Loose Threads: the new laugh-out-loud crime novel from Martin Stewart

by Martin Stewart

A politics lecturer’s disappearance and a suitcase body spiral into murder, radioactive shoes, and coded espionage.

Three homicidal maniacs. Two radioactive shoes. One body in a suitcase.

When Dr David Cairney, a politics lecturer, goes missing on the way home from his retirement party, his wife asks ex-boxer and journalist Robbie Gould for help. Gould wants nothing to do with it. But he needs the money.

Meanwhile, the body of another politics lecturer, Professor Stephen Hogg, has been found, his body folded into a suitcase beside the Clydeside Expressway. While poking around the murder victim’s office, Gould encounters pathologist Sarah Badar. She worked on Hogg’s post mortem, only to find her report redacted, and she wants answers too.

As the pair delve deeper into the case, they unearth connections between the two academics and a rogues’ gallery of oddballs and grotesques including rival gangsters from Edinburgh and Glasgow, a llama-farm owner in Kirkintilloch and an ex-KGB general with a trepanned skull and a thirst for vengeance.

Sarah and Gould find themselves immersed in a world of missing Kremlin diamonds and pre-digital espionage – all coded signals, orange peel and scraps of red thread.

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published September 30, 2026

Reviews

[Elizabeth McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally loved this. Funny, fast-paced narrative, brilliant bunch of characters. Glasgow is alive in the humour of the central character: rain-capped Robbie Gould. Immediately went out and bought another in the Gould series by Martin Stewart.

[Michael Hastie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read both books (double proof and this) in the last couple of weeks and really enjoyed both. Robbie Gould is a brilliant character. Very Parlabane-esque.

As a Southsider, I enjoyed seeing so many of the key scenes in both books playing out in Shawlands and surrounding areas. I always enjoy being able to truly picture the events so this was enjoyable.

Hopefully see more Robbie Gould stories in the future.

[Terri Stokes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A curious book and one you could easily loose track of who's who if you get distracted too much, but a quick and fun read to have, a crime novel without too much of an actual crime taking place, the main crime has already taken placed before the book has even started, but it does add to the plot and drama of the story line.

[Heather Weir · Rating 4 out of 5]

very silly but kept me enthralled the whole time! can’t fault it

[Ian Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, quite a quick read, easy reading for a long journey, characters were good and there were some good funny bits.