Customer Reviews

Dying Light

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

 

 

Detective Sargeant Logan McRae had been a golden boy, hero. Now, he is assigned to the "screw-up squad" reporting to Inspector Steele, known as "the Jinx," after a raid leaves a fellow officer in a vegetative coma. The team is looking for a killer; someone who is stripping and beating prostitutes to death. They are also looking for an arsonist who screws shut the doors and windows from the outside before burning down buildings--with the people inside.

I rated MacBride's first book as Very Good, but didn't feel this was quite up to the same level. There seemed to be a strong assumption that readers would have read the first book and, therefore, knew the characters and their history, so individual character development in this book was very thin. I did feel the characters where realistic although not particularly likable. But MacBride's writing is very strong. It is graphically brutal balanced with the type of humor I, again, felt realistic to the characters and situations. I do like MacBride's use dialogue and ability to create sense of place. I shall definitely give MacBride another try.

I am a big fan of both Rankin and Mina. Picked this up at the library and read it pretty much in 3 sittings, not because its too easy a read, but because I thought it was so good and I wanted to find out what happened next -- my #1 criteria for a novel. I'd not heard of MacBride before, but am now here at Amazon to buy his first novel.

I think he is, or very shortly will be, in league with the best of Scottish -- or any nationality for that matter -- detective authors.

I am tempted to give this review 5 stars -- but I did have a slight issue with the ending (s -- there are a few things going on, and some of the interest of the novel is to try to determine how and if they are related). Logan, our hero-detective, *almost* seems to pull rabbits from hats. The solutions felt a bit too neat and quick -- though, I must admit, there is preparation throughout the novel for most of them. Perhaps, if there was one less story thread, Logan would seem less god-like in his detecting abilities when he neatly wraps it all up in the last 20 pages. But, the many threads are also what makes the book interesting.

Logan is very real, very-human in the best and worst ways. The other characters, particularly DI Steele, are well-drawn which is my #2 criteria for a good read. I highly recommend.

Just a few months ago in Aberdeen, Scotland n the Grampian Police Department, Detective Sergeant Logan MacRae was considered a superstar by the media and his peers until a failed raid left a peer dead and "Mr. Police Bloody Hero" reassessed as a screw-up. He now works for a DI called the "Jinx" because his career has ended on the reject squad.

Logan enjoys some night time with WPC Watson when a nearby murder occurs. Cops at the scene decide they need adult supervision officially known as an officer in charge; Logan is the only one available so they interrupt his tryst. At the crime scene he recognizes the battered naked corpse of prostitute Rosie Williams. Though he expects working for the "Jinx" to lead to his firing, Logan begins inquiries into who murdered the prostitute, a case no one else wants. Across town an arson and multiple homicide case has the entire department wanting to be the media darling by solving it. There are six dead inside with windows and doors bolted shut from the outside and petrol everywhere. Soon Logan will see links between the cases and the murder of another hooker, but the leadership thinks he is just a reject seeking glory hound.

In his second Scottish police procedural (see COLD GRANITE), Logan sees the prostitute investigation as a chance to salvage his career in spite of working for the unorthodox Jinx and the knowledge that everyone else sees the arson as the flavor of the moment. The secondary cast is solid as they bring the best and worst of human nature to the forefront while Aberdeen comes across as a gritty rough urban center. Still this is Logan's run as his "altruistic" motive is not justice for a deceased "lowlife", but redemption by the brass.

Harriet Klausner

Detective Sargeant Logan MacRae has been assigned to work under a different D.I., Roberta Steel, after a raid he organized on a warehouse looking for stolen goods results in no arrests and one officer critically injured.

Steel's squad is called the "screw-up squad," where all the idiots and worthless and inexperienced are assigned. This gritty mystery is composed of several cases. One is the beating murders of naked women, prostitutes, occurring every four days or so; another is the murder by arson of two families in homes where the doors and windows have been screwed shut from the outside.

Logan's old D.I., Inch, is working on the arson cases, and ropes Logan in when he can. Logan's old friend journalist Colin Miller (now living with pathologist Dr. Isobel McAllister, Logan's old girlfriend) is onto something, and helps with the investigation, which results in his torture by two thugs from Edinburgh who are trying to move in on the drug trade.

Logan's dedication, hard work, and insights lead to his solving the murders of the prostitutes as well as the arson murders, and he manages to save a few lives into the bargain.

This is MacBride's second novel, following Cold Granite.

Armchair Interviews says: Non-stop suspense and scary thugs make this a book you cannot put down.

Scotish mystery writers managed in last several years to redifine the genre. Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and quite a few others write some of the best crime novels this decade. Stuart MacBride stands out even amongst this crowd. He has the same dark, gloomy tone, but the main difference is the wicked sense of humor that makes the horrors that his books describe easier to handle. His Det. Sergeant McRae is over his head like most of the other policemen, but he is gentler and more caring that is good for him.

