Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston & even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen Stonemouth with its five mile beach can be beautiful on a sunny day. On a bleak one it can seem to offer little more than seafog gangsters cheap drugs & a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. & although theres supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart & the towns biggest crime family its soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option & as he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt & all that it has lost him Stu uncovers ever darker stories & his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated. Tough funny fast-paced & touching Stonemouth cracks open adolescence love brotherhood & vengeance in a rite of passage novel like no other.