This novel reads like a slightly more wholesome version of ‘Trainspotting’.
Set around the Spey Bay Viaduct in Moray, Bennett charts the adventures of ‘The Summer Crew’, a fictional 1980s crew – led by skipper Sandy Geddes – who start fishing on the River Spey.
The book oozes personality, thanks mainly to the fact it’s written in Doric, and the characters are unique, believable and credible.
It is perhaps this believability that makes the book so funny – as a reader we can fully envisage the characters’ shenanigans, the crew proving to be Geddes’ worst ever recruits.
Some readers may be put off by the dialect, but there is a handy glossary of Doric in the back of the book, so patient readers will be rewarded.
And patience is a virtue – this novel is an opportunity to have a laugh and perhaps live a summer dream or two that, sadly, last year, we were starved of.
The Summer Crew, by John Bennett, published by Spey Publishing, £8.99.
[review rating=”3″ align = “left”]
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