Customer Reviews

Cold Granite

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was my first venture into the Scottish police procedural, though I guess there are quite a few titles out there if the category has its own name: "Tartan noir". In any event, I enjoyed the tough but likable law enforcement officers of Aberdeen, Scotland and the creepy yet engaging crime story in which they move about. "Cold Granite" also benefits from interesting supporting characters, including an ambitious reporter who keeps getting in the way of the police investigation yet still sort of becomes friends with the central invesitigator, Detective Sergeant Logan MacRae. There's even the occasional romantic scene, between Logan and one of his female officers, to lighten up the dark story from time to time (though the scenes don't so much as depict a romance as Logan's desire for one). I liked the energy and vibrant images of "Cold Granite", as well as its easy readibility. I'll be sure to look for Stuart MacBride's second offering.

Logan McRae is a Detective Sergeant with the Aberdeen police. After being away for a year, recuperating from a serious stabbing, he returns to find himself thrown into the worst kind of case. A child's mutilated body is found,and soon another child goes missing. The plot diverges into several, possibly-related, cases, leading to long days and sleepless nights for the force.

MacBride has created engaging characters, with layered dimensions. McRae has to earn the respect and trust of his co-workers and superiors. He is forced to work alongside his former lover, who is the icy medical examiner.

The book contains gritty, realistic descriptions of crimes against children, so be forewarned. But for fans of Scottish police procedurals, MacBride is a welcome new addition to the bookshelves.

I am an admitted fan of police procedurals, and this was a good one. I particularly liked that McRae wasn't an angst-ridden, alcohol-driven character--although McRae did his fair share of imbibing-whose relationship to his fellow officers and superiors is realistic. The subject matter is difficult; anytime children are involved, it's hard to read. The story was well plotted, with interesting twists and turns and good suspense. I even enjoyed the bit of a nod to Ian Rankin. Altogether, I enjoyed it and look forward to the next MacBride.

an extrodinary read. stuart macbride has done for aberdeen, scotland what ian rankin has for edinburgh. as a police procedural novel, this book raises the genre to a new level.

an exceptional plot that keeps a reader guessing. i am looking forward to reading his future novels.

This is MacBride's first novel, but it feels like he's been doing this all his life. His work is solid, confident, and full of all things noir, from the freezing rains to the sad, lonely murdered children tossed away like roadkill. MacBride shows us an Aberdeen so real you'll come away with a cold. It's no surprise this was one of the novels short-listed by the International Thriller Writers as Best First Novel. MacBride's the real deal.

Having never read any Rankin books, but being intrigued by the captivation which they have earned at home and abroad, I found myself drawn to a large yellow "police line do not cross" style advertisement ligature around a new hard back on a recent trip to a book shop in Inverness, Scotland. Recognising the reference of its title "Cold Granite" to my home city of Aberdeen, I felt the urge to purchase it and find a nearby coffee chain to spend the rest of my afternoon in. I was not dissappointed. Three lattes later, head sore and heart racing, I was well into this excellent crime-thriller, set in the bleak and recognisable oil capital of Europe. McBride sets the scene fantastically, the potential for character development he sets in place well and the atmosphere - I could just picture walking down Union Street, slush saturating a good few inches of clothing on my lower limbs, on my way to an old student haunt of Archie Simpsons for a pint and a laugh. Aberdeen has never had it so good - an author with a seemingly tongue in cheek affection of a city which I know and love, but to the outsider is generally thought of as being cold damp and "dreich". This will do Aberdeen no favours in attracting visitors, but in "Cold Granite", with its cunning, clever, though at times a little over - predictable story lines, Aberdeen will HOPEFULLY have a new rival to Mr Rebus. Mr McBride - I loved it - roll on Logan McRae's next outing. May I suggest a wee trip up into Aberdeenshire proper - how about a wee "illegal immigrant fish factory workers / gang master murder spree"?

This is an exceptionally mature and complex book considering it is MacBride's first novel. His comfort with the material and sureness of plotting remind me of Jim Kelly, whose first novel The Water Clock was another spectacular debut that has borne out over several follow-ons. I know that MacBride has written more books since but this was only recently recommended to me so I'm going to try and review it in isolation.

On the face of it, this is a really good police procedural that has a strong cast of characters, including the requisite flawed protagonist, who is a just-back-from-horrible-on-the-job-injury Detective Sergeant Logan McRae. He's a bit of a head case (natch) but he's also bright, insightful, and his earlier scrape with death has given him a perspective that few other experiences can provide. The main storyline involves the abduction and murder of young children. The introduction of these murders is handled with respect and compassion by the author but also with unflinching directness. Some of the murders have obviously common threads but others are far outside the profile and are deeply frustrating for the investigating team. There may or may not be an association with a known thug who has been fished from the local waters, quite dead and minus his kneecaps. With so much going on, it would be easy to make hash of the story, but MacBride weaves it all together with deftness; he doesn't waste a word. For those of you who are familiar with the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries of Reginald Hill, there is a police supervisor named Insch that bears more than a passing resemblance to Dalziel...and that's a good thing.

Finally, as if there isn't enough going on (and, believe it or not, I never had a problem keeping track - unlike some other books that require backtracking to keep straight), there is a marvelous turn on how the media can, by the stroke of a pen, manipulate the facts of an investigation and influence the opinion of a willing public that is always happy to believe the worst.

