Hestan Island, marooned in the Solway Firth, tethered to the mainland at low tide by a causeway called The Rack.
Hestan is home to two men quietly living out their lives, until a boy is almost crushed to death in their tiny copper mine after which the horrors of their shared past begins to unravel.
As truths are revealed we are taken back through the bloody wars of Crimea and the lands of the Tartars; to book burnings, betrayals, and the bonds of men who find themselves in dire circumstance.
It is not long before terrible secrets are laid bare.
The third in acclaimed writer Clio Gray’s Scottish Mysteries, Hidden Pasts explores the history of a little known part of Scotland and provides a compelling tale of how small events can echo down the years, with deadly consequences.
विषयसूची
Chapter Headings
Prologue 1833, Genichesk, Crimea
Cottages, copper and lighthouse
Arrival at Balcary
Over the Rack
Out of the shaft
Setting limbs, setting boundaries
When the past comes calling
Rescue, and realisation
Lights, dots, and dashes
Old tales, new endings
The Story
Old memories, new enemies
The nightjar flexes its claws
Libraries lost, libraries found
Realisation and retaliation
A charm of goldfinch
Curlew beaks and bad apples
Defining enemies, finding friends
Into the burning barn goes the hero
To be the better man
Genichesk 1833
Step by step, stone by stone
Across the water
Not so lost souls, but still lost libraries
Take a boathouse, turn it into a castle
Bad meals, bad judgements
Affability abounds, and then is gone
Something springs from Bill, and Bill from spring
Kamyr-Batyr makes his move
Endgames
And just a little more
Autor Notes