Glasgow – Grab This Book

To Die in June – Alan Parks

A woman enters a Glasgow police station to report her son missing, but no record can be found of the boy. When Detective Harry McCoy, seconded from the cop shop across town, discovers the family is part of the cultish Church of Christ’s Suffering, he suspects there is more to Michael’s disappearance than meets the eye.

Meanwhile reports arrive of a string of poisonings of down-and-outs across the city. The dead are men who few barely notice, let alone care about – but, as McCoy is painfully aware, among this desperate community is his own father.

Even as McCoy searches for the missing boy, he must conceal from his colleagues the real reason for his presence – to investigate corruption in the station. Some folk pray for justice. Detective Harry McCoy hasn’t got time to wait

I received a review copy from the publishers and was invited to join the blog tour by Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours.

It is time for my annual trip back to 1970’s Glasgow to reunite with Harry McCoy, Wattie, Stevie Cooper (McCoy’s oldest friend and one of Glasgow’s biggest gangsters) and Jumbo – Cooper’s garden-loving dogsbody. There are other characters I can expect to pop up as I dip back into the world Alan Parks has created (albeit that world is Glasgow of yester-year) but I always know these familiar faces will command my full attention until I reach the last page of the book. I seldom know when a new book is due out but I am always looking out for the next book by Alan Parks and I’ve never been disappointed with the stories he spins.

To Die in June is the sixth McCoy thriller and events are set during the heat of the 1975 summer. It begins with a missing child. A young boy is not in the family home when his mother comes down the stairs in the morning. She rushes to the police station, hysterical and demanding help. McCoy initiates an immediate search of the area but when he visits the family home to speak with the woman’s husband he is told there is no missing child. The search is called off and McCoy’s standing with his new colleagues at Possil police station dips even further than he could have anticipated.

Possil is McCoy and Wattie’s new home. There are changes taking place – Glasgow Police is becoming Strathclyde Police and while the transitions for the force are phasing in McCoy and the increasingly capable Wattie have been relocated. Their relationship with their new colleauges is fractious but for McCoy there is an opportunity to align himself with the other officers stationed at Possil but to do so will mean turning a blind eye to some of their activities and even applying a strong arm, when necessary, to get the outcomes needed. There will be a share of any spoils if he does and with his chaotic personal life seeming to take a turn for the better – McCoy is now in an unexpected relationship with one of Scotland’s leading actors and even McCoy is realising he needs to smarten up a little to be seen with her. This burgeoning relationship leads to some wonderful cameos, particularly early in the story when McCoy finds himself at a swanky Scottish Awards dinner.

But To Die in June isn’t all about sipping wine at posh functions. Out on the streets of Glasgow it looks like someone is giving the rough sleepers a toxic concoction to drink. At least that’s what McCoy believes. His colleagues are quick to point out that it is not unusual for the less fortunate citizens to start drinking anything they can get their hands on and early deaths are not uncommon given the toxins they regularly pour down their throats. Regular readers will know McCoy’s own father is one of the homeless souls and McCoy’s sensitivity to the plight of the homeless is not somthing his colleagues are quite so quick to give time to. But McCoy is concerned when his father’s drinking friends are telling him some of their number are dying after drinking a particularly toxic mixture. Wattie trys to convince McCoy he is reading too much into a few random deaths but McCoy isn’t so quickly convinced and the time he spends looking for a link between these deaths is putting a strain on his relationship with Wattie who is trying to cover the official investigations which the pair should be concentrating on.

As we have come to expect from Alan Parks there are critical events bubbling away and their importance may not always be apparent to the reader. Until suddently that subtle bubbling explodes into a very big deal and McCoy has a huge problem on his hands. That’s when you realise how smoothly Parks has sneaked some really important clues into the story, the very best sleight of hand, and McCoy’s life is in turmoil again. Alan Parks just keeps getting better and better – every new book feels more assured and that’s from a point where he was already setting a very high bar.

