Overview

Of Stone and Sky is set on a farming estate in the upper reaches of the River Spey. Highland shepherd Colvin Munro disappears, and a trail of his possessions is found in the Cairngorm mountains. Years later, his foundling sister Mo is asked to write the eulogy for his memorial, and we watch her push against the easy story and search for why he vanished. We also stay with his younger brother Sorley, haunted by Colvin’s absence and driven to uncover what forces led to the disappearance. The novel follows several generations of the family as the mystery sits inside a longer life of land, work, and kinship.

Writing & Voice

We found the writing rooted in place and clear about labour, weather, and what it costs to keep going. The book reads as a family saga and a mystery at the same time, and we felt the story carry a political edge without turning into a lecture. There is humour in it too, the kind that comes from living close together and knowing how people really behave.

Content & Perspective

We read this through the pressure of absence. Colvin is not there, but the gap he leaves shapes everyone’s choices. Mo’s task, to speak for him at a memorial, becomes a way to question what the family will accept as truth. Sorley’s need to know becomes its own form of loyalty. Across the generations, we see how a way of life can hold people and trap them, often both at once.

Themes

The novel is about the bonds between people and land, and what happens when those bonds are tested by loss. We see tradition and change rubbing together, and we feel the pull of belonging alongside the need to break away. The mystery is not only about where Colvin went, but about how a family lives with not knowing, and what stories we build to survive it.

What Worked

• A strong central absence that keeps tension running through the family story.
• Clear sense of place in the upper Spey and the Cairngorm mountains.
• Generational reach that shows how one disappearance can echo for years.

Minor Quibbles

• At times we wanted the mystery thread to tighten sooner in the middle stretch.
• Some wider arguments arrive close together, and we needed a little more space between them.

Final Thoughts

We liked how it lets the land witness everything, while the people keep trying to talk their way out of what they have done.

Rating: ★★★★½ / 5