Salvage

by Mark Baillie

Scotland, 1929. Without warning or explanation, council officials descend on a Traveller campsite and brutally remove a young girl. It is the last her family sees of her.

Decades later, Nash Lacklow is sick, angry and wants answers about what happened to his sister. With little time left, he enlists the help of his niece Emma.

Despite being warned her task is close to impossible, Emma pieces together vital clues and mounts a passionate campaign for justice as she encounters revered Gypsy elders, fiery protest groups and delusional drifters. But the search comes at a cost, uncovering painful truths and igniting conflict inside and outside the Lacklow family.

Set in 1983, Salvage is a gripping and heartbreaking missing person mystery, exploring family dynamics, identity and the tragic history of Scotland’s Gypsy-Travellers.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Linda Raedisch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salvage was published by an Indie press that features mostly books about Scotland. The author sent me a copy because I moderate a book group in which we read works by Romany authors from all over the world. This is the first book I've read by/about Scottish Travellers, and I loved it. So why only four stars? Because Mark Baillie is a writer who's only going to get better, and I want to leave room for improvement. He's written a couple of articles for the Travellers' Times, but this is, I believe, his first novel. There are some abrupt scene changes, but he's spot-on when it comes to dialogue, overall pacing, and making the reader see through the characters' eyes---a skewed ceiling tile, a muddy rag doll, a stained carpet. Fiction loves a large, bickering family. Instead, Baillie gives us the close-knit trio of Nash, who grew up in a world of horse-drawn wagons, campfires, and hawking door to door; his nephew Spence; and Spence's daughter Emma. Spence, who married a non-Traveller and is only in his 40's, is still more of his uncle's world than his daughter's. Twenty-year-old Emma is the first person in her family to go to University. This is 1983, and she seems to be the only Traveller there. Emma has embraced academia and the political activism on campus, but she's derailed by the central tragedy of Nash's life: the removal of his little sister from their Traveller family back in 1929. Emma, who wants to be a social worker, dives right into the search for "wee Jenny," and finds a lot more than she bargained for. Some of my favorite scenes are the ones where Emma is doing research in libraries, archives, and even an exhibit at Rosslyn Chapel. If you're expecting romance of any kind, you won't find it here. (Well, maybe you'll find a little: I'm curious to know if Queen Lacklow was a real 18th century person, or if she's Baillie's own creation.) I wouldn't call this book gritty, either; the characters are too likeable for that! I felt the most for Spence, who experiences loss after loss, but manages to find strength in what he still has, and to change with the times as best he can. The seemingly hopeless search for wee Jenny remains central to the book, and the surprise, when it comes, is both natural and unanticipated. I also love how Baillie takes the trope of the queer kid who must abandon home and family to live their true life and turns it entirely on its head. And I admire his decision to leave Nash's sexuality, or lack thereof, off the table. I'm looking forward to discussing this book with my group, not just because it shines a light on a little known but no less tragic episode of British history, but because it's a rousing good story.