Greater Sins

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.

FINANCIAL TIMES

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.

Observer

Greater Sins sets a beautifully atmospheric scene from its opening lines to its final moments . . . a compelling and powerful read.

PA MEDIA

Greater Sins is a glimmering debut. A muddy, pastoral fable written with an equal measure of beauty and morbidity. Completely enthralling.

Lucy Rose, author of THE LAMB

An atmospheric and assured debut

DAILY MAIL

A striking debut, filled with folkloric mystery and yearning. Griffiths' prose is as elegant as it is perceptive. Read it, then read it again.

Amy Twigg, author of SPOILT CREATURES

Greater Sins has an extraordinary sense of place and time, written by an exciting new voice from Scotland.

Radio Times (Best Books 2025)

I absolutely raced through it! What a beautiful book. The prose is so lyrical and the structure so cleverly pulls the reader along

Hanna Thomas Uose, author of WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER

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.

Danielle Giles, author of MERE