There is some awesome writing coming out of Scotland these days and the Tartan Noire movement is extremely well-named. I'm not sure MacBride is ready for official membership yet, but, based on this, he has his feet in the water.

As the book cover says" Tartan noir at it's best". It's certainly tartan, set in the granite city of Aberdeen, and as for noir, it couldn't get any blacker. A former academic who has now become a raving madman, worships anything dead, animals, humans and vermin, and stores them by the thousands, their rotting, maggot ridden carcasses piled high in putrid mounds, in sheds on a deserted farm. DS Logan McRae is returning to active duty after recovering from a near fatal stabbing and has, as his first job, the search for several missing children, feared dead. The sexually mutilated bodies of several small boys are found, but when that of a 4 year old girl is found, the police are concerned that there may be more than one killer. The premise of the story is good and, at first I was thrilled to find a new writer whose writing style appealed to me instantly, but as the story grew darker, I had to admit that, perhaps because of the brilliance of his writing, the stench and horror was getting to me and had to question whether or not I really wanted to continue along this line. I'd happily read another by Mr. Macbride in the hope that he's let his undoubted ability as a writer take over and not feel that he had to persist in this graphic ugliness..I've already given up on Patricia Cornwell for this very reason.

I like this bloke as a writer.If you like "Rebus", you will definitely like this bloke's style, charcters are believable, always a strong plot and he takes you on a journey and that's what a good yarn is all about. But then again, I prefer English writer's to American writers as we are not all 6ft 10" tall and bloody bullet proof,''''know what I mean '''.

I am very impressed by this book. The author follows on in the social-realist tradition of the excellent Ian Rankin but either subconsciously or just because he is of a younger generation Macbride's hero DS Logan McRae, unlike Rankin's Rebus, struggles continually to keep his head above water mentally and emotionally in the face of not only criminals and Aberdeen's weather but the odious forces of political correctness, the Professional Standards division. Rebus was of that generation where he could be a maverick and a renegade and still be successful on the job. By contrast, McRae's perpetual anxiety that he will be disciplined and punished by Professional Standards is very Foucauldian and expresses so well our current post-modern predicament. Rebus did not fear the forces of political correctness within the police whereas McRae lives in perpetual anxiety at being "caught out" or "caught short" by the corporate careerists who never go near a criminal or a housing project. Who cannot identify with McRae who is basically a good guy at the end of the day?

This book is brilliant primarily for the social-realist descriptions of the city of Aberdeen from both socieconomic and architectural perspectives. Macbride perhaps even outdoes Rankin here. I think this is a clear highlight of this debut book but I feel the later books tend to assume that you were "there from the start". In the later books Macbride tries too hard to be cool and trendy with too much direct speech so that it can become confusing as it is hard to be sure who is saying what. This is a particular problem with "Shatter the Bones".

One other brilliant feature of the book is that Macbride gives all his characters reasonable and reasonably detailed past histories so that it does not appear like the characters simply dropped from the sky in that "year zero" manner characteristic of first novels in a series. We learn that Isobel Macalister and McRae were an item and we see the tension and embarresment in the working relationship which presently exists. We learn that Colin Miller, the journalist, left Glasgow because of his falling out with criminal elements there. His arrival in Aberdeen nicely coincides with this first book of the series. We learn of McRae injuring himself in his famous encounter with the Mastricht Monster.

Di Insch, the sweet eating, obese, detective inspector, is a key character in the book. We perceive that his brusque and authoritarian manner and constant sweet eating are nervous mechanisms designed to cover up job-related stress and his basically good heart. I think Macbride may have erred in the later book where DI Insch is killed - I feel his character added significantly to the quality of the stories. Macbride did not have to do this as it is not as if a TV actor wanted to leave a long-running series. He may have shot himself in the foot. I liked DI Insch. DI Steel makes a minor first appearance here and her fascinating character becomes more significant in later books. Her friendship with McRae is charming and adds some warmth to the storylines. People like DI Steel and Colin Miller are the outrageous rogues who pull McRae further away from the political correctness expected by Professional Standards. (I always mentally imagine DI Steel as looking like the Mrs Slocombe character from the classic BBC comedy "Are you being served?")

This is certainly one of my favourite, if not favourite, Macbride book. I feel that Macbride tries too hard to be trendy and cool in later books by too much continuous direct speech and some of the contextual background descriptions of scenes, moods and places get cut down in size or go missing. He still does a fantastic job of giving life to Aberdeen and introducing the city to people who have never been there such as me. Also, he went too far in my opinion in one later novel where the criminal left England "unpunished" at the end of the novel. I would prefer he stuck to the basics of the crime genre where the police wins in the end especially where peadophiles are involved. I do prefer to see these types caught or killed off.

Lastly now that Rankin's DI Rebus has finally retired I would love to see him informally invited up to Aberdeen to solve a case with McRae and DI Steel. Imagine them all in the pub together. Would they drink Rebus' preferred IPA or McRae's Stella? How would Rebus get on with DI Steel? Could Rebus boost McRae's low level of self-confidence over a pint or ten? I hope that this can come together as a novel although I doubt it will happen.

Also recommended: Tony Black, Paying for It