In a Veil of Mist

Murray, Donald S

ISBN 10: 1913393003 ISBN 13: 9781913393007

Publisher: Saraband, 2022

Synopsis

A haunting exploration of the Cold War arms race that tells the story of a true, covered-up germ warfare incident in a remote part of Scotland, involving the US, Canadian, and UK governments.

NOMINATED FOR THE 2021 HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE

Operation Cauldron, 1952: Top-secret germ warfare experiments on monkeys and guinea pigs are taking place aboard a vessel moored off the Isle of Lewis. Local villagers Jessie and Duncan encounter strange sights on the deserted beach nearby and suspect the worst. And one government scientist wrestles with his own inner anguish over the testing, struggling to navigate the moral arguments for and against such dangerous testing and extreme deterrent weapons. When a noxious cloud of plague bacteria is released into the path of a passing trawler, disaster threatens. Will a deadly pandemic be inevitable?

A haunting exploration of the costs and fallout of warmongering, Donald S Murray follows his prize-winning first novel with an equally moving exploration of another little-known incident in the Outer Hebridean island where he grew up.

About this title

About the Author

Donald S Murray is a writer and poet whose work has been awarded The Society of Authors' Paul Torday Memorial Prize and The Callum Macdonald Memorial Award at Scotland's National Book Awards. His acclaimed books bring to life the culture and nature of the Scottish Islands, and he appears regularly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

John wasn’t sure what made him so clumsy these days—the roll of the sea, the absurd nature of his clothes or the thoughts about Lillian that crowded his head most of the time.

Boom! And she was in there, drinking perhaps, in the Hermitage or the Lime View, with some dark-haired stranger he’d never come across before. The man’s features were always blurred and hard to distinguish, the shadow of a nightmare that might only exist in John’s head. She, however, looked real and convincing, though different every time he pictured her, as if she was trying on every item of clothing in her wardrobe. Sometimes, a red scarf coiled around her neck. Red shoes danced upon her feet. Scarlet lipstick daubed her mouth as she sang along to one of the Nat King Cole songs she loved, unaware of the irony of the words. (Unforgettable…) At other times, she wore the dark blue overcoat he’d bought, the one she had insisted on him getting for her, even though he tried to tell her they couldn’t afford it. They were that short of money at the time. Her long, black hair hung loose upon her shoulders. A cigarette dangled from her fingers. She wore a knitted, pale blue dress. She petted a neighbor’s dog, bending over to tousle its fur.

He tried his best to focus on where he was at that moment. The miles of hostile, barren moor. The fringe of sand in the distance. The dark faces of cliffs. Croft-houses. Crops of potatoes, turnips, oats. And the tight stretch of the Minch, its dark surface split and splintered by the wind. Waves swathed the deck of the Ben Lomond, their spume resembling the veil that Lillian had worn only a year before, and the wedding dress, too, she had on that day.

He grimaced, wishing he was somewhere else at moments like these, somewhere he might find reassurance, an opportunity to convince himself that his new wife wasn’t spending much of her life in another man’s arms. It was something his mother had warned him about.

‘She’s not ready for settling down. Far too young. Far too restless. You’ll rue the day.’

He had shaken his head, sure that she was misjudging Lillian, believing that his mother would come to the same conclusion no matter which woman he might choose to share his life.

‘You’re wrong, Mum. Give it a while. You’ll get to trust her.’

Yet his mother had been right. He knew that now, for all he tried to chase the thought from his head. Despite all his efforts, the truth of her words kept penetrating, seeping through the armour of the white protective suit—complete with goggles and respirator—that he wore most days. His doubts and suspicions distracted him as he worked, hauling the transit boxes into the animal store in the vessel’s hold. His fingers kept slipping, his concentration faltering from time to time. Sometimes his shoulders brushed against others working on the boat, knocking a box from another man’s grasp.

‘John Herrod! What the hell’s up with you?’

He had no answer. How on earth could he tell any of these men about what he thought might be happening back home? And even if he did, what the hell could they do about it? Besides, he knew that some of them suffered from a mood that was as dark and distracted as his own. It was the nature of the work that was getting to them: all that shifting of boxes filled with guinea pigs and monkeys from the ‘clean’ to ‘dirty’ rooms; hauling cages to the pontoon that was fixed a short distance away. Afterwards, there would be the burning of those animals that had survived the swathe of gas—a flame flickering on the deck, a column of dark smoke rising. The guinea pigs chirruping, fighting off the grip of gloved hands, tussling with the strength of their custodians. The monkeys agitated and angry, as if they were people complaining about their lot, and sometimes sinking their teeth into the human fingers that hauled them in and out of the cages, drawing blood. The monkeys bit them in other ways, their presence down below forcing the men to ask questions of themselves, like why the hell they were here tormenting these poor creatures with gases and sprays.

Edition details

• Publisher: Saraband
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1913393003
• ISBN 13: 9781913393007
• Number of pages: 288