Book review: Mrs Winchester’s Gun Club, by Douglas Bruton

At a time when it seems as if a new mass shooting takes place in the US almost every day, the publication of Scottish writer Douglas Bruton’s Mrs Winchester’s Gun Club could hardly be more timely. Set in America at the turn of the 20th century, and based on a true story, the novel tells the tale of Sarah Winchester, a grief-stricken woman who has lost both her husband and her daughter. Having inherited a fortune thanks to her husband’s ownership of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, Sarah is plagued by a sense of guilt for the deaths of people who have been killed by guns manufactured by the firm.