To the Shades Descend: A Dr Jack Cuthbert Mystery

About this book

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

In 1931, Dr Jack Cuthbert arrives in Glasgow for what should be a brief interruption. A job interview, a few days in the city, then home. Instead, he is drawn into the aftermath of a brutal crime that exposes the fault lines running through a society under strain.

As Cuthbert becomes entangled in the investigation, he finds himself navigating a city shaped by poverty, violence, and ideology. British fascism is gaining ground. Anti-Semitism circulates openly. Razor gangs patrol certain streets with impunity. The boundaries between medicine, policing, and politics blur, and professional distance proves impossible to maintain.

To the Shades Descend moves through this tense landscape with care, attentive to atmosphere as much as plot. Set in Glasgow, the novel asks difficult questions about complicity, loyalty, and the limits of trust. As Cuthbert gathers allies and information, certainty becomes elusive. In a city where fear travels quickly and motives are rarely declared, survival may depend not on knowing the truth, but on recognising who is prepared to distort it.