The Man on the Endless Stair

The Man on the Endless Stair

When literary luck turns into something far more sinister

About the Ebook

When troubled but talented young author Euan meets decorated novelist Malcolm Furnivall, he feels his luck has finally changed. Malcolm takes Euan as a protégé, vouching for him in the rarefied literary scene in the 1950s. But lately, Malcolm has not been himself. Consumed by his work, he cuts an increasingly isolated figure and has become convinced that something terrible will befall him. He summons his loved ones to his secluded island in the Hebrides and – to everyone's surprise – entrusts Euan with the task of completing his masterpiece.

Malcolm's suspicions soon prove well-founded; he is discovered brutally murdered in his study, and his invaluable unfinished novel has vanished. Cut off from the mainland, with the killer on the loose and the island's inhabitants circling, Euan feels both his mentor's legacy and his only chance at greatness slipping away. He must venture deep into Malcolm's labyrinthine mansion to find the manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands.

But what he doesn't yet know is that the closer he comes to solving the mystery, the tighter he will bind himself to a fate sealed in time . . .

Why You'll Love This Ebook

• Discover a literary thriller of mentorship turned menace
• Explore the dark cost of a writer's apparent good fortune
• Engage with tense psychological fiction
• Read another celebrated title from Polygon - an imprint of Birlinn Ltd

Reviews

'An eerie, deeply atmospheric tale of hidden treasure and trauma' The Times'

Cleverly plotted and elegantly crafted — an impressive and compelling debut' - Sunday Post'

Close, claustrophobic, evocative — it feels like an unearthed classic' - Hugo Rifkind'

Blown away by this — the isolation and claustrophobia creeps off the page. Compelling, dark and complex. Extraordinary' - Rachel Wolf, author of Sun Trap

'The Edinburgh-based Barkley has produced such a confident debut novel — this mysterious Hebridean whodunnit deserves to be a hit' - The Herald

'A scintillating debut novel — it slow-creeps to a truly revelatory climax, one that manages to be emotionally satisfying, thrilling in terms of plot, and mind-bending in its implications' - Big Issue

Shortlisted for the Best Rising Scottish Author Award (The List)

About the Author

Chris Barkley was appointed Writer in Residence by the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2022. He won the Oxford University Kellogg Writing Competition in 2021, as well as the Bedford International Writing Prize. He has been shortlisted for the Cambridge Short Story Prize and has had prose published in TSS, National Flash Fiction, Darling Axe, and the Writers of the Future 35th anthology. He lives in Edinburgh.

Publication Details

Publisher: Polygon (an imprint of Birlinn Ltd)

Publication Date: 07 August 2025

Print Length: 352 pages (Ebook edition)

ISBN (Ebook): 9781788857314

Format: Ebook

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