Romanno Bridge, by Andrew Greig

Robust, resourceful, a master of many forms but a slave to none, novelist and poet Andrew Greig knows how to deliver a full Scottish spread with all the tasty trimmings. Here, he serves up his second hearty helping of the John Buchan-style chase-thriller. Greig takes to the genre like a laird to a grousemoor.

Where has the Stone of Scone, the key to Scotland's freedom, been hiding since the Middle Ages while a copy stood in Westminster Abbey? Why should Kirsty Fowler, journo-with-a- past now settled in douce Dumfries, join the hunt? And how do mysterious Scots Templars and Norwegian jazzers fit into the mix? Greig hurries through far more than 39 steps of plot and counter-plot as he scoots through lowlands, lochs, islands and fjords with infectious dash and pace. Historically literate romps don't come any brighter or more bracing than this.