Now Caine delves into the real stories behind the gangs we think we know so well, revealing the hidden realities behind the myths. They've kept busy - Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps - but something is not right.

I think she was so delirious from the journey and her injury she imagined them rescuing her and she in fact died. It was filmed on Yell, off the Isle of Skye, with its dramatic landscape and far-reaching vistas, similarly to ‘The Limits’ where Metronome is set. There are hints of a widespread environmental disaster and the daily pill regime appears to be counteracting a prevailing toxicity in the air and soil. However, Whitney still stubbornly clings to it and believes that there is someone on the other end of the radio signal who plays chess with him. It is a simple and effective way of keeping them tied to the croft, hoping for parole to be granted by the Warden eventually.Aina now begins to think about him more and more and the ticking pill clock reminds her of the metronome on top of the grand piano in their apartment when they all lived together.

I enjoyed a lot the idea of unusual prison, it was like a combination of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood ( my review). How well readers respond to this novel will depend on how far they are prepared to tolerate an accumulating fuzziness around the facts.Except we do not know if she is alone, what lunch consisted of, what kind of dishes they are and how many, where the sink is, where she is, or what happened before. According to Wille, fire speeds things up for example, water slows things down; air gives focus and earth opens out. Not only will they be exiled to a croft on a remote island, but Whitney must choose between Aina and Maxime, opting to let Maxime be taken.

From the first scene, which was them sitting in the croft having a cup of tea, it was clear that this was Aina’s story. Not to be confused with the former Labour politician and novelist of sorts, Curtis Brown Prize-winning author Tom Watson debuts with Metronome, and readers that were impressed by Francine Toon’s chilling Pine or the tense uncertainty of Emma Stonex’s The Lamplighters might enjoy this.There have been reviews I’ve seen where it’s described as creepy or full of dread - I do see that, and there are parts which are hard to read as they’re upsetting, but I also thought it had some great dark humour. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money.