Glasgow never felt more unpredictable and it’s the dirty, rough city of old. There’s rival gangs buslting for superiority, gangsters trying to establish “legitimate” business interests, a religious group to be investigated (forcing McCoy to quash his natural distrust of all things faith-related), unhelpful and unethical police officers working to their own agenda. McCoy walks a dangerous path between these factions and he remains one of the very best protagonists in crime fiction at this time.

To Die In June is a five star read. The Harry McCoy series should be required reading for anyone calling themself a fan of Crime Fiction.

To Die in June is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/to-die-in-june/alan-parks/9781805300786

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April 3

No More Games – Gordon J Brown

Glasgow, 1974 – a time of power cuts, strikes and the three-day week. Twelve-year-old Ginger Bannerman is playing in the local woods when he stumbles across a gunman in hiding. The man has incriminating evidence of police corruption and forces Ginger to steal a tape recording from a major criminal’s flat. But when Ginger discovers that his dad, a police constable, is mentioned on the tape, his world is turned upside down. With both the gunman and the criminal in hot pursuit, he must prevent the tape falling into the wrong hands if he’s going to save himself and his family. Things have suddenly got very serious.

I was grateful to recieve a review copy from the author

Ginger and Milky are 12 years old. They go to high school in Glasgow and it’s 1974. Best friends who look out for each other and are about to have a life changing encounter.

You’re going to hear about this encounter, and all the subsequent consequences that spiral from it, as someone is reminiscing and telling their story. The storyteller isn’t sure his audience of one (you will be the second listener) will actually stay to hear the whole story but if they do listen there’s a suggestion of a job to be completed at the end of it.

The story begins with a dead body. In Milky and Ginger’s secret den of all places. Milky has found the body and he seeks out his best friend to share the discovery and seek guidance on what they should do. Once they have assured themselves there really IS a dead body in their den neither boy is prepared to approach the dead guy but that problem quickly becomes irrelevant when their corpse wakes up. Terrified and fascinated in equal measure the boys make their high speed escape.

When Milky returns to the den the next day the dead guy is gone but he’s left something behind…a gun. While the boys are debating what to do with a loaded gun (obviously one of them wants to try it out) the “dead guy” returns to collect his property and a standoff ensues. Again the boys will have to escape from an older (and slower) pursuer but speed won’t help when the man you’re running from knows where you live.

Soon Milky and Ginger are being followed by people that want to involve them in affairs outwith their youthful comprehension. Return the gun. Don’t tell your parents. It’s going to end badly for you if you don’t do as we say. Unfortunately for Ginger and Milky there is a suggestion of corruption within the Glasgow police, their encounter with the gunman brings them directly into this situation.

Someone is keen to utilise their knowledge of these corrupt officers, someone else is already paying these officers and wants to continue to benefit from their services. Both parties are powerful and dangerous individuals and two twelve year old boys are not going to disrupt their plans.

Ginger will soon find himself in possession of a tape which could shine a light on the dark corners of the corruption in the police station – but there’s a suggestion his Dad’s name is on that tape. Can Ginger and Milky risk exposing Ginger’s own father as a criminal?

Huge Kudos to Gordon J Brown for making this story sing from first page to last. The scene setting (Glasgow in 1974) is perfectly captured, the rental televisions, the rolling power cuts, the school janitor sneaking a nip of vodka during class time and the two boys behave exactly how you’d expect two twelve year-old’s to behave. It all feels so very real and the story just flows from one predicament to the next.
No More Games was absolutely mesmerising. Time will slide past, totally unnoticed, as you get caught up in Ginger and Milky’s story. Their problems just snowball from chapter to chapter and every decision they make seems to drag them deeper and deeper into the mire. You will want to know who is telling Ginger’s story and you’ll want to know who is listening. You’ll will them to survive, you’ll hope their problems are not as bleak as they appear and you’ll love how 1970’s Glasgow comes alive for you.

No More Games is published by Red Dog Press and is available directly from the publisher here: https://www.reddogpress.co.uk/product-page/no-more-games

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May 12

May God Forgive – Alan Parks

Glasgow is a city in mourning. An arson attack on a hairdresser’s has left five dead. Tempers are frayed and sentiments running high.

