Bobby March Will Live Forever – Alan Parks

WHO IS TO BLAME WHEN NO ONE IS INNOCENT?

The papers want blood.
The force wants results.
The law must be served, whatever the cost.

July 1973. The Glasgow drugs trade is booming and Bobby March, the city’s own rock-star hero, has just overdosed in a central hotel.

Alice Kelly is thirteen years old, lonely. And missing.

Meanwhile the niece of McCoy’s boss has fallen in with a bad crowd and when she goes AWOL, McCoy is asked – off the books – to find her.

McCoy has a hunch. But does he have enough time?

 

My thanks to Canongate Books for my review copy

 

This is one of the backwards reviews – one of the ones where I do the summary first. That only happens when I have been blown away by a book. So there should be no doubt when I say: I loved Bobby March Will Live Forever.

The third book in the Harry McCoy series which began with Bloody January (five stars) and February’s Son (five stars). I enjoyed Bobby March more than the first two so have not left myself any room to reflect this in my scoring system…I may need to add a smiley face or a “vg” like I did when I was teaching.

Now I can turn to the book. It is Glasgow in the blistering heat of Summer 1973. A child (Alice Kelly) has vanished off the streets and her parents are frantic. The police are stretched to the limit and it is “all hands on deck” to find Alice. All hands except Harry McCoy.

Harry has been sidelined. He is working under a new boss, a temporary arrangement while the head of his station takes on a secondment up in Perth. Harry and his new “boss” do not see eye to eye and the consequence of their enmity is that Harry is getting all the rubbish to deal with.  So while his colleagues (and the splendid “Watty”) are on a city-wide hunt for missing Alice, Harry is left to deal with a drug-overdose in a city centre hotel.  The deceased is Bobby Marsh, through a series of flashback chapters scattered through the book we see Bobby rise from young talented guitarist to the best session musician of his day.  He played with all the greats but dabbled with all the wrong substances and this would be his undoing.  Bobby is gone, his fans will be bereft and Harry has to work out why an apparent overdose appears to be more complicated than it may seem.

Harry’s Perthshire-ensconsed boss, Murray, also has another task for him as his niece has run away from home an Murray’s brother wants her found and returned. But as Murray’s brother seeks political office he wants his runaway daughter kept out of the headlines.  Murray puts this responsibility onto Harry and leaves him spinning plates.

The investigation process in 1973 is very different from the crime fiction titles we read today and Harry’s world seems a million miles away from what we have now. Yet Alan Parks makes it wonderfully vivid and you can almost smell the cigarette filled bars and sweaty tenement rooms that Harry has to frequent.

The returning cast add so much depth and enjoyment, Harry’s old friend Stevie Cooper is still one of Glasgows crime kingpin’s, the dependable Watty is working with ‘the enemy’ on the missing girl case, brothel madame Iris is back to provide unwilling assistance and even Harry’s ex girlfriend cameos to remind him of days long lost.

The story is utterly compelling and I was totally unprepared for how some elements were resolved. So damned clever!

We are three books in to this series and I cannot say enough good things about all the Harry McCoy titles.  Alan Parks is the name all fans of crime fiction should be seeking out. These are books you should be reading.

Bobby March Will Live Forever. Five stars, v.g. 🙂

 

 

 

Bobby March Will Live Forever is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XC7ZLBF/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1