A short novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of CLOSE TO THE BONE and A SONG FOR THE DYING, featuring his most popular characters, Acting DI Logan McRae and DCI Robert Steel.
CID isn’t what it used to be…
It’s a been a bad week for acting Detective Inspector Logan McRae. Every...Read more
There's something immensely satisfying about reading a book that tackles some very tricky subject matter head-on, with enough of the gory details to illustrate rather than titivate and just the right level of gallows humour. BROKEN SKIN is the third book featuring DS Logan McRae and it's as...Read more
Said it before, should say it again. Will read anything Stuart MacBride publishes... eventually. And yes I know they are extremely violent, dark, with a warped sense of humour and slightly mad edge. What, therefore, is not to love.
A SONG FOR THE DYING isn't, however, a Logan...Read more
I've been listening to the audio versions of the DCI Jim Daley series, of which this, DARK SUITS AND SAD SONGS is the 3rd outing. At this point I'd be loathe to recommend readers step into this series just anywhere as the back story to these characters, their personal trials, tribulations,...Read more
DYING LIGHT is the follow-up book to the much talked about and acclaimed COLD GRANITE and it maintains the high standard that the first book in the series reached.
It is summer in Aberdeen, the sun is shining and it is not raining anywhere near as much as it does in winter....Read more
Sure Logan McRae's now an Acting Detective Inspector, in uniform. In the backend of nowhere, with a good team working with him, especially when you realise the number of cows they have to chase off roads. His girlfriend has improved a little, she's now in a care home, still uncommunicative...Read more
The 3rd in the Jack Parlabane series, the audio of this book kept mildly freaking me out. Originally published in 2000, the political satire, the social commentary, and the sheer breathtaking bloody awfulness of the "powers that be" could be right now. So right now, that it was freaky,...Read more
COLD GRANITE is one of those debut books that come along and slowly cause a stir of comment and discussion in crime fiction forums. So much commentary just makes you want to get that book that everyone is talking about, but at the same time you often wonder if there's a chance that it's all...Read more
A perfectly formed piece of glorious over the topness featuring Logan McRae, DCI Steel and the recent Scottish independence referendum. Which of course isn't going to bode well. I mean it's part of the world that gave us Whisky. And people who drink whisky. When they are happy, sad, or...Read more
Number 4 in the Jack Parlabane series and silly me thought this would be an excellent audio book to have burbling away in the background whilst I got on with some work around the house. Kept having to stop and listen hard, or lean against a wall because I was laughing so much.
...Read more
DS Gillespie suspects they are not dealing with the sharpest pencils in the box when she's called to the discovery of two partially disfigured, roughly hidden bodies in the forest. The reputation of the killers is not enhanced greatly when they leave the receipts for all the gear they...Read more
Something went wrong in the reading universe a while ago and I missed that this had been sitting in the unread list, when I picked up and enjoyed the second in the series - A SONG FOR THE DYING.
Which weirdly turned out...Read more
The first in the Allie Burns series, 1979 was released in 2021 with the second, 1989 out in October 2022. It was the arrival of the second book that made me realise I hadn't read the the first - and then I realised I'm behind with the Karen Pirie novels (now a TV series into the bargain),...Read more
Ever read a book and thought, well I shouldn't really be liking this. Worse than that, have you ever read a book and found yourself ticking the things that the author is doing that annoy you. And yet you find yourself liking the book! DARK FLIGHT did that for me. Well liking is a...Read more
Writing a long term series has to create some issues for authors that probably some of we fans rarely consider. All we want is the next book. IN THE COLD DARK GROUND is the 10th in the Logan McRae series from Stuart MacBride, and I'm really sorry about this but I want the 11th pretty well...Read more
This audio book was part of my revisit of the entire Parlabane series so I was cheating a bit, having already done "all the emotions" over the opening line of the blurb.
I do get the idea of telegraphing the end of Jack and the whole Parlabane series was going to grab some...Read more
ABSOLUTION is the first book from this Scottish author, with the second - Tambourine to be released 2008. There's obviously something in the water in Scotland - or maybe it's all that time stuck indoors in the long cold winters, but the number of assured, confident books coming out of that...Read more
Flesh Wounds (aka Bred in the Bone) is the third in the Jasmine Sharp series from Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre. One of those authors that is on the "to be purchased immediately" list, under the category "I'm starting to fret about the time it's taking to get to this one". Welded on...Read more
The 6th Jack Parlabane novel, listened to as part of my audio wander back through the series, this outing is post Jack stuffing everything up. He's lost his career, his marriage and, for once in his life, his mojo. Pulled into the investigation of a missing pop-star by the sister of his...Read more
If you are teetering on the edge of fully-fledged vegetarianism FLESH HOUSE could be the trigger that pushes you over. MacBride is one of those author's who seem to be able to take the grotesque, the frequently cruel and absolutely obscene and wrap that in humanity. FLESH HOUSE is one of...Read more
The beauty of a standalone is the tantalizing possibility of it being a series starter. A DARK SO DEADLY introduces an irresistible new cast of characters (that this reviewer absolutely wants to see again) with the ‘Misfit Mob’. This ragtag collection of police officers is pure reading...Read more
Sawbones is a novella, set in the US, not part of MacBride's series books set in Aberdeen. There are some similarities though - I harbour a fond belief that this author couldn't write out his shopping list without some sly, black humour involved.
There is plenty of humour in...Read more
If the universe wants to be particularly nice to us, it will make sure that A DARK SO DEADLY is the start of a new series from Stuart MacBride. There are echoes here of his long running Logan McRae series, but it's delivered with a slightly straighter bat (you'd have to be dead set in front...Read more
Well this is a disappointment. Not the book, but the fact that this another audio journey through a series that's gotten to the end. Jack Parlabane, book number 8, WANT YOU GONE. Here's hoping there are more on the way because I do so love this series (having read them all / now listened to...Read more
Val McDermid has tackled some social history that is obviously very dear to her own heart in A DARKER DOMAIN, and it has to be said, she's done it with considerable style. Not only does this book give you a fascinating glimpse into the social chaos and personal pain caused by the Miner's...Read more
When I read this back in January I posted a review. Or at least I thought I did. Imagine my surprise when I found it here in the draft queue. Whoops.
NOW WE ARE DEAD is a spinoff from the Logan McRae series featuring the glorious DS Roberta Steel. I say glorious in a "slightly...Read more
BLACK WIDOW is the 7th Jack Parlabane story, which I did read before WANT YOU GONE, but the review is going up out of order, just because (well actually I was working my way through a list from the bottom up so that's worked well....)
Anyway, this book is the story of surgeon...Read more
Sometimes you have to wonder if the blurbs publishers put on the front of the book are more of a hindrance than a help. In the case of Alex Gray's 6th book - they've set an unbelievably high expectation with 'Brings Glasgow to life in the same way Ian Rankin evokes Edinburgh'. Quite a high...Read more
Imagine a very different Edinburgh, one where constant earthquakes, tremors and aftershocks are a regular part of life. This is the setting for Fault Lines which opens with Surtsey setting foot on Inch, a small island in the Firth of Forth which was formed after a volcanic eruption 25 years...Read more
Have to admit it, THE DEAD OF WINTER jumped the queues. No apologies, it's by Stuart MacBride, I managed to get hold of it on audio and it is a time in my life where I need a Scottish accent and a bit of sweary mayhem for distraction.
Readers of other books by Stuart MacBride...Read more