When three youths are charged the city goes wild. A crowd gathers outside the courthouse but as the police drive the young men to prison, the van is rammed by a truck, and the men are grabbed and bundled into a car. The next day, the body of one of them is dumped in the city centre. A note has been sent to the newspaper: one down, two to go.

Detective Harry McCoy has twenty-four hours to find the kidnapped boys before they all turn up dead, and it is going to mean taking down some of Glasgow’s most powerful people to do it…

My thanks to Canongate for my review copy and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the May God Forgive blog tour.

It’s hard to know where to start with May God Forgive as the Harry McCoy books by Alan Parks are among my most anticipated releases each year. I had been looking forward to reading this book almost from the moment I finished last year’s The April Dead. The good news is that the wait was absolutely worth it. May God Forgive swept me up and folded me back into McCoy’s Glasgow of 1974 – it’s dark, brutal, unflinching and lots of other adjectives which you want from a story in the Glasgow of old.

If you are not familiar with Harry McCoy then the most important advice I can offer at this stage is go and grab a copy of Bloody January and start reading. If you want to jump straight in with May God Forgive then you can do this too as key characters, relationships and important events are all smoothly introduced by the author which should ensure no new readers are disadvantaged. For returning readers you can easily slip back into McCoy’s life, share the pain of Wattie’s sleepless nights with a teething toddler and tense when Stevie Cooper is in the scene as you never quite know when he may kick off!

Events in May God Forgive take place just a few weeks before I was born so I can’t claim any prior knowledge of how Glasgow was at this time. What I can confirm is that Alan Parks makes the old city and its hard reputation feel incredibly vivid and realistic. It’s the time of gangsters controlling their turf, of backroom pornographers snapping racy pictures of hard-up housewives, of violent attacks, cheap booze and a growing market in dodgy pills. And Glasgow’s finest are not a slick operation that can keep the city a safe place for its residents.

As we join the story the city is in outrage and mouring. An arson attack on a commercial property in the city resulted in the deaths of several women and children. Killing kids is never tolerated so the police recieved a tip-off as to where the perpretrators could be found. Three teenage boys are being brought to the court for sentencing and the crowds are out braying for blood. They want the death penalty brought back, they want the culprits released into their “care” so justice can be swiftly delivered. It’s chaos and it’s McCoy’s first day back at work after a period of enforced absence. Our main man has been convalesing as a stomach ulcer kept him in crippling pain but that’s nothing compared to the problems which are about to land in his lap.

McCoy’s ulcer is possibly one of the few lighthearted elements to the story, his slugging of pepto bismal when juggling his smoking, drinking and fried breakfasts sees a man caught in the horns of dilemma. There are few laughs elsewhere. Gangsters are flexing and posturing. An old acquintance of Harry’s has met a nasty end but leaves more questions than anyone could have expected. Wattie has been tasked with identifying the body of a young girl who was found dead in a city graveyard and those arsonists are in more trouble than they could ever have anticipated. Who will protect the murderers when a whole city wants them dead?

I am faced with a problem. How can I keep finding new ways to describe the absolute reading pleasure I get from this series? Each book delights and delivers thrills, tension and tramatic drama. I give each book a five star review and I wonder how Alan Parks can match it the next time out. Only he doesn’t just match the quality of the previous titles – he improves on them. Each book seems better than the last – how is this possible if there isn’t some sort of witchcraft involved? Magical. That’s what I am going with this time…”magical”.

May God Forgive is published by Canongate and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/may-god-forgive/alan-parks/9781838856748

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December 21

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill – C.S. Robertson

Death is not the end. For Grace McGill, it’s only the beginning. When people die alone and undiscovered, it’s her job to clean up what’s left behind – whether it’s clutter, bodily remains or dark secrets.

When an old man lies undetected in his flat for months, it seems an unremarkable life and an unnoticed death. But Grace knows that everyone has a story and that all deaths mean something more.

