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The Windhover
Perthshire. 1957.
The Camerons arrive from a tenement in Glasgow to run a remote Scottish youth hostel, unaware they are setting in motion a terrible chain of events that will reverberate through the decades.
Siblings Alison and Ewan delight in swapping grey city life for the mountains and lochs surrounding Rannoch. Only their elder sister Moira understands their granny’s dark looks and their mother’s increasingly poor health. As the summer progresses and Mr Cameron’s incendiary secrets begin to surface, the family’s attempts to create a new life unravel – and then the adults make an unthinkable decision, one that wrenches the Camerons apart.
It’s 1982.
Ewan is long estranged from his family. Now a celebrated artist working in burgeoning London, he is a world away from Rannoch. So why do his paintings return to the rugged landscapes and soaring birds of his youth? Four hundred miles north of him, in grey and rainy Cumbernauld, Moira knows that it is down to her to remedy the effects of their disastrous childhood before it is too late.
The Windhover is an emotionally devastating story of lost children and misguided adults, tracing the shockwaves of lies and loss within one family and exploring whether redemption is truly possible when the betrayal runs so deep.
The Camerons arrive from a tenement in Glasgow to run a remote Scottish youth hostel, unaware they are setting in motion a terrible chain of events that will reverberate through the decades.
Siblings Alison and Ewan delight in swapping grey city life for the mountains and lochs surrounding Rannoch. Only their elder sister Moira understands their granny’s dark looks and their mother’s increasingly poor health. As the summer progresses and Mr Cameron’s incendiary secrets begin to surface, the family’s attempts to create a new life unravel – and then the adults make an unthinkable decision, one that wrenches the Camerons apart.
It’s 1982.
Ewan is long estranged from his family. Now a celebrated artist working in burgeoning London, he is a world away from Rannoch. So why do his paintings return to the rugged landscapes and soaring birds of his youth? Four hundred miles north of him, in grey and rainy Cumbernauld, Moira knows that it is down to her to remedy the effects of their disastrous childhood before it is too late.
The Windhover is an emotionally devastating story of lost children and misguided adults, tracing the shockwaves of lies and loss within one family and exploring whether redemption is truly possible when the betrayal runs so deep.
Unknown Binding
Published July 23, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 31, 2026
The Windhover is a beautifully structured novel which never loses its way. I was fully immersed in the locations and family dynamics. The characters are so well drawn that I feel like I met them. The children’s thoughts are expressed in ways which are exactly right for their ages and their very different personalities. I was completely hooked and needing to know everything right up until the very satisfying end.
The descriptions of the loch-side hostel are particularly good. The locations is really solidly built and so are the the sensations of being there - cold, stony, remote and bleakly beautiful. The emotions and relationships are brought to life just as well. There’s a yearning for emotional connections which runs through both timelines, while at the same time it is completely understandable that all the characters are also putting up barriers between themselves and everyone else. My heart broke for every one of them at one point or another.
Absolutely wonderful! Such good prose. I loved this book so much.
The descriptions of the loch-side hostel are particularly good. The locations is really solidly built and so are the the sensations of being there - cold, stony, remote and bleakly beautiful. The emotions and relationships are brought to life just as well. There’s a yearning for emotional connections which runs through both timelines, while at the same time it is completely understandable that all the characters are also putting up barriers between themselves and everyone else. My heart broke for every one of them at one point or another.
Absolutely wonderful! Such good prose. I loved this book so much.
September 4, 2026
when you cant put a book down and cry at the end its the sign of a wonderful book.
October 4, 2026
Beau livre avec une jolie prose qui m’a permis de ramener un peu des highlands avec moi en rentrant de vacances en Écosse ; émouvant de par son thème (le deuil, la trahison…) j’ai adoré le développement des personnages et le mouvement de va et viens entre le passé et le présent: l’histoire se révèle jusqu’à la dernière page. Il mériterait un 4,5 !!!!
September 18, 2026
Atmospheric and lyrical. This intense book took me longer to read than perhaps it's length would suggest because my brain was having to try to catch up with the author's at times. It really took a deep dive into familial relationships and the after effects of loss and trauma.
August 30, 2026
Very well written, emotionally affecting novel. I’m looking forward to more from this author.
August 22, 2026
This was brilliant. Dark and broodingly atmospheric, the threat of something, plenty of things it turns out, leaping off the page.
As the tale is told from three different perspectives we hear about each of the characters' annoying traits, only to then hear from them the context that tips our opinion on its head. This way, the siblings all develop into three-dimensional people, equally untrustworthy but somehow I still found myself invested in each of them, hoping they could shake off the roots of the childhoods that grew into the unfellable tree of their future.
The question this book really asks us to examine is whether, despite those futures being worlds apart, underneath the surface they are still battling the same demons and carrying the same scars. I think The Windhover makes a pretty compelling argument that you can never outrun your childhood. Dark.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
As the tale is told from three different perspectives we hear about each of the characters' annoying traits, only to then hear from them the context that tips our opinion on its head. This way, the siblings all develop into three-dimensional people, equally untrustworthy but somehow I still found myself invested in each of them, hoping they could shake off the roots of the childhoods that grew into the unfellable tree of their future.
The question this book really asks us to examine is whether, despite those futures being worlds apart, underneath the surface they are still battling the same demons and carrying the same scars. I think The Windhover makes a pretty compelling argument that you can never outrun your childhood. Dark.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
July 26, 2026
A sad and haunting novel that broods and broods before revealing its secrets in its frantic final few pages.
Far more literary than I usually read, while I know I am not a smart enough reader to appreciate all of the nuance of this one, I still enjoyed it plenty. Beautiful and evocative writing, and a family of complex, flawed people.
Thanks to Dead Ink for the review copy!
Far more literary than I usually read, while I know I am not a smart enough reader to appreciate all of the nuance of this one, I still enjoyed it plenty. Beautiful and evocative writing, and a family of complex, flawed people.
Thanks to Dead Ink for the review copy!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Many thanks to Netgalley, Dead Ink Books and the author for the arc.
The premise of this book sounded fantastic and I was hoping for a 5 star read. Sadly, this book did not deliver for me. We follow three siblings Moira, Ewan and Alison in different timelines and the various secrets within the family. The writing is absolutely beautiful, in particular the descriptions of the Scottish landscapes. This brings me to my main issue with this book which is that there is not much in terms of plot until around the 80% mark. Additionally, the characters themselves seemed fairly unremarkable in that none had very defined traits. This combination meant that the book therefore fell a bit flat for me. Whilst it was still an engaging read, I would recommend this book to readers that are content with the book focusing on the landscape and surroundings.
The premise of this book sounded fantastic and I was hoping for a 5 star read. Sadly, this book did not deliver for me. We follow three siblings Moira, Ewan and Alison in different timelines and the various secrets within the family. The writing is absolutely beautiful, in particular the descriptions of the Scottish landscapes. This brings me to my main issue with this book which is that there is not much in terms of plot until around the 80% mark. Additionally, the characters themselves seemed fairly unremarkable in that none had very defined traits. This combination meant that the book therefore fell a bit flat for me. Whilst it was still an engaging read, I would recommend this book to readers that are content with the book focusing on the landscape and surroundings.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews