course, including westers and adventure stories. Thin Lizzy’s range often covers the same ground. Even so, pulp is generally associated with crime and often leans towards the noir – and often with recurring protagonists.
For some reason, as I listened to those songs again, they started to trigger some ideas.
As an author, I’d never had any great desire to write a series. I liked the idea of stand-alone novels. It meant I could explore different themes and characters and then walk away from them when it was all over. Likewise, I’d always preferred writing in the third person. It felt more flexible. Ravens Gathering and Carrion flash from one point of view to another, allowing the reader to see the story from different perspectives. And it helps keep the pace up too.
And yet, as the idea of writing something that leaned into pulp fiction (but probably not in the strictest sense) took hold, I heard the voice – the only voice that could tell the story. The other thing about the voice was that it had more than one story to tell. So expect more from Rand Scott.