A stand-out novel with a unique narrative voice and an unguessable mystery, you are guaranteed to remember Grace McGill.

My thanks to the publishers who provided a review copy through Netgalley.

I don’t know where to start with this review. To be honest I just want to say:

Don’t read anything about this story.

Avoid all spoilers.

Just start reading and don’t stop.

Thank me later.

I’m not sure that will be quite enough. Even if I add *****Five Stars***** you would probably want a bit more. Okay I will do what I can but seriously, avoid spoilers.

Grace McGill lives in Glasgow. She works for herself and offers a specialist cleaning service – she cleans houses which have been neglected for prolonged periods of time and need to made habitable for a new resident. Often the reason the houses need a particularly deep clean is because the prevoius resident of the house has died in the house and nobody has noticed for a lengthy period of time. The Undiscovered Deaths part of the title suddenly clicks with the reader.

Needless to say the content of this story can be and may be upsetting for some readers. I don’t often include warnings when putting together a review but this time I feel it important to highlight that C.S. Robertson does not shy away from the work Grace McGill undertakes and the steps she may need to take to clean a home. It’s not detail which is included for shits and giggles, it forms an important part of understanding Grace and is dealt with factually and then the story proceeds.

Grace herself is a fascinating and unforgettable character. She lives alone (with a cat) and knows that people have trouble accepting what she does for a living. Even the cops who will contact her with new work can find her tricky to engage with. But Grace takes her work very seriously and wants to ensure she does right by the people she is cleaning up behind. She gets a quite unique insight into their lives and she is always respectful to their memory.

But Grace is now facing a strange dilemma. She has noticed something in one of the houses she is cleaning which does not seem to belong there. It is similar to an item she found at a previous house-clean. Curiosity leads Grace to a funeral and in turn she heads out of Glasgow to the Isle of Bute. Many years ago the island made the news and Grace has to consider the possibility a long-forgotten story may have a resolution in an untidy Glasgow flat.

I can’t say much more and I don’t want to say much more about the story. I DO want to say more about the writing which I found to be gobsmackingly good. C.S. Robertson tells a compassionate, haunting and unforgettable story and I loved reading about Grace. She dominates the story and shows a savvy inner strength when facing very challenging circumstances.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is out in January – I cannot wait for everyone to read this too.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 20 January 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-undiscovered-deaths-of-grace-mcgill/c-s-robertson/9781529367645

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August 8

Holiday Reads: No Time To Cry and The Long Drop

The pouring rain outside and the fact it is my birthday week mean that Summer is over. I have been able to get a few relaxing days away from the day job and this quiet time has allowed me opportunity to blitz my TBR backlog. So I now have a few reviews to write and I am keen to do some catching up – double review time again.

No Time To Cry – James Oswald

Undercover ops are always dangerous, but DC Constance Fairchild never expected things to go this wrong.

Returning to their base of operations, an anonymous office in a shabby neighbourhood, she finds the bloodied body of her boss, and friend, DI Pete Copperthwaite. He’s been executed – a single shot to the head.

In the aftermath, it seems someone in the Met is determined to make sure that blame for the wrecked operation falls squarely on Con’s shoulders. She is cut loose and cast out, angry and alone with her grief… right until the moment someone also tries to put a bullet through her head.

There’s no place to hide, and no time to cry.

First published back in July 2018, No Time To Cry was the first in a new series from James Oswald. Book 2 (Nothing to Hide) has been released and I understand the third book will be released before the end of this year. Which means I have a couple of months to read Nothing to Hide so I can roll straight into the third book – I absolutely loved No Time To Cry and I know know I don’t want to miss out on the Constance Fairchild novels.

Constance (Con) Fairchild finds her boss Pete Copperthawite murdered in the rooms the police had been using to run an undercover operation. As the most recent visitor to the rooms her colleagues question whether Constance was sufficiently careful to ensure she had not been followed thus blowing Pete’s cover. Pressure mounts on Con and to ensure her safety she takes herself away from work and heads back to her childhoom home.

