A Bad, Bad Place

By:

Crawford, Frances

Material type: Text

TextSoho Crime 20260303ISBN:

9781641297851
1641297859

DDC classification:

823.92

Summary: "If it hadn't been for her wee stupid dog Sid Vicious, 12-year-old Janey Devine might never have stumbled upon the corpse of Samantha Watson. And then maybe she'd still be able to sleep at night. And maybe her nana wouldn't be so worried sick all the time. And maybe Billy "The Ghost" Watson, a notorious gangster, wouldn't be on her tail--for it's Billy's daughter who was left for dead on those train tracks, and now Billy wants answers. Fear and gossip spread through the tight-knit community of Possilpark, Glasgow, and while Janey swears she can't remember the details of that morning, the cops think she's hiding something--and indeed, there's something she knows that she's not quite ready to tell anyone else, not even her nana, who won't rest until this whole thing is behind them."-- Provided by publisher.

List(s) this item appears in: Coming Soon Fiction notes: Click to open in new window

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Fiction	New Books	FIC CRAWFORD	Ordered

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A gritty and poignant debut about a young working-class girl in 1979 Glasgow who happens upon the body of a murdered woman--and must face an insular community desperate for answers, as well as herself.

Glasgow, 1979: If it hadn't been for her wee stupid dog, Sid Vicious, twelve-year-old Janey Devine might never have stumbled upon the corpse of Samantha Watson. And then maybe she'd still be able to sleep at night. And maybe her nana wouldn't be so worried all the time. And maybe Billy "The Ghost" Watson, a
notorious gangster, wouldn't be on her tail--for it's Billy's daughter who was left for dead on those train tracks, and now Billy wants answers.

Fear and gossip have spread through the tight-knit community of Possilpark, and while Janey swears she can't remember the details of that morning, the cops think she's hiding something--and indeed, there's something she knows that she's not quite ready to tell anyone, not even her nana, who won't rest until this whole thing is behind them.

Shot through with remarkable humor, Frances Crawford's stunning debut is a coming-of-age whodunit, an intimate portrait of a working-class neighborhood that weaves Janey's innocent candor and her nana's hard-earned wisdom into a sweeping tale of grief and survival that marks the arrival of a major new voice in crime fiction.

"If it hadn't been for her wee stupid dog Sid Vicious, 12-year-old Janey Devine might never have stumbled upon the corpse of Samantha Watson. And then maybe she'd still be able to sleep at night. And maybe her nana wouldn't be so worried sick all the time. And maybe Billy "The Ghost" Watson, a notorious gangster, wouldn't be on her tail--for it's Billy's daughter who was left for dead on those train tracks, and now Billy wants answers. Fear and gossip spread through the tight-knit community of Possilpark, Glasgow, and while Janey swears she can't remember the details of that morning, the cops think she's hiding something--and indeed, there's something she knows that she's not quite ready to tell anyone else, not even her nana, who won't rest until this whole thing is behind them."-- Provided by publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

A 12-year-old girl makes a horrifying discovery in this haunting debut set in 1979 Glasgow, Scotland. The action opens with young Janey Devine following her dog into a side street, where she comes across the mutilated remains of Samantha Watson, the 22-year-old daughter of a local crime boss. Janey reports her find to police and tries to return to normal life in the hardscrabble Glasgow neighborhood of Possilpark, but anxiety about the killer is never far from her mind. The police, who are confounded by the crime, offer little help, leaving it up to Janey's lone family member, Grandma Maggie, to help her move on. Janey, however, has a secret: she knows something about the murder that she kept from police, a detail that eats at her and fuels her desire for justice. Crawford shrewdly toggles between Janey's viewpoint and her grandmother's as the hunt for the killer slowly unfolds, capturing the fading innocence of a young girl and the complex social dynamics of a struggling but close-knit community. This marks the arrival of a promising new voice. Agents: Euan Thorneycroft and Oli Munson, A.M. Heath & Co. (Mar.)Correction: An earlier version of this review referred to the character Samantha Watson by the wrong last name.