Whisky Advocate Blog

Jonny McCormick, a regular Malt Advocate features writer shares a review of  Doug Johnstone’s “Smokeheads.”  Will it be the whisky novel you choose for your next vacation?

Smokeheads
by Doug Johnstone
Published by Faber & Faber Limited
Available in Hardcover and Kindle versions
291 pages

“Four friends. One weekend. Gallons of whisky. What could go wrong?” asks the cover of Doug Johnstone’s third novel. These thirty-somethings, all former Edinburgh University buddies catch the ferry to Islay anticipating a weekend of great drams and distillery visits. Adam is the main protagonist, a short balding anti-hero with big plans who labors as a retail worker in a whisky shop on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile (and detests its tourist clientele for their whisky naivety). His whisky compadres are Rory, a charmless millionaire fund manager and boorish misogynist and Ethan and Luke, two rather flimsy characters who act more as plot devices than fully-fledged individuals. Taciturn Luke is a stoner musician and you know this because he says the word “man” after most of his dialogue.

During the early chapters the group tour Laphroaig distillery, meeting Molly, a distillery guide whom Adam has met on earlier visits while she was still married and their mutual attraction lingers. Not long after landing on Islay, Rory’s driving attracts the wrath of the local police in the form of Joe, a brutish and corrupt cop and coincidently, Molly’s ex-husband. Without revealing the subsequent plot twists and turns of this Tartan Noir thriller, Adam reveals the pretence under which he’s invited these friends to the island and the scene is set for fallout and mayhem.

The whisky writing is authentic and the guys enjoy sipping a 27 year old single cask Port Ellen on the ferry, a Laphroaig 30 year old, Bruichladdich Deliverance X4 and Laphroaig Quarter cask and from the descriptions of Islay, distilleries and the drams, you trust the author is no stranger to the subject matter. However, amidst the chaos of murder and destruction, there is a moment where Adam and Rory share some preposterously asinine tasting notes which seem excessively crass. As a work of fiction, the plot twists are often heavy-handed and you can see them coming a mile off. The cartoon violence is frequent, bloody and casually grotesque and the swearing is prolific.

I found the stamina and endurance of the characters in Smokeheads (both the good guys and the bad) pushed the limits of plausibility at times, a consequence of the incessant action sequences written with a certain televisual quality. Molly emerges as the strong female lead, cool under pressure unlike Rory who has few redeeming qualities and a relentless cocaine habit (drug use being a topic of Johnstone’s earlier work, The Ossians). However, I enjoyed how the text cleverly manages to convey a sense of fearful claustrophobia to the Oa pennisula, one of the wildest and most remote parts of the island.

Right to the end, the author maintains his grip on the tension which will have you turning the pages to see if they will get away with it all. I would love to know what Ileachs think of the depiction of them and their island. While sharing some genre similarities of gore and pace, Johnstone’s style does not match the comic wit and elements of surprise that marks out Christopher Brookmyre at his best, nor the menacing dark inventiveness of the early Colin Bateman books. However, with malt whisky at its core, this book will make enjoyable summer vacation reading for whisky fans although it’s not going to appeal to everyone.

Tell us, have any of you read this book and what did you think?  Can anyone recommend any other good novels that focus on whisky?

 Jonny McCormick, regular Malt Advocate features writer, shares his review of  MacLean’s Miscellany of Whisky.

MacLean’s Miscellany of Whisky
by Charles MacLean (2^nd revised edition)
Published by Little Books Ltd | 288 pages

Whisky books appeal to those seeking deeper understanding of production subtleties and those who crave facts and figures to memorise but sometimes all you want is a jaunty tome that will entertain and enlighten. MacLean’s Miscellany of Whisky first appeared in 2004, and has been recently updated with additional material and given a handsome new jacket.

Charlie MacLean’s interpretation of a miscellany is an assortment of writing and quotations on whisky (there are a couple of pages on Irish, American and Japanese whiskies, but this is ostensibly a book about Scotch whisky). This neat book is perfectly adept for consumption in 4-5 page sittings; it’s packed with a diversity of topics with cross-referencing to related sections.

Less of a motley anthology than the title suggests however, there is a coherent pathway running through the text from definitions of whisky and raw materials through to production, branding and collecting. Sparkling anecdotes gathered from history form enjoyable digressions along the way, from the tale of how Burns was snubbed in Selkirk to how King George IV drank contraband whisky in Edinburgh in 1822 due to his preferred pure Glenlivet-style whisky being unobtainable. I found the pages on jars, pigs and other vessels and their closures fascinating, the science of viscimetry illuminating and the book concludes with a comical romp through the etymology of inebriation in Scotland. This is the literary equivalent of sinking into a dark leather armchair with a robust Mortlach after a hearty dinner.

Engravings add to the historical feel of the book, although they seldom bear a strong relationship to the topic featured on the page (that’s miscellany for you). There are some fascinating late nineteenth century adverts from the archives including one for Grouse as it sought fame, Dewar’s Ancestors campaign and the price list for Chivas Brothers when they were an Aberdeen grocer’s shop and whisky blender. If the distillery engravings such as Lagavulin, Glenturret and Glen Grant seem familiar it is because they are reproductions from Alfred Barnard’s The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom (Birlinn’s elegant 2008 edition is well worth tracking down).

You will have sipped young whiskies that have been distilled and bottled since the first edition of this book appeared. Little of the historical matter at the heart of the text needed updating but there are some minor details trapped in 2004. The listing of vatted malt and pure malt as categories on the “Understanding the Label” section predates the Scotch Whisky Regulations in 2009, and the peat chapter omits Ardbeg Supernova and mentions Bruichladdich Distillery beginning to produce Octomore at peating levels of 60 parts per million (in reality, the first edition claimed barley peated to 131ppm and the third boasted 152ppm).

Similarly, the appendix of Scottish distillery openings and closures needs updating with status changes recognizing the reopening of Glenglassaugh, the closure of Brora, Port Dundas, the mothballing of Tamdhu and Kilchoman’s full opening (no longer under construction). However, forgive the pedantry, for these are tiny details which must not detract you from a rewarding read about Scotch whisky. This charismatic book will furnish the reader with convivial conversation for the whisky club night or enrich those divine moments of mustache-twirling cogitation between drams.