Romanno Bridge

by Andrew Greig

Romanno Bridge is a new adventure from the acclaimed novelist and poet Andrew Greig. The hunt for the crowning stone of the Dalriadic kings, Jacob's Pillow, the Stone of Scone - whatever it is, it is worth enough to make life cheap for some and dear for others - has begun.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Scotland, Mystery, Crime

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Andrew Greig is a Scottish writer who grew up in Anstruther, Fife. He studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and is a former Glasgow University Writing Fellow and Scottish Arts Council Scottish/Canadian Exchange Fellow. He lives in Orkney and Edinburgh and is married to author Lesley Glaister.

Reviews

[Evie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I’d known when I started this that there was a book that preceded it. I don’t think it’s a sequel, the story was complete, but it constantly referred back to things that had happened in another book (which I have now bought and will read out of order). Romanno Bridge is a perfectly decent thriller, set in the area I live in, which is always entertaining because you can imagine yourself hurtling down the same roads as the characters. It’s a little bit clichéd in places, but it would be difficult to write about the Stone of Destiny without that. A good adventure story nonetheless.

[Kevin Tole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite possibly one of the worst books I have read - pointless waste of paper pulp and as hackneyed and dull and cliched as you might ever find. For Daily Mail man and woman only.

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't often read thrillers and adventure stories, but this is a rather superior one. Andrew Greig is a versatile writer and poet with a love of all things Scottish - the hills, its history and writers like John Buchan.

This book brings together characters from his earlier update of a Buchan story, The Return of John Macnab, and various legends surrounding the Stone of Scone.

It is page turner with a feeling for character, landscape, whisky, music, language, history, humour and thoughtful asides, that make you forgive the melodrama.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein Motoradfahrer hält am Waldrand von Rothiemurchus an. Er stellt sein Motorrad ab, wirft den Schlüssel weg und geht immer tiefer in den Wald hinein. Dabei wirft er immer wieder "Ballast" ab: Rucksack, Jacke, Papiere und Bilder. Schließlich legt er sich in eine Mulde um sich dort zu vergiften. Sein letzter Gedanke gilt dem Ring den er trägt und der ihn in diese Situation gebracht hat.

Kirsty Mac Nichols erbt einen ähnlichen Ring von einem Freund. Erst wenige Tage zuvor besuchte sie ihn im Altersheim als er unheimlichen Besuch hatte. Kurze Zeit später ist er tot aber Kirsty glaubt nicht an einen Zufall. Der unheimliche Fremde taucht auf der Beerdigung auf und bedroht sie. Sie kann mit Hilfe eines neuseeländischen Rugbyspielers entkommen doch sie weiß auch, dass sie dieses Rätsel nicht alleine lösen kann. Sie ruft die Freunde zusammen mit denen sie im Sommer davor die Rückkehr John MacNabs begangen hat. Doch während es letztes Jahr noch ein Spiel war ist es diesmal tödlicher Ernst...

In diesem Buch geht es um den Stone of destiny, den Krönungsschein der schottischen Könige. Die meisten Menschen glauben dass er in der Westminster Abtei steht. Doch dieser Stein ist nur eine Kopie. Wo der echte Stein versteckt ist wissen nur die Mondläufer, die sich an ihren Ringen erkennen. Diese Ringe sind auch der Wegweiser zum echten Stein. Deshalb ist jeder der den Ring hat in tödlicher Gefahr denn der Mann, der den Auftrag hat den Stein zu beschaffen schreckt vor nichts zurück.

Kirsty und ihre Freunde merken schnell dass sie sich auf dünnes Eis begeben haben. Sie haben sich lange Zeit nicht gesehen doch ihre Freundschaft ist so stark wie immer. Zwei neue Leute sind zu ihrer Gruppe dazu gestossen: die Norwegerin Ingrid deren Ring gestohlen wurde und der Neuseeländer Leo der Kirsty bei ihrer Flucht geholfen hat. Doch wer sie auch immer verfolgt : er scheint immer genau zu wissen wo sie gerade sind und was sie tun. Egal wohin sie sich auf ihrer Suche begeben: ob Islay, Crieff oder sogar Norwegen ist er ihnen immer einen Schritt voraus.

Rommano Bridge ist ein Thriller bei dem sich die Schlinge zusehends enger um alle Beteiligten zieht. Es ist auch eine Geschichte von Freundschaft und unbearbeiteter Vergangenheit von vielen der beteiligten Personen.

