Books for Christmas - Chris Ewan

Providing an antidote to too much festive cheer from the relatives this Christmas, here we have the selection of Chris Ewan, author of The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam:

"I was delighted when Allan Guthrie's Two-Way Split won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award this summer and even more pleased to be able to read about the further exploits of his troubled anti-hero Pearce in the excellent Hard Man.

Set once again in a brutally stark Edinburgh, Hard Man finds Pearce caught up in the twisted face-off between calculating sociopath Wallace and the Hicksville-esque Baxter family. Unwittingly coerced into protecting teenage mother-to-be May Baxter, and determined to avenge his dinky, three-legged pooch Hilda, Pearce embarks on a relentless, bloody quest into the very darkest of dark spaces.

Penning a crime novel with this much velocity and action is incredibly tough but Guthrie pulls it off with absolute assurance. Hard Man is a book of savage extremes – boisterous, violent, unflinching, and utterly brilliant.

Plus, if your relatives happen to be driving you nuts with too much festive cheer, you really couldn’t ask for a better antidote …"