A young man returns to the small Scottish town he was forced to leave 5 years ago. The local patriarch has died and he’s invited to the funeral - said patriarch being the head of the local crime family he so mortally insulted half a decade ago.
This is a bit like The Crow Road, but tighter and less generational. Sometimes you get the feeling Banks is writing the same Scottish novel over and over again. However, his characters and settings are top-notch, and his effortless placing of the novel in the now is as good as ever.