Absolution - Softcover

Caro Ramsay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554682169 ISBN 13: 9781554682164

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007

Synopsis

Twenty years after he was assigned the seemingly simple job of guarding a dying woman in the aftermath of a vicious acid attack, Alan McAlpine has become a celebrated Detective Chief Inspector. Yet he has never forgotten that first assignment. Still unsolved, the crime remains his obsession and his torment. Now, drafted to lead the search for Glasgow’s “Crucifixion Killer”—a murderer who has already killed two women, leaving their mutilated bodies with arms outstretched—McAlpine finds his past and present crashing together—but he’ll need to banish the old ghosts before he can stop the monster in the present.
    Vivid and compelling, filled with fascinating and complex characters, Absolution is a gripping journey through the rainy streets of Glasgow and deep into one man’s soul. Praised by Val McDermid as “dark, vivid and daring,” and described by The Washington Post as “among the year’s best literary thrillers,” Ramsay’s debut novel is an intelligent mystery with shocking twists.

About this title

About the Author:

CARO RAMSAY was born and educated in Glasgow, Scotland. She has always harboured a keen interest in crime fiction and has been writing since she was very young. She is an osteopath and acupuncturist who runs an alternative therapy clinic on the west coast of Scotland. She is currently at work on the second novel in this series.

From Publishers Weekly:

Scottish author Ramsay's atmospheric and melancholic novel is a solid but unremarkable debut. Deeply flawed Glaswegian police constable Alan McAlpine is obsessed with an unsolved case more than two decades old, involving an acid attack on a young pregnant woman who committed suicide shortly after giving birth. As McAlpine investigates a bizarre series of Crucifixion murders, in which all the victims have been disemboweled and laid out with arms spread and feet crossed at the ankle, he begins to suspect that this killer is somehow tied to the mystery of his blonde angel. The pacing is sluggish, but Ramsay manages to paint a vivid picture of rain-lashed Glasgow. The stark late autumn landscape is a fitting backdrop to the brutal murders as well as McAlpine's dark epiphanies. Ramsay has tremendous potential, but there needs to be more to McAlpine than formulaic angst if he's to succeed as a series protagonist. (Nov.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1554682169
• ISBN 13: 9781554682164
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 400