The Man on the Endless Stair, the debut novel of Chris Barkley—the 2022 Edinburgh Book Festival’s Writer in Residence, has been featured in a review by The Scotsman.

Renowned journalist and author Allan Massie praised Chris’ talent and future potential, writing:

‘The plot is extravagant, conversations often absurd, and yet one keeps reading and doing so with pleasure. Barkley has imagination and talent, and one has to remember this is only his first novel.’

Subscribers can read the review in full here.

When troubled but talented young author Euan meets decorated novelist Malcolm Furnivall, he feels his luck has finally changed. Malcolm takes Euan as a protégé, inviting him to spend time on his secluded island in the Hebrides, nurturing his skills, and vouching for him in the rarefied literary scene of the 1950s.

But lately, Malcolm has not been himself. He cuts an increasingly isolated figure, consumed by his work, and has become convinced that something strange and terrible will befall him. Sensing the end, he summons his loved ones and—to everyone’s surprise—entrusts Euan with the task of completing his masterpiece.

Malcom’s suspicions soon prove well-founded; he is discovered brutally murdered in his study, and his invaluable unfinished novel has vanished. Cut off from the mainland, with the killer on the loose and the island’s inhabitants circling, Euan feels both his mentor’s legacy and his only chance at greatness slipping away—he must venture deep into Malcolm’s labyrinthine mansion to find the manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands.

But what he doesn’t yet know is that the closer he comes to solving the mystery, the tighter he will bind himself to a fate sealed in time…

You can pre-order your copy here and here, or, better, via your local bookshop and Bookshop.org.

Follow Chris on Twitter @TufferBarkley and on Instagram @tufferbarkley.