This is gathering together of two DI Steel short stories, one featuring DS Logan McRae (Stramash) and the other (DI Steel's Bad Heir Day) has her giving Constable Guthrie a day to remember.
DI Steel's Bad Heir Day is set around Christmas with her manically buying / wrapping presents, sorting out a missing person, and dodging the eulogy of somebody who's offered to leave her a lot of cash - if she can say something nice about them. Problem is, the recently deceased's a villain and Steel's conflicted. Well pissed off really. And when DI Steel's pissed off the nearest to her (in this case Guthrie) had better keep a low profile. Although not as low as the missing person turns out to have gone. Nicely twisty, nicely joined together. Good fun.
Starmash, on the other hand, sees Steel off to Jura on a bit of a jolly whilst Susan is there attending a conference. Which shouldn't have included sitting around on a clifftop in the freezing rain watching a small boat bob around in the ice cold water. Or in a car feeding McRae a seafood platter when he wanted something else, or trying to pinch his pudding. Or rushing about in small boats. With half the most vicious drug dealers in Scotland. But nothing's ever straight forward and I laughed an unseemly amount when reading this one.
Partners in Crime
Two bloody brilliant short stories from No. 1 bestselling crime writer Stuart MacBride, featuring DS Logan McRae and his boss DI Steel
STRAMASH: Something fishy is happening on the isle of Jura. DS Logan McRae gets a phone call from DI Steel ordering him to come to the island at once. One freezing night’s sleep in a hatchback and two storm-battered ferries later, Logan arrives – but there’s no sign of Steel. She's lumped him in the middle of a policing nightmare, with bodies, and bullets, and tiny wee boats. And a dangerous hard man who’s meant to be dead…
DI STEEL’S BAD HEIR DAY: Why is DI Steel in an even worse mood than usual? Is it because it’s Christmas? Or maybe it's because the missing persons case she’s just caught looks like a hoax from a mile off? Or is it because she’s just been left a huge amount of money…? One thing’s for certain: Steel’s having a bad day, and she’s hell bent on making sure Constable Guthrie has one too.
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