[Blair H. Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book, having read two other books by Andrew Greig, and given them each 5 stars. I’m afraid this one mainly just irritated me, for the following main reasons:
• Although this should have been a standalone story, there were constant, unnecessary (I think) references to a previous novel which has featured some of the same characters. This left me feeling left out, and wondering how important the missing parts of the story were.
• The writing style(s). Style kept changing, from narrative to reflective; from past to present tense; from third to first and even to second person; from complete to incomplete sentences. I think this was intended to be quirky, but it grated.
• Unrealistic aspects of the story. Too many improbable occurrences, sometimes described with insufficient detail; too many coincidences. And too many missing parts (e.g. what happened to the dead bodies; how did they have a relationship with royalty).
• The good guys. There were too many characters to keep tabs on, and we only really got to know them near the end - even then, mostly not well.
• The bad guys. These were improbable and/or one-dimensional.
There were some good uses of language (my favourite aspect of the other two that I’ve read), and I loved his descriptions of Scotland.

[Annette Boehm · Rating 1 out of 5]

...lots of cliché, lots of references to previous novel, - though the plot stands alone, the main characters' relationships to each other are apparently defined in the earlier plot (?). The characters feel flat. Also, a sprinkling of typos throughout the book.

[Alistair Littlejohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

My review just disappeared and I can’t be bothered writing it again. I didn’t enjoy this book despite thinking the subject matter would be really interesting. I didn’t find the characters very believable and the occasional references to HRH as some benevolent overlord quite ridiculous.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great as a stand-alone read (it's a sequel?), not my favorite sort of style, and not easy to follow everything off you aren't familiar with Scottish history...

[Stewart Davie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute rubbish

The plot is disjointed and is difficult to follow. The characters were unbelievable and insipid.Do not bother with this book.

[Dorian Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

No where up to standard of ‘Return of John McNab in terms of plot, credibility and pacing but the author’s turn of phrase and feel for the Scottish landscape still make this an enjoyable read

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

First Sentence: A man on a motorbike finally came to the end of the road.

Journalist Kirsty Fowler is told a story by an elderly gentleman, Billy Mackie, in a retirement home. The story is of copies of Scotland’s Stone of Scone, or Coronation Stone, having been made and copies hidden. But also of another, much older stone, the Stone of Destiny, the true coronation seat of Scotland’s oldest kings.

These stones are protected by three men, and now their descendants, known as Moon Runners and identified by a heavy silver crescent-shaped ring containing a peridot. Someone named Adamson, a very nasty knife-wielding villain, is after the stones. Billy is murdered shortly after passing his ring on to Kirsty. Now it’s up to Kirsty and her friends to find and protect the stones.

Dear Authors: If you are writing a sequel, please do not assume the reader has read the prior book(s). Unfortunately, that oversight was, in large part, the reason why I did not particularly care for this book.

There were a lot of characters, but it wasn’t until almost the end of the book we really understood that many of them had all worked together before. Without that information, their coming together now really didn’t make much sense. Even had that not been the case, or perhaps because it was, the characters were not well developed; I had very little empathy or even liking of them.

The only two characters who did seem significant were Billy, who was literally short lived, and Adamson, a completely sociopathic killer. You do eventually learn about the characters, but by the time you do, it’s almost to late to care about them.

There were huge coincidences. Everyone seems to make just the right connections and find just the person for whom they are looking with unrealistic ease. You're running from a killer and you just happen to pass the bus stand where somewhere from your last adventure just happens to be standing?

There were positive elements to the story. The opening is very visual and compelling. The premise of the story is intriguing and the suspense is effective and palpable. The author’s voice is quite good with touches of humor. “The book, she has lately concluded, make a more interesting (or perhaps just less demanding) bed companion than a lover. They do not twitch or snore, and one may close them at will. However, they do not keep the feet warm or press against one’s back in the night.” I did laugh aloud at this and realized my cats perform the last two of those functions. Although there are a lot of words and expressions which are unfamiliar to me as an American, the context made their meaning clear so I didn’t feel I’d missed anything.

It wasn’t a non-stop read in that it did take me a couple days; I was never tempted to not finish the book. Greig’s style is quite good, but not to where I’d probably read another book by him.

ROMANNO BRIDGE (Susp-Ensemble-UK/Europe-Cont) - Okay
Greig, Andrew – 2nd Kirsty Fowler (sort of)
Quercus, ©2008, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 9781847243157

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the mid 1990s – someone “says there’s going to be an election soon and things can only get better” – this novel reunites the reader with all the main characters from Greig’s earlier book The Return of John Macnab and throws in two more here for good measure in the shape of Maori rugby player Leo Ngatara and Norwegian musician Inga Johanssen.

The plot has more of a thriller touch this time, centring round the genuineness or otherwise of the Stone of Destiny. In her job as a journalist in Dumfries Kirsty Fowler meets Billy Mackay, an old man in his last days, who tells of his participation in the making of two replacement stones during the time the “original” was missing in 1950. This leads to designations such as fake fake as opposed to the real fake foisted on England’s Edward I and kept at Westminster ever since (until recently at least.) It is the whereabouts of Columba’s Pillow, the real crowning stone, hidden from Edward at the time and kept in the care of Moon Runners - whose guardianship is embodied in rings inscribed with runes (Moon rune-ers, you see, with only ever three extant at one time) - ever since that drives the plot. Mackay gifts Kirsty one such ring and thus unwittingly places her in danger at the hands of a ruthless intermediary calling himself Adamson who came to know of their existence via Inga’s brother Colin – and has a buyer for the real stone. The goings-on in uncovering the hiding places of the two fake fake stones and the original fake itself, take the characters to various parts of Scotland and even on an excursion to Norway.

