Two Hidden Gems

“Alexander Farquharson. Had I not seen the name that November afternoon, none of the horrors would ever have happened.” So writes young historian Alison Gilmour as she remembers the first time she saw that name. She discovers that Farquharson was a sugar planter and slave owner, who moved to Glasgow with his family in the 1820s. Gradually, she unearths more about him and the stories of his Scottish descendants, stories that revolve around a building now used as a bridge and social club. It is through her interest in the building’s history that Alison becomes increasingly and perilously drawn into present-day webs of corruption and violence. From these webs come the horrors of which she writes and which she finds herself forced to navigate. Can she survive? And at what personal cost? In this gripping first novel, events crossing two centuries are skilfully interwoven into a tale of naivety, bravery, truth and falsehood and, ultimately, of how knowledge itself is formed.