Late-’70s Glaswegian murder mystery brings punk grit

In her debut novel, 63-year-old Scottish writer Frances Crawford delves into the gritty world of her hometown of Glasgow for a murder mystery with a touch of late-‘70s punk rock aesthetic.

While walking her dog, Sid Vicious, 12-year-old Janey Devine comes across the body of a young woman who had been brutally murdered. Her memories of the traumatic moment are vague — and she desperately wants to bury the memories that do persist, especially of a particular “bad thing” she may have done at the crime scene.

Janey, of course, has to answer questions from the unsympathetic police, and is even taken back to the site where the body was found. But she also has to deal with the family of the victim, Samantha, whose father, Billy “The Ghost” Watson, is a notorious gangster in the community of Possilpark, one of the poorest and toughest neighbourhoods in the U.K. at the time.

While the mystery of who killed Samantha — and of the memories that Janey is trying to repress — make this a real page-turner, it’s the characters that really make the first-time novel success.

The story, set in 1979, is told effectively from two points of view — Janey’s and that of her nana, Maggie. Their Glaswegian dialect makes the characters come to life, but shouldn’t be enough to scare off North American readers — and there’s even a glossary of “Glesga patter” for those unfamiliar with terms like “wean,” “chippie” or “scooby.”

Janey and Maggie are both compelling characters, but Crawford does a particularly great job writing from the point-of-view of the 12-year-old. The dual perspectives allow for more depth to the story, with generational traumas, secrets and family cycles becoming major themes.

The novel works so well because of the time Crawford spends with these characters rather than focusing more on the police investigation.

Another plus is that Crawford, a punk rocker herself, grew up in the area and would have roughly been Janey’s age at the time of the story, so the details of the neighbourhood and supporting characters have a lived-in quality and feel like they could be based on her real life.

Even the shadiest characters have depth and some level of relatability.

Overall, A Bad, Bad Place is a great coming-of-age mystery set in late-1970s working class Scotland, and a strong debut.

Alan MacKenzie is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor.