3.5 stars

Meet Alistair Haston. He’s very conventional, sits on the sidelines of life and so indecisive he misses the opportunity of going to Greece with his girlfriend (now ex-girlfriend) Ellie. So, for once in his life he decides to follow Ellie and have an adventure and hopefully win her back. However, I don’t think this is quite what he has in mind. Take one very naive patsy on a boat to a Greek island, befriend him, get him blind drunk, steal from him and later snare him with the prospect of easy money and then drag him into a murky, dangerous, illegal, sick, corrupt world beyond his wildest dreams. For a wimp, he has to become an all action man after meeting Aussie Ricky who is ‘all reptile’. Alistair tells his own story and it’s a wild one....

There are some good thrilling moments in the storytelling, a few twists, surprises and the odd heart in the mouth episodes. Alistair encounters so much as he is duped, tricked, beaten, threatened, imprisoned and faces down the barrel of a gun. There are some occasional touches of dry humour interspersed with the action which alleviates the tension. Some of the characters are easy to picture and are well portrayed. The ending is really good and I appreciate the uncertainty.

However, I have some problems engaging with our hero as he seems so hapless and then suddenly discovers skills such as piloting a boat, windsurfing, firing a gun, fighting dirty and so on which is definitely not the man who starts this journey. He sure finds hidden depths! The storyline has a lot of potential and there are some really good moments but sometimes it falls a bit flat and one dimensional and any sense of danger is lost as our narrator goes round in circles. The flow is uneven and there’ll be really brisk accelerated pace then it slows often to include flora, fauna, wildlife, geographical features and some swifts into the scene. Now I love a swift but in this case they interrupt the story!

Overall, this isn’t a bad book by any means, there is a lot I like about it and parts that are really good and I’ll definitely want to read more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and Muswell Press for the ARC.

This was an interesting book to read. I fell into it really quickly, was carried along by the story and the writing and was taken in by the situation. By the end of the book though, I felt it had swerved into the unbelievable, The main protagonist becomes over the course of the book a sailor, a seducer, a calculating mercenary in a foreign land instead of a weedy, scared student. It was too big a change for me to find it believable. The violence was stark and emotionless, unexamined.
I enjoyed it overall!

Well, thank goodness that's finished so I can breathe again. This was just the thing to take my mind off coronavirus. Alastair Haston is a student of moral philosophy and German at St Andrew's University. He has been dumped by his girlfriend Ellie but knowing she is visiting Greece, he decides to go there as well and 'bump' into her. The best laid plans and all that. Of course he doesn't bump into Ellie. Instead he meets Ricky, a charismatic Australian and before long he's partying so hard with him he wakes up in a pool of his own vomit and piss on a beach, his money and passport gone. Things rapidly go from bad to worse with Alastair making a series of bad choices and losing his moral compass.

There are plenty of twists and turns throughout this novel, most of which I didn't see coming. And that's high praise from me. I usually spot them from about page 11. This would make a brilliant film. The beautiful setting of the Greek islands and a pacy, thrilling (albeit pretty unbelievable) plot guarantee success.

Be warned though. There are explicit scenes of violence and sex so if that's not your thing, then best stay clear. I really enjoyed it even though I skipped over the more graphic scenes. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

In 1998 student Alistair Haston is dumped by his Greek girlfriend Ellie, a fellow student at St Andrews University in Scotland. Ellie finds him too wimpy and pliable for her tastes, students of moral philosophy don''t tend to be thrill-seeking Alpha males. .Determined to prove her wrong ,and to try a new direction in life ,he decides to follow her to her home in Greece ,where before the split they were due to spend a holiday together .

