Set in the mid 1990s – someone “says there’s going to be an election soon and things can only get better” – this novel reunites the reader with all the main characters from Greig’s earlier book The Return of John Macnab and throws in two more here for good measure in the shape of Maori rugby player Leo Ngatara and Norwegian musician Inga Johanssen.

The plot has more of a thriller touch this time, centring round the genuineness of the Stone of Destiny. In her job as a journalist in Dumfries Kirsty Fowler meets Billy Mackay, an old man in his last days, who tells of his participation in the making of two replacement stones during the time the “original” was missing in 1950. This leads to designations such as fake fake as opposed to the real fake foisted on England’s Edward I and kept at Westminster ever since (until recently at least.) It is the whereabouts of Columba’s Pillow, the real crowning stone, hidden from Edward at the time and kept in the care of Moon Runners - whose guardianship is embodied in rings inscribed with runes (Moon rune-ers, you see, with only ever three extant at one time) - ever since that drives the plot. Mackay gifts Kirsty one such ring and thus unwittingly places her in danger at the hands of a ruthless intermediary calling himself Adamson who came to know of their existence via Inga’s brother Colin – and has a buyer for the real stone. The goings-on in uncovering the hiding places of the two fake fake stones and the original fake itself, take the characters to various parts of Scotland and even on an excursion to Norway.

All this gives Greig an opportunity to display his familiarity with the art of rock climbing and the music scene and to comment about Scots’ habit of revering their homeland, “‘Ye’d hae thought Scotland was Helen of Troy the way some folk sighed over her,’” even as seen through the eyes of foreigner Inga, “Strange place to inspire such belonging.” There are wider ruminations too. We are told an ancient Sumerian manuscript bemoans the times as violent, chaotic and strange, the young don’t speak properly, the gods are unrespected, etc, etc. – which only means the writer was elderly. And Leo Ngatara comes to reflect bleakly that, “None of us will be all right. Mountains, sunsets, good times, bad times, mates, children – nothing endures. Nothing. No exceptions.”

Greig is never less than an insightful novelist but here the thriller plot sits a little uneasily with his gifts for illuminating character, describing landscape and revealing the complexities of human affairs. ( )

One of my favourite novels John Buchan’s John Macnab, a nostalgic evocation of a Corinthian idealism perhaps largely of Buchan’s own imagining, though no less magnificent for all that. I was, therefore, initially nervous about embarking on Andrew Greig’s homage to that book, The Return of John Macnab which featured a recreation of Buchan’s poaching adventures staged during the 1990s. My fears were allayed, and that book is also now one of my favourites.

Romanno Bridge features the same central characters from The Return of John Macnab though it is not exactly a sequel. Kirsty has moved south, ending up working on the local newspaper in Dumfries. Most of the time she ends up writing bland stories about simple local events. On one such story she attends a gathering at a private nursing home and starts talking to Billy, one of the residents. Finding him interesting, she visits him again a few times, and he gradually tells her about his part as a very young man in the events following the daring theft on Christmas Eve 1950 of the Stone of Destiny (also known as ‘The Stone of Scone’ or ‘The Crowning Stone’) from Westminster Abbey. It seems that the Stone became damaged during its brief return to Scotland, and Billy, an apprentice stonemason, had been co-opted to work on repairing it, and also creating two exact replicas. Billy also hints, however, that even the Stone that had been stolen (liberated?) from Westminster Abbey was itself a replica, and that the original Stone had been hidden for several centuries, with Edward I having been fobbed off with a forgery. Billy dies shortly afterwards, in possibly suspicious circumstances, and odd things befall Kirsty, who finds herself caught up in a conspiracy thriller reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code.

Grieg is a great writer, though I feel that the thriller is not his natural milieu. I enjoyed this book though it lacked the flow of The Return of John Macnab. I felt throughout that Greig was stretching for something, yet never quite succeeding in grasping it. There are some humorous passages, and some marvellous descriptions of the Scottish countryside, but the action was never quite convincing. Greig established his literary reputation initially as a poet, and I wonder if that is perhaps his better medium. John Buchan’s trademark was his pellucid prose, as beautiful and engaging as the landscapes he described, and at time in his previous novel Greig came close to emulating it. In Romanno Bridge, however, he sometimes stumbled into a leaden prose that lacked emotional cadence.

I did enjoy it, but feel that it might have been better if he had known when and where to stop. ( )

It was a long time since I read The return of John McNab, and I didn't remember the dynamics between the old crowd, but this didn't really matter. It felt lighter in tone than the last one too; it was enjoyable, but not 100% engaging for me ( )

I don't often read thrillers and adventure stories, but this is a rather superior one. Andrew Greig is a versatile writer and poet with a love of all things Scottish - the hills, its history and writers like John Buchan.

This book brings together characters from his earlier update of a Buchan story, The Return of John Macnab, and various legends surrounding the Stone of Scone.

It is page turner with a feeling for character, landscape, whisky, music, language, history, humour and thoughtful asides, that make you forgive the melodrama. ( )

I'm a big fan of Andew Greig and I enjoyed this novel very much. My one regret was that I was unaware that this is the second novel which uses a common set of characters – although the plots are largely unrelated, and this fact certainly didn't have any impact on my ability to follow “Romanno Bridge”, I would have liked to read the other book first. Nonetheless, this was a gripping read and I'd definitely recommend it to others. ( )