Long Drop

Glasgow, the 1950s. A household of women is found slaughtered in their beds. William Watt, the father of the family, has an alibi that cannot be broken, yet the police are sure he did it.

Watt sets out to clear his own name and lets it be known that he will pay for information. Peter Manuel, a career criminal, answers the offer. He claims to know details about the killings that only the murderer could have known, and Watt agrees to meet him.

The two men spend twelve hours together, driving around the city and drinking in its pubs and clubs. Nobody knows what was said or done that night, and the novel imagines it. The next time they face each other is in the High Court, where Manuel is on trial for murder and is defending himself. He calls Watt as a witness and questions him about their long, shady night.

This is crime fiction built on a real case, and it is fictionalized rather than a record of events. It moves between the night of drinking and the courtroom, and it keeps the question of who is guilty and who is innocent open, with the telling of a good story standing between the two.