2011 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, seventh in the Logan
McRae series. The most popular contestants on Britain's Next Big
Star have been kidnapped – but is it all a hoax by the promoter?
Meanwhile the target of a drugs bust seems to think he can get Logan
to get him the drugs back…
The realisation I came to while reading this book is that I'm not
really supposed to care about Logan or wish him to do well; he's
primarily a vehicle for bad things to happen to, often through his own
fault (except, as always, in the final third of the book, when he
suddenly flips from getting everything wrong to getting everything
right, and salvages a victory out of previous errors). That's a bit of
stylistic distancing that doesn't sit well with me, and I think it's a
good thing that I'm reading these books relatively rarely.
Logan's still fatally compromised by his association with a crime
boss, and… nothing seems to come of it. He's still in a terrible
mental state, but he only accepts a minimum of therapy, and only when
forced. Because any change would involve him actually getting on with
his life, either up or down, rather than being an unchanging character
who always takes the option offering the least immediate hassle. By
the end of all this he may have a temporary good reputation (again),
but the reader who's got this far knows that he's going to start as a
screw-up in the next book (again). There's no sense of progress
between one book and the next, either in his career or in his
personality, and while an iconic character is all very well, I prefer
a series to have some sense of progression.
Also, "Girlfriend In A Coma" was recorded by The Smiths in 1987 and by
24 years later was very much a cliché for a depressing situation. That
might have held more emotional force if there'd been any sense of
positivity in the relationship before the incident, rather than the
feeling I got that Logan has a girlfriend because having a girlfriend
is the easiest path for him to take.
The actual plot is a decent one, though there are many false leads and
very few genuine ones; and my personal preference is to avoid cuts
away to the victim's ordeal, because (a) it gives the reader
information that isn't available to the detectives, thus spoiling the
puzzle aspect of the story, and (b) they can too easily become
prurient, both of which happen a little here. As always, police work
in Aberdeen is grim and sticky; and even Logan notices that it's
always sunny when he's stuck indoors, always raining when he's
outside, in a new version of the pathetic fallacy.
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