That's the beginning of Dugald Bruce-Lockhart's new thriller The Lizard, and thriller it certainly is. As soon as he arrives in Greece Alistair indulges in the kind of hedonism that he would never have dreamed on in Scotland as he falls in with a group of hard- drinking,hard partying fellow travellers on a ferry to the island of Paros after being taken under the wing of Ricky, an Australian who will play a big part in Alistair's life.
Alistair wakes up on Paros with no shirt,no money,no passport, having wet himself and next to a puddle of his vomit having no idea how he got off the ferry,let alone anything else......not the ideal start to a holiday it has to be said.
From then on his misadventures mount until Ricky appears in his life again offering him an easy job with good money.....which is when his problems really begin. From that point the moral philosophy geek enters a life of drugs,sex and general debauchery thinking himself lucky to have such a good friends as Ricky and his German employer Heinrich. Nothing is as it seems and the tale turns to one of murder and a realisation by Alistair that he's been set up.
It's hard to believe that this is Dugald Bruce-Lockhart's first novel, a lot of Alistair's continual misadventures stretch belief but the scenes are so well written that what in some instances might seem ludicrous are exciting and tense . As Alistair went from bad situation,to worse situation,to dire situation while somehow hanging there I was reminded very much of Simon Kernick's books where likewise there's no let up in the action.
Not only is Bruce-Lockhart a great thriller write but he also describes the stunning Greek islands beautifully and they come alive in the reader's mind.
I really enjoyed The Lizard and look forward to reading more of his books, this is his first and I very much doubt the last. If you enjoy well-written action tales you'll love this. There is explicit language and graphic violence so please be aware of that if either of those is an issue for you.

Thanks to Dugald Bruce-Lockhart , Muswell Press and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Elli had been asking Alastair Haston,
a German and philosophy student at St. Andrews University all term if he’d go to Greece with her to visit her uncle in Athens. He said yes.
Then she broke up with him.

Haston was obsessed with Ellie.... devastated that she left him, Haston decided to go to Greece alone without her.
He had something to prove to Ellie - mostly to himself.

Nothing goes as planned. Haston arrives Paros.
Problems started immediately upon arrival in Greece, for Haston.
Being mugged -(passport and money taken)- wasn’t the only crises Haston faced.
A crazy adventure brings....
Haston was framed for six accounts of murder on the islands of Paros and Santorini, as well as the murder at sea of two officers on a police launch.
He spent four weeks under police watch at an infirmary — due to an injury and seven months in a high security prison, awaiting first bail which was denied, on account of him admitting to killing two others in self-defense.

The good news though - Haston wasn’t ridiculously obsessing every waking hour over Ellie finally.
Ha... he had bigger fishes to fry!
“The truth was, I’d moved on and was starting to feel whole again; not one of the mad or brave who would change the world, but rather a necessary cog and cohabitant of planet Earth, tumbling unfettered and
unjudged through time. No further need for self-definition than simply to be there. Like a lizard on a rock”.

This book is a crazy ride - filled partying, sex, violence, depravity, and mayhem.
It was a thriller with personality and heart — taking us on a fierce and tender journey.
What happens on the islands in Greece stays on the islands.

Quick fast read - reads like watching a crime/thriller movie.

“Nothing comes from nothing. Be it fate or free well, life boils down to continuous binary code: never-ending series of choices; yes or no; in or out; fight or flight. Until death ends the equation. Humans overcomplicate it; we invent shades of gray, hover in a limbo of moderation and seem in intelligence. Only the mad and the brave change the world. The rest look on in wonder.
Haston went to Greece to embrace the binary code, to get off the sidelines and become a player. To live in the moment. Or, as Ellie put it, to become his own man.

Thank you Netgalley, Muswell Press, and Dugald Bruce Lockhart

3.5 stars

Following his ex-girlfriend to Greece, getting mugged, being offered a job and taking part in lots of partying, things go downhill for Alistair when the body of a missing tourist is found and he gets the blame. A thrilling tale that will keep you captivated until the end!

Lizard by author Duhald Bruce-Lockhart is an intense and thrilling novel! Many twist and many heart pounding moments! I raced through this book!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.