Not that Con has missed home, she has had a complicated upbringing and her career choice is not one her family could understand. However, a childhood friend has asked Con to help find her younger sister who seems to have disappeared and hasn’t been in contact with her family. As Con digs deeper into the missing girl’s background she uncovers troubling evidence to suggest there is very good reason behind her absence. But this is not information which powerful people will allow to come to light and Con finds herself in even more danger than before.

Fans of James Oswald know he writes a great thriller and No Time To Cry is no exception. I flew through this one in a couple of days and had a huge grin on my face when a cameo appearance from a character in the Inspector McLean books suddenly popped up in Constance’s world.

Annoyed at myself for not reading this book sooner – terrific fun, I need more Constance Fairchild on my shelves.

The Long Drop – Denise Mina

Glasgow, 1957. It is a December night and William Watt is desperate. His family has been murdered and he needs to find out who killed them.

He arrives at a bar to meet Peter Manuel, who claims he can get hold of the gun that was used. But Watt soon realises that this infamous criminal will not give up information easily.

Inspired by true events, The Long Drop follows Watt and Manuel along back streets and into smoky pubs, and on to the courtroom where the murder trial takes place. Can Manuel really be trusted to tell the truth? And how far will Watt go to get what he wants?

This is utterly compelling reading. The Long Drop takes the real events which surround the Peter Manuel case and Denise Mina weaves her story around it to recount a dark period from Glasgow’s past.

In the late 1950’s Glasgow was a dark and dangerous place, Denise Mina depicts the life of the city, the atmosphere and its citizens astonishingly well – you feel yourself drawn into the book and the world around you fades away as masterly storytelling builds a new environment around you.

Peter Manuel is known as one of the most notorious serial killers. He hanged for his crimes but it seems there was always the belief he committed more murders than he faced trial for. In this book we see Manuel up close, the story addresses what he may have been like to those around him and the lengths he would go to to convince the world of his innocence. We also get focus on William Watt, his family have been murdered and he will do anything to find who was responsible.

It is a story of an obsession for the truth. The writing is so tight, not a word seems wasted as this short but powerful story drills down into the men at the heart of a dark, dark incident. Not a crime thriller which you would read for “fun” and the subject matter dictates this is a disturbing tale too. But it is a fascinating read and one I couldn’t stop reading once I had started it.

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April 1

The April Dead – Alan Parks

NO ONE WILL FORGET . . .

In a grimy flat in Glasgow, a homemade bomb explodes, leaving few remains to identify its maker.

Detective Harry McCoy knows in his gut that there’ll be more to follow. The hunt for a missing sailor from the local US naval base leads him to the secretive group behind the bomb, and their disturbing, dominating leader.

On top of that, McCoy thinks he’s doing an old friend a favour when he passes on a warning, but instead he’s pulled into a vicious gang feud. And in the meantime, there’s word another bigger explosion is coming Glasgow’s way – so if the city is to survive, it’ll take everything McCoy’s got . . .

My thanks to Jamie at Canongate for a review copy of The April Dead and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the oppourtunity to host this leg of the tour.

Harry McCoy is the new name to add to the list of Scotland’s Best Fictional Coppers. His city is Glasgow and The April Dead takes us to 1974 – a full decade before Taggart became known as “Scottish For Murder.”

This book opens with a bang – literally. A homemade bomb has blown up in a rundown house in a quiet part of town. It looks like the bomb-maker made one final mistake at the wrong moment. McCoy isn’t good with blood so being asked to investiate a death where the victim is spread around a room really isn’t the best way for him to begin his day.

Before too long McCoy will be spinning more than one plate and finding himself in another unwelcome position. As ever, one of the key elements which bring these predicaments is is oldest friend Stevie Cooper – recently released from Peterhead prison and back in town to re-establish himself as the big noise with a finger in every pie. McCoy’s friendship with Cooper, one of Glasgows biggest criminals, is always problematic but never more so when Cooper is arrested for murder by McCoy’s young apprentice Wattie.

