'An outstanding mystery thriller... Noir fans won't want to miss it' - Publishers Weekly (Starred)

'A riveting, brutal journey into the high stakes world of legacy art and inherited wealth' - Denise Mina, author of the Garnethill trilogy and The Long Drop

The Goldenacre - a masterpiece by the painter and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh - has been given to the people of Scotland. The beautiful canvas, the last work by the artistic genius, enthrals the art world, but behind it lies a dark and violent mystery.

Thomas Tallis, an art expert with a trouble past, is trying to uncover the truth about the painting's complex history, while dogged newspaper reporter Shona Sandison is investigating a series of shocking murders in Edinburgh.

Both investigators soon become engulfed in the machinations of money, crime and identity in a literary thriller set amid the seen and unseen forces at work in modern Scotland.

Winner of the Shamus Award for the Best First P.I. Novel

About the Author

Philip Miller lives in Edinburgh. An award-winning journalist for twenty years, he is now a civil servant. His previous novels include The Blue Horse and All the Galaxies, and his poetry has been published online and in print.

Reviews

'Philip Miller is a fine, painterly writer - Edinburgh at dusk, for example, is "a weave of shadows hung in a net of light" - and he has created a first-class thriller'

* Times Crime Club, Pick of the Week *

'Unusual and elegant, Philip Miller's third novel takes the Tartan Noir genre in some new and unexpected directions'

-- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *

'outstanding mystery thriller...In a style recalling the brutal dreariness of Le Carre, Miller describes a pivotal character as 'sharp and severe as a snapped bone.' It's also an apt description of this biting tale of society in decline. Noir fans won't want to miss it'

* Publishers Weekly (starred) *

'Its vivid sense of location is one of this engaging mystery's great strengths'

-- Alastair Mabbott * Herald *

'The Goldenacre features a dense cast of vivid characters, not least Tallis, a tortured pilgrim worthy of a Graham Greene tale. The book-which explores through prose the interplay between light and darkness in the physical and moral worlds-is an ambitious and wonderfully realized work'

-- Tom Nolan * The Wall Street Journal *

'A riveting, brutal journey into the high stakes world of legacy art and inherited wealth'

-- Denise Mina, author of the Garnethill trilogy and The Long Drop

'A pacy tale of crime and deception set in the world of fine art. Beautifully written, with a brilliantly vivid sense of place and a killer twist, The Goldenacre is one to savour'

-- Liam McIlvanney, author of The Quaker and Where the Dead Men Go

'Art, music, politics, and murder, set against a backdrop of one of the most beautiful cities in the world - what's not to love? A complex and compelling plot, with intruiging characters that I very much hope we will meet again. Great read'

-- Lesley Kelly, writer of the Health of Strangers series and A Fine House in Trinity

'Phil Miller's Edinburgh is a city of secrets, an introverted place filled with characters so real in their humanity and yet somehow askew, imbued with the touch of supernatural shadows but also unshakeable goodness. Elegiac, moving, but always richly humane, Goldenacre is a welcome addition to Scottish noir'

-- Jacky Copleton, author of A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding

'This book is a gripping exploration of the darker side of modern society'

* LoveReading *

'Philip Miller's superb debut, The Goldenacre, is a prime example of Scottish noir'

* Gumshoereview.com *

'A classy & stylish noir novel set in a world of fine art & low morals, with more than a hint of Graeme Greene about it'

-- Alistair Braidwood

'Like its namesake, The Goldenacre occupies its own unclassifiable space, as much a meditation on beauty and loss as it is crime fiction'

* Air Mail *

'The book for you if you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary in terms of your Scottish crime fiction'

* Undiscovered Scotland *

'Tartan noir hobnobs with the art world in The Goldenacre, Philip Miller's clever, complex and improbably touching thriller set in Edinburgh, a city whose reputation for quiet elegance and relative calm gets quite a workout'

* Shelf Awareness *

'Unputdownable'

* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel *

'This excellent well-plotted noir thriller pits unique characters against the hard-edges of modern life'

* Stop, You're Killing Me! *

'this story... is mesmerizing in its use of atmosphere, poetic language, and ingenious plot construction'

-- Megan McLean * Santa Fe New Mexican *

'It is the magic way oddly juxtaposed words manage to convey the essence of a scene, the feelings of a character, or the ugliness of an act, more vividly than any dictionary-precise language, that makes The Goldenacre a thoroughly worthwhile read'

-- Lyn Squire * Portland Book Review *

'The Goldenacre is a prime example of a good Edinburgh novel... an excellent read for those who enjoy Tartan Noir and want to read something different to your usual hard-bitten detective story'

* Scottish Field *

'Philip Miller has written a stylish thriller which is a breath of fresh air and which deserves to be acknowledged as such ... It's a crime novel for readers who think they don't like the genre, and a literary novel for people who would normally stick to crime'

-- Alistair Braidwood * Snack Magazine *

'[Philip Miller] constructs an intricate and intelligent plot and peoples it with richly imagined and deeply realized characters . . . An authoritative work on art and an accomplished work of art, The Goldenacre also represents a shrewd study of family dynamics and a splendid sample of literary crime fiction'

* The Free Lance-Star *


Awards
Winner of Shamus Award for the Best First P.I. Novel 2023 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9781846975936
Author Philip Miller
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
Publisher Birlinn General
Weight(grams) 309g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 24mm