Ian Rankin and Michael Marshall are set to have their status challenged by debut Scottish author Stuart MacBride, an original and powerful new voice in thriller writing. It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Four-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch, strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. There's a killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood. If that wasn't enough, Logan also has to contend with a new boss, DI Insch, who doesn't suffer fools gladly and thinks everyone's a fool, and his own ex-girlfriend, the beautiful but chilly Isobel MacAlister, who also happens to be the chief pathologist. The only good news is WPC 'Ball Breaker' Watson, Logan's new guardian angel. The dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. If Logan isn't careful, he's going to end up joining them. Set in Aberdeen, where the rainy season lasts all year, criminal gangs vie for supremacy on the streets and the oil industry brings an influx of wealth and vice, this is a gritty, powerful and page-turning debut thriller by a writer with a wonderfully observant eye and a characteristically Scottish sense of gallows humour.
IN A CITY BY THE SEA
After a long recuperation from a stab wound, Detective Sergeant Logan McRae's first night back on duty in Aberdeen, Scotland, takes him to a crime scene where the body of a missing boy has been found on a riverbank. To the horror of even the most experienced cops on the job, all the details point to a ritualistic murder―a serial killer. Then twenty-four hours later, another child goes missing.
A COP HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD
The case's latest developments keep appearing as the next day's headlines, leading the department to believe one of their own is leaking information. Logan is keen to catch the mole as well as the killer, but even with Police Constable Jackie Watson, assigned to help "ease" him back into the job, it seems impossible.
TO ENTER A NEW HELL
From the violent world of organized crime to the dark fantasies of a murderer and the naughty games cops play to stay sane, Logan is moving through the Scottish winter in search of a few hard facts. And as the rain turns to snow, as new outrages are discovered, he begins to get his answers: one victim, one deception, and one killer at a time...
"Solid...no sooner is one crime solved than another comes up to keep you turning the pages."
--Rocky Mountain News
"MacBride is starting at the very top with his first book, which approaches the level of Michael Connelly's best work...MacBride's writing is so good here that it's hard to believe it's not a sign of staying power."
--Flint Journal
