Six months since the earth-shattering events of The Space Between Us, the revelatory hope of the aliens’ visit has turned to dust and the creatures have disappeared into waters off Scotland’s west coast.
Teenager Lennox and grieving mother Heather are being held in New Broom, a makeshift US military base, the subject of
experiments, alongside the Enceladons who have been captured by the authorities.
Ava, who has given birth, is awaiting the jury verdict at her trial for the murder of her husband. And MI7 agent Oscar Fellowes, who has been sidelined by the US military, is beginning to think he might be on the wrong side of history.
When alien Sandy makes contact, Lennox and Heather make a plan to escape with Ava. All three of them are heading for a profound confrontation between the worst of humanity and a possible brighter future, as the stakes get higher for the alien Enceladons and the entire human race…
Doug Johnstone is the author of 16 previous novels, most recently The Opposite of Lonely (2023) and The Space Between Us (2023). The Big Chill (2020) was longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, Black Hearts was shortlisted for the same award. Three of his books, A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015), have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions over the last decade, and has been an arts journalist for over twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun
Lovin’ Crime Writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club, and has a PhD in nuclear physics.
My thoughts: Sandy and his friends, human and alien are back, but things are not good. The Americans have swept in, built a base and the UK government have just let them. They’re conducting experiments on Lennox, Heather and the Enceladons they’ve managed to capture in the Scottish waters.
After Ava’s trial, she and baby Chloe are brought to this base too, and the experiments intensify, Chloe at the heart of them in some of the most disturbing scenes in the book.
The Enceladons came here as refugees and this is like the government’s moronic “hostile environment” policy on steroids. They are torturing the alien creatures, referring to them as “illegals”, refusing to believe that they’re gentle, friendly creatures who don’t even understand violence.
Obviously the humans who have connected to Sandy, Xander and the other Enceladons are determined to escape and take their tentacled friends with them. They’ve also made some new human friends locally, who will do anything to help, even storm the compound and fight the armed soldiers inside.
There’s lots of quite shocking moments, and it’s a lot darker than The Space Between Us, though there is still hope there, a chance for humanity and the Enceladons to live in harmony, it’s just more complicated and harder.
I don’t know how Doug Johnstone does it, has me howling with laughter at the misadventures of the Skelfs in their books and then has me whispering “no!” at the terrible things that happened here.
Sandy and his kin have such big hearts and are full of love and then there’s us, not trusting and unwilling to believe that anyone, even beings from another world, could be that good and have no ulterior motive.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 