The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris

Summary

Having returned to Glasgow from war a warrior, Douglas Brodie found life hard in the post-war depression. Reluctant to return home, through shame of the shadow of the man he had become, thanks to booze and bedsits, instead he found work as a journalist. As a news story unfolds, he is shocked to discover that Hugh Donovan, the childhood friend he thought was dead, had come back from war very much alive. Only now he is residing in jail, accused of the rape and murder of a young boy. A crime that Brodie cannot believe he committed.

A journalist’s instincts kick in and, with the help of attorney Samantha ‘Sam’ Campbell, Brodie fights to clear Donovan’s name. They desperately try and piece together the puzzle of the evidence piled high against him. Together Sam and Brodie discover police misdemeanours, religious interventions and the involvement of gangland's Gerrit Slattery – all of which point to Donovan’s innocence. With only four days left until the scheduled execution, will they find enough to clear Donovan’s name, or will an innocent man hang? Who should pay the price?