Red Alert — Margaret Thomson Davis

Red Alert is the story of the Price family and is set in a Glasgow fire station and in the world-famous Glasgow School of Art. Kirsty Price is a nice, ordinary girl and works in the fire station serving food and drink to the firefighters. She's happy in her work and her life except for the fact that she's also the daughter of Simon Price, an artist and tutor at the Glasgow School of Art. He is a notorious bully, both to his students and his family, including Kirsty and her brother Johnny who is plagued with ill-health. When Johnny starts hanging around with a dubious couple who work as croupiers in the local casino he accepts a job from them looking after their flat and Kirsty and her firefighter boyfriend, Greg McFarlane, start to worry about him. Then Greg phones to say that he has been attending a fatal road traffic accident and the car involved is Johnny's. The family is devastated but soon after Johnny's funeral, there's a knock at the door and Kirsty staggers back in shock when she sees who's standing in the shadows outside. But it's just the start of a chain of events that will tear the Price family apart. Red Alert is the compelling story of a Glasgow family which, to the outside world, looks like any other normal family but is riven with tensions and problems which escalate into a nightmare for Kirsty, Greg and her family.