Book review: Pine, by Francine Toon

Tartan Gothic appears to be having a bit of a moment. Up in Carnoustie, the acclaimed novelist Sandra Ireland is busily weaving together uncanny tales steeped in Celtic folklore; in Perth this month, you can catch a touring production of Ali Milles’s spooky new play The Croft, starring Gwen Taylor; and now here’s published poet Francine Toon with a debut novel that’s carefully calibrated to make every single hair on the back of your neck stand up on end as if you’d just heard a twig snap behind you in a forest at midnight.