Undiscovered Scotland

 

We like to think our book reviews here on Undiscovered Scotland are objective. Just occasionally, achieving that becomes more challenging than usual. We should therefore start this review by declaring an interest. "The Stockholm Run" is written by a member of the team here at Undiscovered Scotland. The potential conflict of interest goes even further than that, however, because the book is published by Arachnid Press Ltd, which is very closely related to Undiscovered Scotland.

So, with all that out in the open, if we'd simply stumbled across "The Stockholm Run" by Ken Lussey, would we recommend it? Well, yes, obviously: or we'd not be involved in its publication. But then you'd expect us to say that, wouldn't you? Rather than seek to give opinions, we'll confine the rest of the review to a description drawn from the publisher's blurb.

"The Stockholm Run" is a fast-paced thriller set largely in Edinburgh and Stockholm during World War Two. It's March 1943. The death of an intruder reveals a hidden military bunker at Dundas Castle near Edinburgh, a living relic of an anti-invasion scheme from earlier in the war. Bob Sutherland and the Military Intelligence 11 team follow a trail that leads to a much larger secret, buried beneath Edinburgh Castle.

As the mystery in Edinburgh unravels, Bob Sutherland and Monique Dubois are sent to Stockholm, a city supposedly at peace in a world at war. There they are to take delivery of a message of critical national importance. Or is it all a carefully crafted trap? Both encounter ghosts from the past in Sweden. Can their relationship survive what they uncover? Will they live long enough for that to matter?

"The Stockholm Run" is available as a paperback from the publishers and as a Kindle edition from Amazon (paid link). It is a standalone novel and is the fourth of Ken’s thrillers set in Scotland and beyond during World War Two to feature the same central characters.