It seems the clumsy bombmaker may not have been working alone as there are further incidents around the city and McCoy finds he is relying upon the skills of a colleague who transferred from Northern Ireland. His experience of dealing with the aftermath of IRA bombs across the Irish Sea has given him unwelcome knowledge of different bombs and the destruction they can cause. In the mid-1970s the IRA were starting to make their presence felt on the mainland UK and unfortunately for McCoy he appears to be drawing attention to himself and being noticed by the wrong type of people.

With regular sidekick Wattie spending some of his time dealing with his new paternal responsibilities we see McCoy using some of his personal time trying to help out a retired American naval captain. His son (also a sailor) has gone missing in Glasgow and Capitan Stewart has travelled to Scotland to try and trace him. He is reliant upon McCoy’s support and McCoy appears happy to spend time with Stewart and help him to find the missing boy. However, it seems Stewart junior may have fallen in with a bad crowd and McCoy is certain there are elements of his life which his father knows nothing about. Diplomacy isn’t really McCoy’s strength so digging into possible criminal activities while keeping Captain Stewart in the dark is just another challenge for McCoy.

As with the earlier Harry McCoy novels I find the author’s depictions of Glasgow, as she was, to be mesmerising. It’s a familiar city in unfamiliar coat. McCoy knows his home and he knows many of the undesirable characters who live within but he moves around and spins those plates and by shaking up the right people and knowing the questions to ask he begins to make progress. The bombings are a clear and present threat and there are too many young military types cropping up in the investigation for McCoy’s liking. Alan Parks keeps the reader hooked with multiple events and threads and you know that when the book reaches the endgame lots of those threads are going to be connected – but which ones?

I make no secret of the fact I adore the Harry McCoy series. I recommend them above many other crime books and each new release brings increasing levels of anticipation. The April Dead did not disappoint – if I did “starred” reviews it would be a nailed on Five Star recommendation. I know you have a TBR which is taking over your house but you need to be reading these books. So read them. No excuses.

The April Dead is published by Canongate Books and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook fomat. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08H2BQR1T/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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October 20

Some Lockdown Reviews

Without being too subtle about 2020 – it has been a really crap year. I have found my reading has really suffered and my reviews more so. Working from home has been a great relief but at the end of my working day I have felt little urge to shut down the work laptop only to remain sitting in the same spot and crank open my own laptop to draft a few reviews.

But that’s selfish behaviour – I have used stories to lift my blue moods and give me the escapism I needed. Maybe someone else would benefit from knowing about the great stories which brought me some respite and the authors and teams behind the stories worked so hard to get their books out there that I cannot simply pass them over without comment. So here are some catch up reviews for books I have read “in lockdown”

Knife Edge – Simon Mayo

You never know where danger may come from…

6.45am. A sweltering London rush hour. And in the last 29 minutes, seven people have been murdered.

In a series of coordinated attacks, seven men and women across London have been targeted. For journalist Famie Madden, the horror unfolds as she arrives for the morning shift.

The victims have one thing in common: they make up the investigations team at the news agency where Famie works. The question everyone’s asking: what were they working on that could prompt such brutal devastation?

As Famie starts to receive mysterious messages, she must find out whether she is being warned of the next attack, or being told that she will be the next victim…

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

I know that Simon Mayo has had a number of successful books which are aimed at younger readers so I was keen to see how the transition to the adult market would be recieved. If Knife Edge is reflection on the excitement and tension he brought to his earlier books then I can see why his previous titles are held in such high regard. This was a highly enjoyable thriller.

Focus is on Famie Madden, she works for one of the top media outlets in the country and on the day we join her story she is in the hot-seat for co-ordinating all the stories which are going to air. However, Famie is soon to find the news is coming far too close to home – a series of murders in London all take place during the start of the morning rush hour. The attacks are clearly linked and must have been conducted by different people as they are spread around the city. As more information starts to come through to Famie and her team they realise that all the victims are their colleagues.

It is a shocking opening to the story and Famie is impacted more than most as she had been in a secret relationship with one of the victims. Naturally Famie wants answers so she begins to look into what story her colleagues may have been working on that brought about their terrible fate.

