Cold Granite
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First book I have read of this author and a nice change from American style. Excellent story with twists and intrigue, will be reading many more.
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Brilliant
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Fantastic debut novel - excellent characters, good story lines. Reminds me of Ian Rankin. Just caught up with this author and am ordering the rest of his books now
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Fantastic debut
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I read a lot of crime thriller books and I am adding this author to my list. Logan is fantastic, he is a nice guy who gets back to work after being signed off for a year. My favorite has to be WPC Watson! She's a great character and just gets on with it, kicking down doors and crushing windpipes! I can't wait to read the next few books to see what happens with them.
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Left Me Cold.
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When will I ever learn? There's a reason that you can buy certain books for a pound in outlet shops near Christmas. I thought I'd spotted a diamond here for my pound. Nice meaty book, nice and shiny, gripping Police procedural etc etc.
Oh dear oh dear. I'm beginning to think that us Brits don't 'do' crime anymore. Despite a great history with Christie, Rendell, Wingfield and P.D James, the current crop of UK crime writing is monumentally poor. Rankin remains the only one with any credibility.
In the last few months, I've read Peter James (mind-bendingly bad), Simon Kernick (utter utter rubbish) and Michael Robotham (staid and boring). And I'm afraid let's add MacBride to this list.
Plot? Fuggedaboutit! Simply have a lot of violence and a lot of swearing, and don't forget to have a girlfriend you describe as 'ball-breaker' (that's cringe-worthy enough as it is). Laughably, McRae's ex-girlfriend is the chief pathologist, something that bends believablility to the nth degree in itself.
The style is is GCSE standard, the settings are invisible, characters dire - there is nothing about McRae that really binds you to him and all this book really is is a collection of set pieces (with violence and swearing - NOTE violence and swearing by themselves makes a crime novel not.) that somehow rumble on to a conclusion.
There's very little of anything to recommend this book - its better than Peter James or Kernick, but that's not saying much. It is in big type though, so you can read it fast, if you're like me and always finisha book you'ver paid for (even if it is only a quid). The author studied English at University and I would've expected more from him. It seems that, disappointingly, UK crime fiction is going the same was as its film cousin - super-fast, crass and violent with no depth and laughable characters.
Avoid at all costs.
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So annoyed!!!
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I read this book in a bit of a rush - I wanted to know who had killed Georgie and why? What might happen between Logan and Jackie? Who was Miller's inside leak?
But I was so annoyed because I was still immersed in the story when I suddenly realised I had reached the last page. I'm not making that mistake again - am buying the next two in the series together so I don't have to leave Lazarus after just one book!
Excellent debut - I tried reading Rebus and Skinner and couldn't get through them, so I won't compare Stuart MacBride to them - but if you like your heroes human, mistakes, a healthy chunk of reality, and a story that you dive into whether you want to or not, grab a copy of this!
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