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Stuart MacBride


Kell

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Dying Light

Author: Stuart Macbride

ISBN # 0007193157

Publisher: Harper Collins

First Published: 2006

432 pages

Rating: 9/10

 

The Blurb:

It's summertime in the Granite City: the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and people are dying! It starts with a prostitute, stripped naked and beaten to death down by the docks - the heart of Aberdeen's red light district. For DS Logan MacRae, it's a bad start to another bad day. Only a few short months ago, he was the golden boy of Grampian police. But one botched raid later, he's palmed off on a DI everyone knows is a jinx, waiting for the axe to fall with all the other rejects in the 'Screw-up Squad'. Logan's not going to take it lying down. He's determined to escape DI Steel and her unconventional methods, and the best way to do that is to crack the case in double-quick time. But Rosie Williams won't be the only one making an unscheduled trip to the morgue. Across the city, six people are burning to death in a petrol-soaked squat, the doors and windows screwed shut from the outside. And despite Logan's best efforts, it's not long before another prostitute turns up on the slab! Stuart MacBride's characteristic grittiness, gallows humour and lively characterisation are to the fore in his un-put-down-able second novel, confirming his status as the rising star of crime fiction.

 

The Review:

This is the second novel by Stuart MacBride and is a sequel to the excellent Cold Granite. I’ll admit to being a tiny bit biased as, once again, this novel is set in Aberdeen, which is home to me, so I recognised all the locations as well as the people, but familiarity only counts for an insignificantly small part of my overall rating.

 

Thankfully, this time round, it’s set during the summer (Cold Granite’s setting was the run-up to Christmas, so the weather was, understandably, appalling, even if that is a cliché in connection with Aberdeen), so the descriptions of the sparkling buildings and Aberdonians wandering about in short-sleeved shirts, soaking up the sunshine (yes, there was still some rain, but in moderation this time!) during the daylight hours, and tottering about in skimpy outfits during nights on the town (although, to be fair, young Aberdonian women do that in the foulest of weather – we’re dead hard up North!).

 

The writing is as tense as it was in the prequel, leading one to believe that this will be characteristic of Macbride in future offerings; his characters are developed more fully here as we have already been introduced to them prior to this, but this could still easily be read without having first delved into Cold Granite, although there are references to past events. The plot is finely tuned and MacBride does not make the rookie mistake of having the entire police department focus on just one single crime – there’s a lot happening here, keeping everyone on their toes and making this a gripping read.

 

As a follow-up to an exciting debut, MacBride has proven that he can sustain the suspense and should become a forced to be reckoned with within the crime fiction genre – I can highly recommend giving him a try.

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If you haven't read the first one, Cold Granite, already, go back & read it first. They're both excellent, but you'll get a better "feel" for the characters if you start at the beginning, as there are occasional references to events from CG &, although it doesn't really impact on the sotry in DL, you'll enjoy it more if you read them in the right order.

 

But definitely try them - Macbride could very easily be a new favourite of mine - I'll eagerly await his 3rd novel to see if he can keep this up!

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 year later...

I read this before reading the first, so am going to go back to read Cold Granite in the New Year. It was a little tricky to get into at first because it was a lot to try and take in with a few holes which needed to be filled.

 

Definitely one of my favourite crime books.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just to say that it is now out in paperback. OH and I picked up a copy today in Waterstones, just happened to be browsing. I must get around to reading the 2nd & 3rd ones sometime though, when I have no idea:blush:

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I read this one last summer as Stuart came along to our Posh Club meeting to discuss the book. I loved the book (very gory in places, but excellently chilling!) and he was so nice! I highly recommend reading all the books in order (this is the 4th one).

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It's a crime thriller set in Aberdeen, but it's 4th in a series so I highly recommend starting with Cold Granite and going on from there.

 

Synopses of each (taken from Amazon):

 

1. Cold Granite

The debut thriller from a bright new Scottish talent set to rival Ian Rankin. It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Four-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch, strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. There's a killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood. If that wasn't enough, Logan also has to contend with a new boss, DI Insch, who doesn't suffer fools gladly and thinks everyone's a fool, and his own ex-girlfriend, the beautiful but chilly Isobel MacAlister, who also happens to be the chief pathologist. The only good news is WPC 'Ball Breaker' Watson, Logan's new guardian angel. The dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. If Logan isn't careful, he's going to end up joining them. Set in Aberdeen, where the rainy season lasts all year, criminal gangs vie for supremacy on the streets and the oil industry brings an influx of wealth and vice, this is a gritty, powerful and page-turning debut thriller by a writer with a wonderfully observant eye and a characteristically Scottish sense of gallows humour.

 

2. Dying Light

This is a new Logan McRae thriller from the bestselling author of "Cold Granite", set to rival Ian Rankin. It's summertime in the Granite city: the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and people are dying! It starts with Rosie Williams, a prostitute, stripped naked and beaten to death down by the docks - the heart of Aberdeen's red light district. For DS Logan McRae it's a bad start to another bad day. Only a few short months ago, he was the golden boy of Grampian police. But one botched raid later, he's palmed off on a DI everyone knows is a jinx, waiting for the axe to fall with all the other rejects in the 'Screw-up Squad'. Logan's not going to take it lying down. He's determined to escape DI Steel and her unconventional methods, and the best way to do that is to crack the case in double-quick time. But, Rosie Williams won't be the only one making an unscheduled trip to the morgue. Across the city, six people are burning to death in a petrol-soaked squat, the doors and windows screwed shut from the outside. And despite Logan's best efforts, it's not long before another prostitute turns up on the slab!

