‘The Searching Glance’ is the long-awaited second collection from one of Scotland’s leading short story writers. The worlds inhabited by the characters in these stories are diverse – a hill walker is unknowingly watched over as he lies dying on a Highland hill; a Glasgow party-goer searches years later for a woman who may have mistaken him for a monster; a mysterious prize is sought in the perpetual daylight of midsummer Orkney. Whether it is in a suburban garden or on the stark skyline of a Borders hill, the landscape and seasonal extremes provoke and unsettle. Linda Cracknell’s stories are multi-layered and brooding with longing and loss, allowing the reader a ‘searching glance’ at characters’ lives. With touches of the surreal and hard strokes of reality, these stories will linger in the mind.