2014 police procedural mystery novella, tartan noir, in the Logan
McRae series. On the night of the Scottish independence referendum,
McRae is trying to track down a missing "no" campaigner. But the next
morning, he's going to wake up hung over, naked, in a strange bed,
with his boss…
I don't think the flash forward particularly helps things. McRae
is fun to read about anyway, even without knowing where he's going
to end up. (And the flash-forward point is not the end of the story
anyway.)
A large ginger cat sat in the middle of the couch, bright orange
with a shining white bib and paws, as if he'd been painted with
marmalade and Tipp-Ex. How the cat managed to stay so clean in this
manky hole was anyone's guess. It raised its nose and sniffed at the
scruffy pair of police officers, somehow implying that Logan and
Stoney were the ones responsible for the horrible smell.
But apart from that it works well. The police try to track down the
missing man, which means finding the prostitutes who told the local
rag about all the kinky sex he was into. Meanwhile Steel mostly
obstructs things. As the referendum results come in, things get
drunker, and then…
Perhaps because of the length, we don't get the usual pattern of McRae
blundering about until the final scenes and then becoming the ultimate
detective. Instead, he's actually pretty competent for the whole
thing. Which is fine with me, but momentarily disconcerting as I've
become used to the usual MacBride pattern.
There's also none of his background here (the girlfriend, the
precarious living situation, etc.); which is fine, this is a story of
police work and something has to be left out for the length, but I
still enjoy the way the novels do take time to get into this.
Not really an entry to the series, since there's no real reminder of
who these people are beyond "put-upon detective" and "horrible boss",
but a pleasant reminder in the long gap between McRae novels (previous
one had come out in 2012, next one would not be until 2015).