A north-east writer has published her first novel and based it around the stunning and rugged Buchan and Aberdeen coastlines.
And I Am You, written by Aberdeen author, Judy Mackie, features three main characters who secretly embark on a pioneering experiment with incredible implications.
Slains Castle, the Bullers of Buchan and Cruden Bay all play a role in the pages.
Ms Mackie, a former journalist and magazine editor, said yesterday she was passionate about the wild seascape of her roots and explained that her debut work of fiction has presented an ideal opportunity to highlight the north-east coastline’s rich history, heritage and environment in a modern work of fiction.
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She added: “Needless to say, I have been heavily influenced by [Dracula creator] Bram Stoker, who created such a marvellous sense of place in the novels that he wrote about his beloved adopted Buchan coast.
“The action in my novel begins and ends in a fictitious mansion, near the Bullers, which present one of the most dramatic backdrops imaginable.
“As well as aiming to tell a thrilling tale, I am also hoping to inspire readers who are unfamiliar with the area to visit and experience its majesty for themselves.”
The book focuses on Scottish academic Layla Sutherland who, having been deserted by her husband and with her career in the doldrums, longs to escape her dull existence.
Thousands of miles away, Australian journalist Stevie Nightingale is desperate to shed her identity. These two disparate characters are brought together in an improbable partnership by Professor James Blunstone, a celebrated Edinburgh neurosurgeon whose earth-shattering discovery tempts them to take a leap of faith into an exciting new reality.
But when Layla and Stevie literally exchange lives to help further the professor’s clandestine research, the outcome is chilling.
Set against the Gothic backdrop of Bram Stoker’s Buchan coastline, Ms Mackie has described And I Am You as a “contemporary psychological thriller”.
More information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/judymackiebooks.
