Tonight David Tennant is reading the third episode of Iain Banks’ Stonemouth.

Episode 3 Summary:     Airs: Wed 21 Mar 2012    22:45 pm BBC Radio 4

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The story, now, focuses on Stewart's teenage life in Stonemouth, his first meeting with Ellie's grandfather Joe Murston and his deepening relationship with the daughter of the town's boss - Don Murston.

Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day.

On a bleak one, it can seem to offer little more than seafog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. And although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. Before long a quick drop into the cold grey Stoun begins to look like the soft option. As he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories, and his homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated.

From BBC Media Centre

To catch-up listen to previous episodes:

Episode 2:

Stewart catches up with old friends, and a flashback recalls his childhood, when he first met Ellie Murston.

Episode 1:

Stewart Gilmour has returned home to Stonemouth for a funeral, five years after fleeing the town, in fear for his life.

Read by David Tennant

Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.