The Janus Complex (Dark Secrets Trilogy)

The Janus Complex is a raw look at life in Britain in the late 1960’s through the eyes of its unlikely hero, Jamie Raeburn. Jamie is an “ordinary” young man but he’s also “gallus”. Gallus is a Scots word which has been defined in The Scotsman Concise Dictionary of Scottish Words and Phrases as “cheekily self-confident, cocky, daring” and Jamie Raeburn is all three but these are traits that almost cost him his life. The early action takes place in Glasgow, notorious for its violent past, one dark winter’s night when Jamie goes to the aid of a stranger, an American Naval Officer, being brutally attacked and in the course of what follows is stabbed. Recovering consciousness three days later in Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary he comes face to face with Kate Maxwell, a beautiful English nurse and, inevitably, falls in love. But Kate is married and their ill-fated affair ends when Kate returns to England, alone, to escape the attentions of a loan shark’s enforcers despite Jamie’s efforts to persuade her to stay. When Kate leaves him Jamie reflects on his lifestyle and puts her going down to his propensity for getting involved in trouble. He decides it is time for a change and moves south to Nottingham to escape Glasgow’s gang culture. He also hopes he might find Kate again but his search for her ends when he meets Lucie Kent. Lucie is the daughter of an English father and a French mother and she, like Kate, is a nurse. But Lucie has a dark secret in her past she is reluctant to share with Jamie. She also, unbeknown to him, has a precarious future. It isn’t long before Jamie and Lucie are living together in Nottingham but their idyll is shattered by the appearance of Max Kelman. Kelman, son of a notorious Derby based gangster, is the darkness from Lucie’s past and also the threat to her future with Jamie. They decide to leave The Midlands and move to Glasgow to escape Kelman but before they can do that Lucie is abducted. Confrontation is inevitable and Jamie finds he can’t escape his past. When a failed attempt on his life by men acting for Kelman ends up in the death of his best friend Jamie knows only he can end the nightmare by confronting Kelman. But Kelman is surrounded by his father’s gang members and Jamie is on his own ... though not entirely alone. With help from the man whose life he saved in Glasgow that dark winter’s night, an American Naval Officer, and spiritual support from an old Glasgow priest, Jamie sets out for vengeance and in the dark Derbyshire countryside - as an avenging angel or, maybe, a demon - he exacts it.