A terrorist atrocity. A police officer on the run. A world in meltdown.

Gripping near-future thriller with sharp political edges and scarily plausible projections, rooted in intimate knowledge of real places. - Ken MacLeod, award-winning author of The Star Fraction

Absolute piledriver of a dark future thriller that instantly hooks you and doesn't let go till the end. Horribly believable and utterly compelling. - Neil Williamson, author of The Moon King

Intricate, challenging and thrilling. * * * * * - Whispering Stories

One of the most chilling depictions of the near future since "Children of Men" ... Superlative. - Gary Gibson, award-nominated author of Stealing Light

Will engage readers and provoke fear in equal measure. - Oban Times


COIRA KEIR is a long-serving police officer. Abrasive, but respected by her peers, she has an enviable track record. When a bomb explodes during a government visit to the city of Edinburgh, dozens are left dead. Among the critically wounded is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, whose safety was Keir's responsibility.

Now Keir is missing.

Army veteran Sebastian Blakeslee is an operational advisor for MI5, the domestic security agency of the United Kingdom. Lorna Ainsworth is the agency's chief in the unruly territory of North Britain. Thrust together in charge of a joint police and MI5 taskforce, under intense government pressure, the pair must track Keir down before more bombs go off. What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase towards the front of an intensifying war - along a wild, storm-blasted coast where thousands of desperate boat-borne refugees are hiding.

Meanwhile, someone seems prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to stop Keir being found.

With elements of political action thriller, police procedural, and spy novel, October Song will take you on a gripping roller-coaster ride through a world on the edge of collapse.

(Contains adult situations, occasional strong / disturbing violence, strong language)


'As she drifts into the narrows there's a noise from downwind, somewhere in front of her. She squints into the dark and raises her binoculars again. What the ...? Some kind of battle is taking place on the bridge. Breathing very fast, she strains for details. Even in moonlight, it's too dim for her night vision to make out much. There's a scrum of movement, and a growing roar of voices. And clanging - lots of clanging. Also thumps, like haunches of meat being dropped on a floor. She sees a flash of something bright and metallic. There are screams. Something falls noisily off the bridge right in front of her, barely three kayak lengths away.'

Readers are saying:

* * * * * Ru Pringle is my new Favourite author! - R. Smith, Amazon

* * * * * Just read this for the second time, and it is even better than I remembered. - L Morpurgo, Amazon

* * * * * I've not spent seven straight hours reading a novel for a very long time, I was engrossed from the first chapter. - P Quigley, Amazon

* * * * * Best thriller I've read in years. You'll be hooked, and surprised, right to the end. - M Irvine, Kobo

* * * * * A fabulous read, and one which keeps you "turning" the pages! - Mike B, Amazon

* * * * * I devoured this novel on holiday ... gets you compulsively turning the pages to find out what happens but at the same time you don't want to reach the end because then the experience will be over. - A Barron, Amazon