It's Christmas eve and here I am writing a book review. Why I hear you saying? Get a life Wendy. Well this book is so good I had to tell you all about it.
If you like Police Procedurals/Murder Mysterires which do not pull any punches then this is the book for you. Now for those of you who have not come across any of Stuart MacBrides's books previously my advice to you is remedy that immediately.
This series stars DI Logan McRae of the Aberdeen Police as well as a wide cast of equally lovable characters. I have to say that even some of the bad guys are lovable and that is hard to pull off in a series where the body count is higher than the GDP of a small country.
In this book Logan McRae is called to the scene of a murder where somone has been necklaced. This involves putting a tyre around his neck and arms, filling the tyre with petrol, setting it alight and waiting for the victom to die - slowly. A horrible way to go. To add to his troubles someone is leaving bundles of chicken bones, tied up neatly with ribbon, on Logans doorstep. There are also several more bodies littering both Aberdeen and the investigation making it difficult for Logan to know whaich way to turn.
This is not a book for the faint hearted as it is extremely graphic in places and has a lot of swearing. This adds to rather than detracts from the plot and I didn't find it offputting, but just be aware that this is indicitive of Stuart MacBrides novels.
The storyline pulls you along at a rattling pace with enough twists and turns to make you dizzy but it is all pulled very neatly together at the end making you wonder why you didn't know all along.
The characters are brilliantly scripted and in most cases eccentric. Logan McRae is so well written you can almost see him walking through your front door. The prize for the best drawn character has to go to that of DI Steel, Logans Boss. She is the PC Brigades worst nightmare and she uses Logan as though he were her personal skivvy. She is brilliant and has me laughing in every book.
This book can be read as a stand alone but to get the full flavour of the characterisation it is better to read them in sequence. I cannot recommend this book and all of Stuart MacBrides other books highly enough. He is a truly gifted writer.
I was fortunate to get an advance copy of this book as it is not released until the 17th january 2013. I have, however, given it a fair an unbiased review. Keep your Christmas money or Amazon Vouchers for this book. You will not regret it.
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