My first novel was published on 17 June 2025, by Beaten Track Publishing and the beautiful cover for the book was designed by Louisa Birdsall. The book is available in bookshops in Dumfries and Galloway, beyond that you might wish to order online from your favourite source. It’s available in paperback and as an e-book.
When a series of art thefts sweeps across their home region, three people are drawn together in an unfolding mystery, creating new possibilities for each of them. In one tumultuous year, bereaved GP Andrew Carlyle Stuart, work-obsessed academic Michael Gilmour and struggling musician Anne-Marie Maxwell go on a journey of surprise and discovery. Set in the beautiful landscape and changing seasons of south west Scotland, Epiphanies and Robberies is a feel-good story interwoven with bigger questions about sustainability, rural communities, working life, and personal relationships.
EPIPHANIES AND ROBBERIES – DAVID GRAHAM CLARK
Events
Thomas Tosh, Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway, 17 June, 7.30pm. Launch event in conversation with Clara Weatherall
Waterstones, High Street, Dumfries, 24 June, 6.30pm
Blumen, Main Street, Dalswinton, Dumfries and Galloway, 27 June, 10-12 noon drop in
Wigtown Book Festival, in conversation with Tabi Muldaliar, Dumfries and Galloway, 1st October, 12 noon
I first outlined my plans for the story in May 2022. The first drafts of my debut novel were written in ‘real time’ and serialised here, month by month, through 2023. Here are a few reactions from readers at that time:
‘Your chapters have been something to look forward to each month David. A love story of the enchanting area you live in with real- time settings and wonderful characters. Thank you ’
‘A joy to read … the mystery taking another step forward … I laughed at the police officer banging his head on the steering wheel but the graveside scene had me in tears …’
‘Very evocative and definitely looking to make the world a better place!’
‘A triumph!’
‘Such a lovely way to finish it off. Except, of course, this can’t really be The End. There will surely have to be a sequel. Or two. Really enjoyed this, on so many levels. Thank you!’
‘I told you my cousin bought his own copy of your novel after he’d read my copy on holiday … passed on to his wife who really enjoyed it … who in turn passed on to her dad who also loved it and then on to his partner … who is currently reading it … definition of a grassroots hit!?’
I think of Epiphanies and Robberies as a ‘feel good mystery story, with substance’. I am grateful to the many people who followed the unfolding work as I wrote it, and also to a small band of close friends who were kind enough to review each chapter and give me their feedback, as I went along. In the novel I mix up and blur chronologies, geographies and biographies. Any resemblance to a person living or dead is purely coincidental.
The novel also has a playlist to enjoy, you can find it here: http://open.spotify.com/playlist/0XSzB1w8hfrRPUBzs4KFNF?si=JkkDbGmRQM2WeHjcOrFOLg
Go here for original music by Stuart Johnson, Avril Johnson and Neil Harland, composed to capture the spirit of the novel: https://davidgrahamclark.net/2024/06/27/music-in-the-spirit-of-a-novel/
And huge thanks to Sue Scott for her haiku interpretation of the novel:
Seasons come and go
Friendships surface and deepen
Mystery unfolds
Quotidian 