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Greater Sins

The haunting, lyrical tale about passion and superstition, a Radio Times best book of the year

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Greater Sins

Written by: Gabrielle Griffiths
Narrated by: Brede McDermott, Thoren Ferguson
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₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Who will cast the first stone?
1915, the Cabrach, Aberdeenshire. An isolated Scottish community is disturbed by a strange discovery: a body in a peat bog, perfectly preserved. Two people haul the body from the ground: Lizzie, the wife of a wealthy local landowner, and Johnny, a nomadic singer and farm hand. At hearthside and inn, people whisper: what have we unearthed?

One unveiling brings others. For Lizzie, tenacious but trapped, the discovery reveals unanswered questions about her past while for Johnny, it threatens to uncover a history he’s trying to outrun.

As their stories entwine, a series of unsettling events befalls the isolated community: ruinous weather, a damaged soldier, strange occurrences that cannot be explained. Against the echoes of distant war, and with the boundaries blurring between right and wrong, everyone is looking for someone to blame…


'A striking debut, filled with folkloric mystery and yearning. Read it, then read it again' Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures

'A muddy, pastoral fable written with an equal measure of beauty and morbidity. Completely enthralling.' Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb

'An extraordinary sense of place and time, written by an exciting new voice' Radio Times (Best Books 2025)

© Gabrielle Griffiths 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 20th Century Genre Fiction Historical Horror Literary Fiction Mystery Small Town & Rural

Critic Reviews

A striking and atmospheric debut
With her subtle use of dialect and plain yet evocative prose, Griffiths builds a haunting picture of a small, intense environment where isolation can breed solidarity and warmth as easily as superstition and exclusion.
The unearthing of a woman’s body in a peat bog during the first world war is the catalyst for a gritty tale of secrets, guilt and desire…What begins as a rural mystery becomes, instead, an affecting love story….Griffiths’ use of the vernacular vividly conveys the period…She writes well about forbidden desire, guilt and shame.
Greater Sins sets a beautifully atmospheric scene from its opening lines to its final moments . . . a compelling and powerful read.
Greater Sins is a glimmering debut. A muddy, pastoral fable written with an equal measure of beauty and morbidity. Completely enthralling.
An atmospheric and assured debut
A striking debut, filled with folkloric mystery and yearning. Griffiths' prose is as elegant as it is perceptive. Read it, then read it again.
Greater Sins has an extraordinary sense of place and time, written by an exciting new voice from Scotland.
I absolutely raced through it! What a beautiful book. The prose is so lyrical and the structure so cleverly pulls the reader along
GREATER SINS is a haunting and extraordinary debut, which will stay with me for a long time. Set during World War One and told in tender, sinuous prose, this is a simmering tale of outcasts and buried secrets, love and redemption. An incisive look at power and gender, Griffiths explores not just the darker impulses we share, but how we can find connection in unexpected places. This novel had me feeling silt between my toes and looking for ghosts in every shadow.
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