The Mash House

By: Alan Gillespie

Narrated by: Angus King

Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Infused with love, addiction and free-pouring measures of single malt, The Mash House is perfect for fans of Fargo and The Godfather.

Cullrothes, in the Scottish Highlands, where Innes hides a terrible secret from his girlfriend, Alice, a gorgeous, cheating, lying schoolteacher. In the same village, Donald is the aggressive distillery owner, who floods the country with narcotics alongside his single malt; when his son goes missing, he becomes haunted by an anonymous American investor intent on purchasing the Cullrothes Distillery by any means necessary. Schoolgirl Jessie is trying to get the grades to escape to the mainland, while Grandpa counts the days left in his life.

This is a place where mountains are immense and the loch freezes in winter. A place with only one road in and out. With long storms and furious midges and a terrible phone signal. The police are compromised, the journalists are scum and the innocent folk of Cullrothes tangle themselves in a fermenting barrel of suspicion, malice and lies.

The Mash House uses multiple narratives to weave together the parallel lives of individuals in the village. Each fractured by the fears and uncertainty in their own minds.

©2021 Alan Gillespie (P)2021 W F Howes

why were the most awful characters the way they were?

I felt like this story went on and on, and followed so many plot lines, none of them really took hold for me except for Jessie's and Alice's. the two most awful (interesting) characters in the book, Alice, and Jessie's mum were just never fleshed out enough or given motivations to tell us why they went from sweet to full on nasty cows on the turn of a dime, and neither really seem to ever get their comeuppance. In the end, some details already known to the reader are finally shared with the characters who need to know them...but there seems no point to most of the dark activities. they seem random and unjustified, and some just seem like downright afterthought (Ennis's "blackening"). The narrator, as always, is brilliant, and is the reason I chose to give the book a read. I would read a sequel if it could tell me why Alice is such a horrible piece of work, and if Jessie could be the one to finally put her in her place!

The narrator was the highlight

Narrator as always was brilliant. Story just didn’t grab me. Very peace meal and just didn’t flow. Characters were a little flat and not fleshed out or maybe it is just that it tried to follow too many so everything vague. Not one of my favorites

Is there more?

Hope a follow up book comes soon. I want to know what happens in this real life village!

A Compelling Story Well Read

Outstanding listen; a well knit and compelling story of people caught in the weir of few options and petty thuggery who succumb and a few who survive and rise about the sucking mud. Angus King makes the occasional lapses of continuity and narrative whole. He is an exceptional reader. Recommend.