The Jump, by Doug Johnstone - book review: A bridge over murky waters

In the opening lines of Doug Johnstone’s new book, its protagonist, Ellie, wonders why, despite there being widows and orphans, there is no word for a parent who has lost a child. It’s the kind of thought that regularly keeps her company as she goes on a very personal patrol. Months before the story begins, Ellie’s teenaged son, Logan, jumped to his death from the Forth Road Bridge. Now she spends her time haunting the bridge, swimming in the freezing waters around it, watching CCTV footage of her son’s last moments, checking his Facebook page and picking, literally and figuratively, at her wounds. One of the manifestations of the madness of her grief is the series of tattoos that Ellie has had inked across her body since Logan died. The latest is a picture of the bridge that looms large over the community that surrounds it, as well as Ellie and her husband Ben, who seeks solace in suicide conspiracy groups.