Operation Cauldron, 1952: Top-secret germ warfare experiments on monkeys and guinea pigs are taking place aboard a vessel moored off the Isle of Lewis. Local villagers Jessie and Duncan encounter strange sights on the deserted beach nearby and suspect the worst. And one government scientist wrestles with his own inner anguish over the testing, even if he believes extreme deterrent weapons are justified. When a noxious cloud of plague bacteria is released into the path of a passing trawler, disaster threatens. Will a deadly pandemic be inevitable?
A haunting exploration of the costs and fallout of warmongering, Donald S Murray follows his prize-winning first novel with an equally moving exploration of another little-known incident in the Outer Hebridean island where he grew up.
You can read a short extract from In a Veil of Mist below.
Donald S. Murray is a Gaelic-speaking poet, author, non-fiction writer and occasional dramatist raised in Ness, Isle of Lewis, who now lives in Shetland. His first novel, As the Women Lay Dreaming, about the Iolaire disaster of 1st January 1919, won the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for 2020, and his pamphlet Achanalt was the winner of the Callum MacDonald Memorial Award 2021 at the Scottish National Book Awards.
Excerpt from In a Veil of Mist
The following excerpt, taken from Chapter 2, is published with permission from Donald S Murray and Saraband and should not be downloaded, distributed, or reproduced in any way.
