2005 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, first in the Logan
McRae series. DS McRae is just back on the force after a major injury
sustained in the line of duty; it's winter in Aberdeen, and the
mutilated body of a kidnapped boy has just been discovered. And it
won't be the last.
But what immediately becomes apparent is that this isn't just the
story of tracking down a single serial pædophile: for all the howling
mobs are ready to beat the most obvious suspects to death, the methods
and evidence differ from one missing child to the next, and so do the
motivations.
There are certainly some common elements with A Dark So Deadly, a
later non-series novel of MacBride's that I read before this one:
overwork, not enough sleep, police procedure sometimes being more of
an impediment than the villains' attempts to cover their tracks, a
senior officer who's constantly eating sweets. But, perhaps because
this is the opening of a series rather than a stand-alone, it feels as
though there's more room to move even if the word count is less: we
don't have to resolve everyone's story within this one book, and
while there's plenty of resolution here there are also things left to
be explored in the future – rather like real life.
Meanwhile there are the rain-soaked granite mean streets of Aberdeen
(except when it snows), and the feeling of a small town that's
ferociously proud of itself even while it's unknowingly parochial.
Rosemount had always been something of a cultural melting pot and
that was reflected in Watson's list: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen,
Inverness, Newcastle...There was even a couple from the Isle of Man.
Now that was exotic.
There are occasional flashes of insight, but mostly what our heroes do
here is ordinary police work, gathering witness statements, making
connections and following where the evidence leads. McRae is human and
fallible, but doesn't seem to have the entire world out to get him the
way Callum MacGregor did. (Still, there are plenty more books for
things to go wrong in.)
There's perhaps a bit much repetition, but this world is full of
interesting people (even the nasty ones manage to be a bit
interesting), and MacBride can turn a lovely phrase at times.
Standing in the snow was a nervous looking man wearing a
heavily-padded leather arm protector. Logan wound down the window
and the nervous man said, 'So...this Alsatian...big is it?' His face
said he hoped the answer was no.
Logan held up the cast of teeth for the handler from the Dog Section
to see. It didn't make the man any happier.
'I see...Big. With lots of teeth,' the handler sighed. 'Great.'
Logan thought about the grey muzzle. 'If it's any consolation: he's
quite old.'
'Ahh...' said the handler, looking even more depressed. 'Big, lots
of teeth and experienced.'
I'm glad I read A Dark So Deadly first; this is better. Followed by
Dying Light.
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