The Return of John Macnab was the second novel by Scottish writer Andrew Greig.

In John Macnab (1925), three bored successful friends in their mid-forties turn to poaching, under the collective name ‘John Macnab’, set up in the Highland home of a war hero and prospective Conservative MP.

In The Return of John Macnab three rather downcast friends (a copywriter whose wife has died suddenly on a plane flight; an ex-Special Forces soldier with a marital crisis; and a jaundiced left-wing joiner) decide to revive Buchan’s novel.

They target an estate owned by a Moroccan, another rented by a Dutch corporation, and the third, Balmoral, traditional home of the British royal family in Scotland.

The modern-day Macnabs are hijacked by Kirsty Fowler, a hard-living reporter and singer with a murky past.