Publisher's Synopsis
Hugh Collins' debut novel is at turns a vicious, hilarious, and highly original crime novel set in 1976 in his native Glasgow. This was a time when the Sensational Alex Harvey Band were gods; flares, mullets and flick-knives were the currency of cool; and the old criminal codes of honour had yet to be destroyed by the new breed of gangster that emerged in the 1980s.
Barney Boone and his gang are running around town, thieving, conning and getting involved in all sorts of minor criminal activity. Then a scam goes wrong and dead bodies start to pile up. Including the murder of a young Asian man in a Glasgow police cell. The police are quick to try and pin it on one of the local hard men. But the real suspects could be much closer to home.
No Smoke captures the language, humour and culture of Scotland's most violent city in a way unsurpassed since James Kelman or William McIlvanney. And most remarkable of all, it marks the arrival of a major new voice in both Scottish literature and crime fiction.
