The Dead Beat - Format B - Softcover

Just when you think an author can't possibly get any better - he does. I LOVE THIS BOOK! It stands head and shoulders above Johnstone's earlier work and I am rapidly running out of superlatives to describe him with. (EUROCRIME)

I was tremendously impressed with this novel. It manages to combine an undeniably dark plot with an extraordinary freshness and liveliness, largely owning to the wonderfully conceived character of Martha, who is carried through the increasingly upsetting revelations she uncovers by her spirit, energy and determination. (Harriet Devine, SHINY NEW BOOKS)

'There's a tangible sense of expectation and excitement to this rollercoaster tale of dark secrets as Johnstone weaves his way into the mind of the rebellious, straight-talking and energetic young woman as she carves a rocky road through the wall of silence into a past she never knew existed.' (Lancashire Evening Post)

Riveting. Fearless. Twisted. If Tartan Noir was a family with an irreverent rebel child, his name would be Doug Johnstone. (The Daily Record)

'Calling to mind the best of Harlan Coben, Johnstone shows us how quickly an ordinary life can take one dark turn and nothing is ever the same again.' Megan Abbott, author of The Fever From the author of the bestselling thriller Gone Again... Meet Martha. It's the first day of her new job as intern at Edinburgh's The Standard. But all's not well at the ailing newspaper, and Martha is carrying some serious baggage of her own. Put straight onto the obituary page, she takes a call from a former employee who seems to commit suicide while on the phone, something which echoes with her own troubled past. Setting in motion a frantic race around modern-day Edinburgh,The Dead Beat traces Martha's desperate search for answers to the dark mystery of her parents' past. Soundtracked by and interspersed with a series of gigs from the alternative music scene of her parents' generation in the early '90s, Doug Johnstone's latest page-turner is a wild ride of a thriller, and a perfect follow-on to his #1 Kindle bestseller, Hit & Run.