I’m incredibly grateful to Becky Short of Penguin Random House for sending me a surprise copy of A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford. It’s my pleasure to share my review of A Bad, Bad Place today. 

Published by Bantam on 12th February 2026, A Bad, Bad Place is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

A Bad, Bad Place

What happened to the dog walker who found the body?

Glasgow, 1979.

Twelve-year-old Janey won’t take her dog, Sid Vicious, for a walk. Not anymore. It’s Sid’s fault she found the murdered woman.

Janey claims she can’t remember what she saw at the abandoned railway, but the police think she’s hiding something. And they’re not the only ones interested.

Fear and rumour rip through the tight-knit community of Possilpark. Janey and her nana, Maggie, are dragged into the hunt for a murderer. And Maggie’s struggle to keep her beloved granddaughter safe becomes ever more desperate.

Because Janey’s memories can’t stay hidden forever.

And neither can the killer…

My Review of A Bad, Bad Place

Janey has found a body.

I thought A Bad, Bad Place was brilliant. Firstly, the title is incredibly apt. It covers so many aspects of a bad, bad place; that might be the social, economic and living conditions of the people of Possilpark where the story is set, the actual location where Sid Vicious the dog and Janey find Samantha’s body, or the internal workings of many of the minds of those in the narrative. Because, whilst A Bad Bad Place is an intriguing murder mystery, it is so much more besides and a stunner of a story that considers community and many layers of guilt.

The authorial tone is just perfect. Frances Crawford uses an accessible accent so that the voices of the characters are heard clearly, bringing them to life. She employs just enough dialect to make Glasgow every bit as much a character as setting, and she is unafraid to use quite strong expletives in a manner that feels perfectly natural within the context of the narrative. It’s really quite difficult to accept that this is a debut novel and not a text written by an author who has been refining their craft for decades. I thought the way Samantha was the lynchpin for the action, being the means for the reader to discover the morality of the characters and to understand both era and setting even though she is not actually present, was inspired. 

I loved the plot. I genuinely didn’t know quite how A Bad Bad Place might resolve itself and the fast pace created by alternating chapters between Janey and Nana meant that I was continuously drawn back to the book. I found the ending so thought provoking. As ever with this kind of story, it’s so tricky to say more without spoilers, but I found the exploration of the impact of crime in a community and the way it ripples across the lives of those in the area was handled with empathy, realism and deep understanding.

The characters are vivid, compelling and utterly engaging. Whilst so many are criminal in behaviour and the kind of people we might look down upon or fear, they are also incredibly human so that Frances Crawford looks at the dark underbelly of life and finds glimmers of humanity. Poverty, grief, religion and so on are all shown to shape us and affect our behaviours. I genuinely forgot I was reading a work of fiction because I was so invested in the people. 

The themes of A Bad Bad Place are simply wonderful. Childhood innocence and its loss, corruption across several strata of society, domestic abuse, the impact of gangs, drugs and alcohol and the dismissive way young children and older women are treated should all combine into a bleak or grim read. But they don’t. Instead, A Bad Bad Place is a rich tapestry of life where resilience, courage and hope combine into a book that touches the heart of the reader as well as entertains them. 

A Bad Bad Place is a superb book and one I recommend completely. Don’t miss it. 

About Frances Crawford

As a passionate advocate of lifelong learning, Frances was delighted to graduate age 60 with MLitt (Distinction) Creative Writing from Glasgow University. In 2023, she won Bloody Scotland/ Glencairn Crime Short Story Competition and the first chapters of her debut novel, A Bad, Bad Place,  won Highly Commended in Moniack Mohr Emerging Writer 2024.

Frances grew up in North Glasgow, and credits the people of Possilpark and Milton as her writing inspiration. She still lives in Glasgow with her family and likes libraries and punk rock. 

For further information, follow Frances on X @Franapunk999 and find her on Bluesky.