Knife Edge has all the thrills you need from a high stakes thriller. After a dynamic start the pace does slow a touch but it’s a steady build up back to a corking finale. While there haven’t been many opportunities to post recommendations for a summer beach read – Knife Edge falls into that category. The paperback is out in March 2021 so keep this one in mind when the good weather returns and you are planning some relaxing downtime. If you can’t wait that long then hardback, digital and audio copies are all available now!

Knife Edge is published by Doubleday and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WFS252B/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

The Photographer – Craig Robertson

The sergeant took some from each box and spread them around the floor so they could all see. Dozens upon dozens of them. DI Rachel Narey’s guess was that there were a few hundred in all.

Photographs.

Many of them were in crowd scenes, some just sitting on a park bench or walking a dog or waiting for a bus or working in shops. They seemed to have no idea they’d been photographed.

A dawn raid on the home of a suspected rapist leads to a chilling discovery, a disturbing collection hidden under floorboards. Narey is terrified at the potential scale of what they’ve found and of what brutalities it may signal.
When the photographs are ruled inadmissible as evidence and the man walks free from court, Narey knows she’s let down the victim she’d promised to protect and a monster is back on the streets.
Tony Winter’s young family is under threat from internet trolls and he is determined to protect them whatever the cost. He and Narey are in a race against time to find the unknown victims of the photographer’s lens – before he strikes again.

I was at the launch of The Photographer and Craig Robertson gave a very powerful demonstration of the inherent creepiness behind an element of this story. It made me uncomfortable but made me really want to read The Photographer to see how the author addressed the issue in the book.

I was horrified to realise that a good many months (far, far too many) have passed since that launch event and that a review I thought I had written remained outstanding. The good thing about a good book is that it doesn’t go away and on a recent trip to my local bookshop I saw copies of The Photographer on the shelves waiting to find new readers. Go find it – this is a powerful and brilliantly told story.

Photographs – taken without the consent of the subject, or without the subject even knowing they were being photographed, have been found by DI Rachel Narey while she searched the home of a suspected rapist. What was already a harrowing case has taken an even more sinister turn. Narey is convinced her suspect is guilty of the rape she is investigating but now she wonders what other crimes he may have committed. She will throw herself at this case in the pursit of justice and in doing so will bring danger to her home.

This is an incredibly tense read and it’s another cracking addition to what is already a brilliant series. Craig Robertson knows how to hold his readers attention and I found I lost huge chunks of time engrossed in The Photographer. The scenes of tension and peril are nicely balanced out with lighter moments between Narey and Winter as their relationship further develops and they juggle their time between work and caring for their young daughter.

It is always a reading treat to spend time with one of Craig Robertson’s books – if you haven’t read any of his books before now then there is no time like the present to start!

The Photographer is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XKH76MX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4

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March 6

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

Category: 5* Reviews, Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

November 18

Wasp Latitudes – Allan Watson

Against a background of brutal attacks on people and property by a rag-tag group of homeless men whom the media quickly dub Berserkers, DI Will Harlan is juggling with a head-in-a-bucket patricide, a lethal wife-swapping session, a sex-tape scandal involving the Royal Scottish National Orchestra – and perhaps most discomfiting of all – a spate of late night phone calls from his favourite serial killer, Howie Danks.

As the wife-swapping investigation spirals into a glut of cold-blooded slayings carried out by a mysterious pair of killers known as the Wasp Queen and the Priest, Harlan has to look into the past where a cold case may contain uncomfortable answers. But it’s in the present where the real danger lies as he follows a twisted path of mind control and madness leading to a cruel land some call the Wasp Latitudes.

My thanks to Sarah Hardy for the chance to join the blog tour

My introduction to DI Will Harlan was Wasp Latitudes – the second book to feature Harlan. It was clear as I was reading that there had been an earlier book but it didn’t stop me from enjoying Wasp Latitudes.

Harlan is having a busy old time of it – multiple incidents are commanding his attention and it seems his colleagues are not the cohesive and united team which he may hope them to be. Of course disruption in the masses and professional rivalries (along with hopeless careerists) make for entertaining reading.

