Iain Paton

A former Royal Air Force officer, Iain Paton started writing in 2008, and his short stories include ‘Storm Coming Down’  in the Holiday of the Dead zombie anthology by Wild Wolf Publishing. His story ‘Handling Snakes’ won the 2011 Spilling Ink Review short story prize, and he co-edited the anthology A Thousand Cranes, released in aid of the Japan tsunami appeal. He works and writes in Glasgow and lives nearby with his young family. He has visited Japan twice so far and enjoys the culture which inspired this novel, including the stories of Rynosuke Akutagawa, the films of Kurosawa and the ghost story cinema classic Kwaidan.

Read his blog here

By The Sword

A macabre discovery in a city cemetery…

A political scandal engulfing the city…

A samurai-obsessed swordsman on the rampage…

The severed body parts point to one man: gangland killer ‘Banzai Billy’ Boyle. What lies at the root of his obsession with the bushido culture of Japan? How is he linked to sleazy politician and prospective MP ‘Big Jim’ McConnarty? Are the walls of Barlinnie Prison secure enough to contain him? Can police crime analyst Grace Andrew track him down before she becomes the next victim?

This conspiracy unravels in horrific detail as it twists and turns from the grimy backstreets of Glasgow to the cherry-blossom groves of Japan, where it reaches a terrifying and gut-wrenching conclusion.