 

3. Broken Skin

A new Logan McRae thriller from the bestselling author of Cold Granite and Dying Light, set in gritty Aberdeen. In the pale grey light of a chilly February, Aberdeen is not at its best! There's a rapist prowling the city's cold granite streets, leaving a string of tortured women behind. But while DS Logan McRae's girlfriend is out acting as bait, he's dealing with the blood-drenched body of an unidentified male, dumped outside Accident and Emergency. When a stash of explicit films turns up, all featuring the victim, it looks as if someone in the local bondage community has developed a taste for violent death, and Logan gets dragged into the twilight world of pornographers, sex-shops and S&M. To make matters worse, when they finally arrest the Granite City Rapist, Grampian Police are forced by the courts to let him go: Aberdeen Football Club's star striker has an alibi for every attack. Could they really have got it so badly wrong? Logan thinks so, but the trick will be getting anyone to listen before the real rapist strikes again. Especially as his girlfriend, PC Jackie 'Ball Breaker' Watson, is convinced the footballer is guilty and she's hell-bent on a conviction at any cost!

 

4. Flesh House

A new Logan McRae thriller from the bestselling author of Cold Granite, Dying Light and Broken Skin, set in gritty Aberdeen. Aberdeen is panicking. It's been eighteen years since Grampian Police caught the Flesher -- the notorious serial killer who butchered people all over the UK -- and seven years since he was released from Peterhead prison, his conviction overturned on appeal. But when a container full of joints of human meat turns up at Aberdeen Harbour, it kicks off the largest man hunt in Aberdeen's history. Ken Wiseman is on the run and looking for revenge. Detective Sergeant Logan McRae is lumbered with the unenviable task of babysitting Chief Constable Mark Faulds from Birmingham -- one of the original investigation team -- and trying to keep DI Insch from throwing his career away in his obsessive quest to see Wiseman behind bars before he kills again. When members of the team that put Wiseman away in 1990 start going missing, Logan knows that things aren't as straightforward as everyone thinks. More and more human meat is turning up in the food chain. Twenty years of secrets and lies are being dragged into the light.And the only thing that's certain is Aberdeen will never be the same again.

Edited by Kell
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thank you Kell :P .. and thank you for going to the trouble of posting all that. It was only after I had put my lappy away that I thought 'I should have just looked that up myself instead of being so lazy!'

 

They have all been swiftly put on my wishlist, they look brill! Thanks again ;)

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  • 1 year later...

Hello there crime lovers,

 

I found Stuart Macbride's novels by random accident at the library. I'd never heard of him, picked up Flesh House and in a 'what the hell' moment took it home. Definitely on my list of favourite authors. I've read all his crime novels thus far, and Blind Eye didn't disappoint.

 

I love Mcrae's vulnerability, his put upon persona, his crumpled charm and the joyous notion that for this everyman DS, what's bad usually gets worse. Much worse.

 

It's Tartan Noir at its grimmest, its bloodiest, it's most visceral.

 

It's also really funny. Laugh out loud gallows humour. I was sorry to turn the last page, it means I've got to wait 'til April for Macbride's next offering.

 

I read Blind Eye in a week, two of Macbride's novels I read in a day. Couldn't put them down.

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Ooh, I LOVE Stuart Macbride's books! He's definitely high on my list of favourite authors and I adore Logan McRae - such a wonderful character. BLind Eye is perhaps the most gruesome so far, but not gratuitously so (it really is essential to the plot, people!). Macbride really does have a way of plunging the reader right into the thick of things.

 

I've been lucky enough to meet Mr Macbride a couple of times - once at a book signing at our local Waterstones (he took the time to have a quick chat with everyone who waited in line - what a nice guy), and once when he actually came along to our reading group when we were discussing Flesh House (his latest novel at the time). He was so friendly and down-to-earth.

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I`ve read a couple of Stuart Macbride books and thoroughly enjoyed them, I look forward to reading more. Logan McRae is a great character and the stories definately had me hooked from the start.

Edited by pipread
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i've read all the Logan McRae books and enjoyed everyone...the raw humour which goes so well with the raw and concrete vision of Aberdeen...I particularly love DI Steel the vision I have of her is pure humour...always scratching adjusting her bra! smoking...drinking....need I say more...and of course her long time suffering partner ....Susan

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I've read the first three in the Logan McRae series and loved every one of them. Flesh House is on my wishlist, definately want to get my hands on it! I really enjoyed the humour aspect of the books as well, I find scottish wit very like our northern irish wit, and 'get it' instantly, such great reads!

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I've read the first three in the Logan McRae series and loved every one of them. Flesh House is on my wishlist, definately want to get my hands on it! I really enjoyed the humour aspect of the books as well, I find scottish wit very like our northern irish wit, and 'get it' instantly, such great reads!

 

i'm with you on that northern wit charm......long live jim taggart:mrgreen:

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