The Good Father

Gordon and Sarah Rutherford are normal, happy people with successful fulfilling lives. A son they adore, a house on the beach, a safe, friendly and honest community in a picture-postcard town on the Ayrshire coast.

Until one day Bonnie the lab comes in from the beach alone. Their son Rory has just gone - the only trace left is a single black Adidas slider.

Their lives don't fall apart immediately - while there's still hope (and no body) they can dig deep and try to carry on. Rather it's a process of abrasion, a wearing away of that happiness and normality; a slow degradation, a gradual breakdown - until they'll never be the people they were before. This sort of tragedy impacts a whole town - does the community still feel the same after? What are folk saying about you? Who are your friends? Who can you trust?

When the worst thing has happened and you've lost everything, you either go under or you rebuild, start again. What could be worse than your child disappearing?

Liam McIlvanney was born in Scotland and studied at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford. He has written for numerous publications, including the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. His first book, Burns the Radical, won the Saltire First Book Award. His crime novels have won multiple awards, including the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize, the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, and he has also been shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year. He is Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He lives in Dunedin with his wife and four sons.

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