YvonneI have to confess, that this week I am taking a leap of faith in a much respected fellow blogger, when I feature the latest book to hit my Kindle, courtesy of the author and facilitated by Smashwords.
A debut novel containing such dark humour and at its core dealing with such a controversial subject as suicide, meant that Tracy Terry over at ‘Pen And Paper’, also needed to approach this book with an open mind, yet by the end of her great review, was hailing it as one of her best reads of the year 🙂
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‘MORISTOUN’
McSorely has had enough. His life has spiralled out of control and nothing has gone his way. There seems to be only one option open to him, one last thing he can do to take control of his fate. All hope is lost.
But far away on the mysterious island of Moristoun, Buchan is charged with the task of dissuading McSorely from this drastic course of action. Moristoun is where people like McSorely might end up, having exchanged one kind of hopelessness for another.
A glimpse of the ‘life’ he might be heading for might change McSorely’s opinion of his own existence, but a glimpse of the entrancing Gail behind the bar in the pub and a hint about Moristoun’s true nature could render all of Buchan’s efforts to rehabilitate the despairing McSorely equally hopeless.
Clicking on the book’s cover image, will take you directly to its Amazon ‘buy’ page.
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KEVIN McALLION
Kevin McAllion was born in Dundee but now lives in Glasgow with his wife Thanyalak and daughter Jennifer.
He has travelled around the world, visiting Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Bali and Australia. He eventually returned to Thailand, where he remained for 18 months, working as an English teacher for Berlitz.
Kevin has worked as sports journalist since 1997, when he started out writing football match reports for The Sunday Mail newspaper while still a journalism student.
He has written and edited for a wide range of publications since then, including the Scottish Daily Express, The Big Issue in Scotland, The Herald, The Scottish Standard and The Scottish Daily Mail. He now works full-time as a sub-editor for the Daily Record and Sunday Mail.
Catch up with all the latest news on Kevin’s Website
Connect with Kevin on Facebook
Follow Kevin on Twitter
No sooner had I uttered the words “guest post” to Kevin, than it was there, in my inbox. A few images to be added and some slight formatting adjustments and we should be good to go, so watch out for this new addition to ‘Meet The Authors’, very soon.
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Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house during the last week. Be warned that Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Mailbox Monday now has a permanent home, where links may be added each week. So why not stop by, leave a link to your own Mailbox Monday post, oh! and don’t forget to leave a comment for our three new joint administrators, after all, we all like to receive them … ‘Mailbox Monday’
Leslie of ‘Under My Apple Tree’
Serena of ‘Savvy Verse & Wit’
Vicki of ‘I’d Rather Be At The Beach’
This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… You never know where that next “must read” book will come from!
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Tracy’s review convinced me to at least add it to my wish list. Perhaps the upcoming guest post from the author will move it to my Kindle.
I look forward to it!
Hi Kelly,
Kevin’s guest post, whilst slightly ‘dark’ and emotional, is also very astute and interesting.
I found it totally engrossing and quite moving. I can see now why ‘Moristoun’ has been written with as much irony and dark humour.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I don’t know if this would be my kind of read, but I willkeep it in mind.
Hi Mary Ann,
This definitely wouldn’t be one for everybody.
However, despite the serious subject of suicide, you probably need to be prepared to look deeper, into the dark humour of the fantasy island of ‘Moristoun’ itself.
Kevin has put togther a full biography of the island and the ‘Moristounians’ who live there, it really does make intriguing reading, if you have a few minutes …
http://moristoun.com/welcome%20to%20moristoun.html
Even if you still decide to pass on this book, I thank you for taking the time to visit 🙂
That does sound on the dark side. I don’t think I’d want to visit Moristoun.
Hi Kathy,
At first glance it sounds as though McSorely is being placed in quite a privileged position of being able to visit Moristoun, in the hope that it will change his mind about the course of action he is contemplating.
However reading between the lines, I’m not so sure that everything is as it at first appears. I can’t help wondering why McSorely has been singled out for this treatment and what “Moristoun’s true nature” really is!
A little dark maybe, but very intriguing?
Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
Probably not one for me, but it does sound interesting! Here’s my Mailbox Monday…
2 Kids and Tired Books MM
Hi Holly,
I have quite eclectic reading tastes, however the thoughts you have voiced about ‘Moristoun’, are exactly those I share about hard-core fantasy and science fiction books, which is why you won’t find any on my shelf!.
Thanks for still taking the time to comment, even though you acknowledge that you probably won’t be reading Moristoun 🙂
This sounds interesting. I hope you enjoy it.
Hi Serena,
I have to admit that this will be my first venture into the world of ‘dark comedy’, however I do think that I am going to enjoy the challenge, as the characters sound like such an interesting and intriguing bunch and Moristoun could almost be a real place if you read Kevin’s mock up of it on his website.
Thanks for hosting this month’s Mailbox Monday and giving us all the opportunity to showcase our new ‘finds’ 🙂
ENJOY your reading week, Yvonne.
I know it is a good one.
You always have interesting books.
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My Mailbox Monday
Hi Elizabeth,
This book hasn’t quite made it to the top of my reading pile yet, however my current book ’99 Percent Kill’ by Doug Richardson, is excellent, despite it being another tough theme to deal with!
‘Moristoun’ is definitely going to be an interesting read and puts all those mysterious little known about islands off the the coast of mainland Scotland under the microscope – just in case ….
I hope that life is treating you as kindly as it can and that you have plenty of great books to help pass the time 🙂
I don’t think the book is for me, but I do love the cover!
Hi Vicki,
I know this book isn’t going to appeal to everyone, however like yourself, I too really like the dramatic cover art.
I have messaged Kevin, to see if we are allowed to have an attributable designer’s name and I’ll publish any relevant response.
Cover artists and designers are often the single most important people in selling the concept of a story from the shelves of the book shop, there are just so many ‘cover junkies’ out there!
Thanks for visiting this week and I hope that you have some great new reading material of your own 🙂
Hi Vicki,
Just got this reply back from Kevin about the cover art
“Austin Macauley have told me it was illustrator Sam Clarke who did the Moristoun cover. What a nice job they did on it too.”
🙂
Ooh, looking forward to this.
Hi Tracy,
It was only your review which swung it, when I was trying to decide whether I could do justice to the book on Kevin’s behalf, so thanks for that 🙂
Kevin has been so on the ball about everything, including his guest post, which is amazing, even if it is a little emotional in places.
I hope to publish in the next week or so and hope that you enjoy it 🙂
I haven’t bought any new books for a while, but I did get rid of two boxfuls to a friend… She’s now got enough new books to get her going until Christmas, at least!
Hi Nikki,
Once I have finished reading a book, I always give it away to basically anyone who wants it, as I never read a book more than once.
The fact that I have a Kindle full of titles, a laptop full of PDF files for books, and not forgetting the 2 to 3 thousand books I still have on the shelves and in cupboards, all of which I have yet to read and you can begin to see the building picture of my rather obsessive/compulsive nature when it comes to acquiring reading material!
I can’t say ‘no’ to review requests unless a book is well outside of my preferred reading genres, especially when some of the authors and publicists are as friendly as Kevin has been 🙂