Entertainment is high if you are not after a genteel story. A wife-swapping party goes horribly wrong for one couple. Just down the road a man is found dead with his head in a bucket and a foreign object inserted into his…erm, well lets just say, into him. A gang is terrorizing Glasgow with random violent acts and a young woman has been publicly shamed when a video recorded while she was enjoying a drunken evening in company goes viral.

With dogged determination and a great deal of people manipulation Harlan will split his attention to each of these crimes. His input is not welcomed and attempts will be made to ensure he does not look into the “bucket man” investigation – other forces are interested in that death and Harlan is warned to keep away. Of course that is not how Harlan works and, if anything, he becomes more determined to uncover the truth.

Police politics, fascinating investigations, dark murders and lots of dry Glasgow humour – this was a cracking read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Another series I will enjoy following and that can only be a good thing.

Wasp Latitudes is available as a digital download here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wasp-Latitudes-Will-Harlan-Book-ebook/dp/B07GZYY6D1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542541330&sr=8-1&keywords=wasp+latitudes

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July 18

Bloody January – Alan Parks (Audiobook)

When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn’t a random act of violence.

With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops.

McCoy’s boss doesn’t want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouchable. But McCoy has other ideas . . .

In a helter-skelter tale – winding from moneyed elite to hipster music groupies to the brutal gangs of the urban wasteland – Bloody January brings to life the dark underbelly of 1970s Glasgow and introduces a dark and electrifying new voice in Scottish noir.

My thanks to Canongate Books for my review copy which I received through Netgalley – I also bought an audible copy which I listened to through Audible.co.uk

Last September I attended the Bloody Scotland festival and one of my pals suggested I read Bloody January as it seemed like “my kind of story”. Ten months later I finally started reading and I am really regretting that ten month wait. Bloody January is very much “my kind of story” I utterly loved it. So much so that I cheated on the audiobook version with a digital copy so that I could “read” it quicker – it’s that good!

Alan Parks takes us back to Glasgow in the cold, damp January of 1973. The lead character is Detective Harry McCoy, he enjoys the company of a working girl, drinks heavily, takes drugs, smokes (everyone smokes) and his best friend is head of one Glasgow’s criminal gangs. I rather liked McCoy, we find he has come through some tough times and is not coping well.

McCoy is summoned to Barlinnie (Glasgow’s famous prison) to speak with a man he helped convict. He is given advance warning of a murder…can he stop a life being taken? Despite his reservations over the accuracy of this information McCoy tries to track down the girl but he arrives too late to prevent her very pubic death. The murderer then takes his own life but the question of WHY needs addressed and McCoy, with his young trainee “Wattie” in tow, are tasked with finding answers.

Much of the appeal in reading came from the interaction between the characters. McCoy and Wattie were especially fun to accompany on their investigations. Wattie has been moved from rural Ayrshire to learn how policing in “the big city” works – watching him find his feet is a blast.

Bloody January is a police procedural where none of the conventional procedures seem to be followed. It is a rough time, political correctness is totally unheard of and sexual equality is a tricky area for McCoy (as we get to see). Alan Parks has done a cracking job of making the old town come back to life around his readers. The story, the setting, the corruption and poverty all makes for brilliant reading and I loved reading about “old” Glasgow.

As I indicated at the outset I listened to the majority of the book on audiobook. Narration duties are in the very capable hands of Andrew McIntosh. I maintain that the narrator can make or break the audiobook experience – if the story sounds wrong then it will stop me enjoying the book. The good news is that McIntosh is perfect. Glasgow sounds suitably gritty and the characters come to life under his care.

I loved this step back in time. Bloody January is, without doubt, one of the books which I have enjoyed most in recent months. I can only hope that the characters which survive the tale (no spoilers) will return for another outing.

Bloody January is published by Canongate Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-January-Harry-McCoy-novel-ebook/dp/B072M55NHT/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Category: 5* Reviews, Audiobook, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off