‘Watch Your Back’ by Emma Christie

Published by Mountain Leopard Press,
23 October 2025.
ISBN: 978-80279-467-0 (PB)

Born and raised in an Ayrshire coalmining town, Emma Christie studied literature and medieval history at Aberdeen university.  She graduated into journalism, then moved on into crime fiction. 

Watch Your Back is the fourth of Christie’s thrillers set in Portobello – Edinburgh’s flourishing seaside neighbourhood. 

The story is led by Jo, convicted as a teenager for the murder of her mother. We meet her fifteen years later, out of prison and working in a charity shop where she has found a new best friend – her boss Jean. 

Determined to create a life she can drive and control, Jo has surrounded herself with strangers, who apart from Jean, know nothing of her history. 

Inevitably, the past strikes back.  She receives a box of letters addressed to her, unopened and unread, posted from the prison in which she served her time. They are stolen before she can read them. The conclusion she comes to, is that someone outside the prison, someone who knows her well, must have a dangerous secret to hide. 

Jo falls back into long ago learned patterns, as she struggles to protect her new life from the violence of her past. The truth – as far as she has always accepted it – must not be revealed. Once again, safety becomes her priority, her default reaction lying. She reverts to a state of constant defence and danger. Her present day, mirroring her childhood, spirals out of control. 

Christie writes in a dual timeline format. Throughout the back story, Jo is written as Tink, her nickname from childhood. Her close friend and comrade in arms, a few years older than Tink is nicknamed Spider. Christie allows us huge access to Tink, but not to Spider – who’s name and real identity is not revealed until the two timelines collide in the closing chapters of the story. It’s a long wait for this… 

Christie takes a while to unfold the story and unlock the secrets.  So, from here, no more story details. There are far too many potential spoilers up ahead.  

Not keen on multiple storylines, this reviewer found himself having to work hard at the outset. But sticking to the task in hand, suddenly he was a dozen chapters into the story and hooked. 

It has to be noted, that male characters in Watch Your Back are not much more than plot devices.  But that’s okay, because the real beating heart of this story lies in the strong female relationships – loving, broken, hateful, deceitful and deadly – which drive the narrative with huge chunks of emotion and grit.  And finally, the ending delivers a genuinely satisfying payoff.~
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Reviewer: Jeff Dowson.

Emma Christie grew up in a book-filled house in Cumnock, an Ayrshire coal-mining town. After quitting her law degree to study English literature and medieval history at Aberdeen University, she spent five years working as a news reporter with one of the UK’s top-selling regional daily newspapers, The Press and Journal. Throughout her journalism career, she secretly wanted to be every author she ever interviewed. When she’s not writing, Emma now works as a tour director and lecturer in history, culture and politics with a US travel company, leading educational journeys across Spain, France and Portugal. 

Jeff Dowson began his career working in the theatre as an actor and a director. He moved into television as a writer/producer/director. Screen credits include arts series, entertainment features, documentaries, drama series and TV films. Turning crime novelist in 2014, he introduced Bristol private eye Jack Shepherd in Closing the Distance. The series developed with Changing the Odds, Cloning the Hate and Bending the Rules. The Ed Grover series, featuring an American GI in Bristol during the years following World War 2, opened with One Fight At A Time. The second book New Friends Old Enemies was published in May 2021. Jeff is a member of BAFTA, Mystery People and the Crime Writers Association. 

www.jeffdowson.co.uk