All this gives Greig an opportunity to display his familiarity with the art of rock climbing and the music scene and to comment about Scots’ habit of revering their homeland, “‘Ye’d hae thought Scotland was Helen of Troy the way some folk sighed over her,’” even as seen through the eyes of foreigner Inga, “Strange place to inspire such belonging.” There are wider ruminations too. We are told an ancient Sumerian manuscript bemoans the times as violent, chaotic and strange, the young don’t speak properly, the gods are unrespected, etc, etc. – which only means the writer was elderly. And Leo Ngatara comes to reflect bleakly that, “None of us will be all right. Mountains, sunsets, good times, bad times, mates, children – nothing endures. Nothing. No exceptions.”

Greig is never less than an insightful novelist but here the thriller plot sits a little uneasily with his gifts for illuminating character, describing landscape and revealing the complexities of human affairs.

[Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this finely written adventure/thriller, but had not read The Return of John McNab, which may have added depth to the characters.
The author writes from a number of viewpoints, which are mainly successful, but on a couple of occasions the narrative stops entirely and the author interjects about writing a story set back in the dying days of the twentieth century. Although these asides did make me think about when the story was taking place, they did not feel of a piece with the rest of the novel. This is a minor quibble.
The weakness is in that there is a lot of helpful coincidence throughout the book, which can work in a literary novel, but which I felt was contrived in a thriller, where I expected a better resolution.
I now want to go and read more by Andrew Greig, so overall a thumbs up for the author, with reservations for this particular novel.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been quite intrigued by all things to do with ancient Scottish History of late. I think reading the Robyn Young books about Robert Bruce has kept interest on the stone of Scone so when I saw this book on a charity pile I thought it worth a go.

I guess that, while not a sequel, Andrew Greig uses a lot of the same characters as previous books which is okay but does leave the reader feeling a bit out in the cold over relationships already formed previously. Takes a bit of catching up there. I was also struggling to find what timezone we were in and some of the prose leaned a bit too far into poet realm.

This is a book that is a real yarn, a famous five type adventure wrapped up with Angels and Demons. Yes,this is a Dan Brown type novel and I enjoyed reading it.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept thinking this was a sequel because there were references to "things we did last year," which made it seem as if I'd entered a conversation late. I slogged on, thinking it was a bit twee, with Scots thrown in here and there, seemingly for "local color." Of course, the outcome is in no doubt, which is a problem with a mystery, but I was finally caught up in the story. Still, I thought it could use a good edit to smooth out the style, which had a bit of Dashiell Hammett toughness in the beginning, until that, like the dialect, went away. In all, it seemed like a rush job, but was a decent mystery.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally read thrillers but because this was by Andrew Greig I borrowed it and thoroughly enjoyed the book. What a nasty villain and the cast of characters Greig has assembled is impressive. They range from young to old and are all very different people. This book would definitely make a great movie.
The Scottish setting is almost a character in itself and reading about it makes me itchy for a hiking holiday in Scotland. I also found that about half way through the book I became quite worried about several of the characters. As for Leo, well, I'd love to have him on my team. I do hope Greig writes another book with this McNab group.Highly recommended.

[Susan]

Really enjoying this book. I liked John McNab by Andrew Greig but not as much as I am enjoying this one. Many of the same characters (who are all good fun and whose relationships are interesting) are in this book. I have always found the theft of the stone of destiny a fascinating story anyway. Wish the BBC would screen that old black and white movie/documentary that was made about it.

[Jean Brodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up, having read In Another Light which I really enjoyed. However, this was a completely different style. I found it quite complex as there were so many characters who were given little introduction. However turns out that they had originally been formulated in another novel-The Return of John McNab. I might have enjoyed this more, if I'd read it first

[Barbara Roden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sequel of sorts to the author's The Return of John McNab, although you don't need to have read the earlier book. Greig is still occupied with the question of Scottishness, this time wrapping it up in a gripping thriller involving Scotland's Stone of Destiny.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follow up to 'The Return of John MacNab' and this second time read immediately after to better appreciate and absorb. Andrew Grieg is superb at racking up the tension in both plot and character interaction.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun romp through Scottish landscape and history in quest of the true stone of destiny (not that counterfeit in Westminster).

[Lorna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing and rather far fetched. Well written but did not hold my attention at all.

[Annie Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing. Inaccurate research. Cannot recommend this author.