Great stuff - do not pay attention to reviews written by nutters . . .
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There are some reviews on this page which suggest that people have either read the wrong book or they've confused it with a site for the recently lobotomised. This is a FAB read. It belts along, the dialogue is extremely realistic (note to some readers - people do actually swear in real life, and, sometimes, this trickles down into crime fiction - if this is of concern, I've heard that Catherine Cookson is very nice), and the characters are extremely engaging. I admit to being strangely - and very worringly - drawn to Steel and Insch, and for that bizarre reason alone, will be reading all of the following books in the series. Maybe there are a lot of frustrated crime writers leaving posts (frustrated, unpublished crime writers) - but,for normal people, buy this, enjoy it; simple as that.
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Ending to die for!
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I actually got my missus into Macbride by getting her to read the last three chapters of this book... Now she too is hooked!
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Rebus this ain't !!
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Stuart MacBride is good - but he's not great. His stories have very little depth and there are far too many people involved.
The main character, DS Logan MacRae, is bullied by two foul mouthed DI's. The constantly bra re-arranging Steel and jellybaby-noshing Insch. Both of these activities become very tedious after a couple of chapters.
Rebus would never have put up with being bullied by these two.
MacBride needs to give MacRae some backbone - and some personality.
Room for improvement - meanwhile a good book, but not a great one.
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Best so far
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Definitely the best of the three books so far but if you haven't read the first two yet, I recommend you do so as this one will feel better if you have. I had worried at the end of the last one that McBride was getting himself into a rut of writing some pretty horrific stuff which can be unpalatable to many [and I mean really horrific!] but this one doesn't have that in the same way. Brutal crimes, yes, but he's begun to handle things differently. Bit more about real people rather than decomposing bodies. Especially good on the mental effect of rape. Still some problems remain however. First, I wish he'd drop sex crimes involving children. Also, he needs to start widening the scope of his characters. This book is good in that he does develop Insch much more and Steel becomes a bit more likeable but he'll need more staple figures if this is to become a long series. I loved the ending!!!!!!!!! Absolutely no give-aways but it lends itself brilliantly to the next novel. Need to know what happens!!!
Not fair, I think, to say he's better than Rankin. Certainly not so far. Rankin's first three or four weren't too brilliant as I recall and nowhere near as good as what he's writing now. Also, don't forget it's Rebus that's retiring, not Rankin!! Anyway, thoroughly recommended. I'm looking forward to the next one.
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What rubbish!
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One can only hope the Aberdeen police either don't read this appalling novel or have a long fuse coupled with a thick skin. The Police, whether it be constables or senior officers are portrayed as incompetent and deeply unlikeable, incapable of speech unless larded with foul language. What passes as a plot is tedious and wholly unconvincing. All combining as a book to avoid at all costs.
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