Mr. MacBride's book are so good that I am ordering them now from England, because some penpusher in St. Martin Minotaur Press( or whatever they call it these days) decided to stop printing this series. Wow, what a genius.

For my money, Stuart MacBride is the best crime author writing today, better than Connelly, Lescroat and all the rest. This, only his second book, is a masterpiece. His characters are very human and very unique. MacBride does not shrink from placing them in fascinating situations and his iconic character, Detective Sgt. Logan McCrae is the best detective in police procedurals today. And you'll meet Inspector Steel, a force of nature who can hurl epithets better than anyone else in fiction; her rival, Inspector Insch, who is a walking atom bomb; and others. MacBride's plot is complicated and twisty, but he never loses control of it. Also, he does not rely on blatant coincidences to move the plot forward, like many other writers do. The best part of all this is that MacBride is only starting out in his writing career. We will have many more compelling, riveting books to look forward to.

My mom was living in Aberdeen for 5 years and I've visited many of the places Mr. MacBride writes so vividly about. I love the mixture of horrific scenes and laugh out loud humor.

I look forward to the next book in this series.

Hi, Macbride's grim social realism returns in the sequel to debut Cold Granite. It is summer in Aberdeen and Macbride uses this as a dialectical metaphor where the summer light reveals its opposites: brutality, selfishness, sadism and murder.

All the memorable and interesting characters from Cold Granite are back: the conscientious, peace-loving, easygoing and tolerant (but easily stressed) DS Logan McRae; the sweet-eating and grossly overweight DI Insch; the Glaswegian crime reporter Colin Miller; and MacRae's ex-romantic partner the "Ice Queen" pathologist Isobel MacAlister. Logan has been reassigned to DI Steel's f***-up squad where the hopeless are sent in the hope that they can reform and reinvent themselves.

Although DI Steel makes a brief appearance in Granite City it is here she comes into her own. I always picture Mrs Slocombe from the classic TV show "Are You Being Served?" when I imagine the politically incorrect and highly volatile lesbian DI Steel. She shows herself, underneath all the bad temper, posturing, selfishness, and petty vanity, to be Logan's supporter and friend. She writes an official letter of recommendation for him (only to tear it up) and introduces us to old-school politically-incorrect policing when she makes a secret deal with a councillor for him not to criticize Aberdeen police in return for his sexual activities with a 13-year-old Lithuanian prostitute to be kept silent. For a time the old-school deal works....

DI Insch is back along with his bad temper, impatience, ego, and constant sweet-eating propensities. Logan cannot officially work with him this time but he does offer some clues to him for his arson case. At heart DI Insch, like DI Steel, is old-school but compassionate. He says as an aside to Logan: "Don't let the b******s of Professional Standards get you down". I feel Macbride may have made a mistake killing off DI Insch in a later book as his character was vital to the early mix. (Go on, Mr Macbride, bring him back, he wasn't really dead...)

Logan's character also develops considerably here as we spend so much time with him. We share his continual frustration at DI Steel calling him on his off-days so he cannot enjoy time with his romantic partner WPC Jackie Watson. He is also continually on edge and afraid of the real power of the Professional Standards Department and many people working today in politically correct and oppressive institutions will share his frustrations. Rankin's DI Rebus did not care at all about such people but he was from a different age. I don't think it is correct to label Macbride's characters "unlikeable" (although this is a value judgement). I think Logan is very likeable and Insch and Steel likeable to some extent even only as they stand strong for authenticity and old-school policing and against political correctness. However, Macbride is less successful in developing the characters of Simon Rennie, Jackie Watson and the other uniformed officers. You feel that he is trying hard but it's just not working.

In terms of plot, three plots work simultaneously and come together nicely at the end. This novel abides by the rules of the crime novel genre in that the bad guys get caught in the end. Only in a later novel in this series does Macbride dare to breach this formula. The three plots are: (a) dog and man "torso murders"; (b) Ripper-style prostitute slayings; and (c) two house fires where people are locked in and burnt alive. Endings are totally predictable with only one mild twist where it is not the crazy female neighbour but the jealous wife who kills the unfaithful husband.

I do have to say that Macbride ups the graphic nature of the sexualized violence here beyond anything found in Cold Granite or in the Ian Rankin canon. The story starts with a guy getting sexual thrills from locking residents inside a house and then setting fire to it. We read of a torture of a drug dealer (after the fact) and Colin Miller has his fingers removed by a Edinburgh gang (those responsible for the arsons). In death-metal music the band Cannibal Corpse only became shockingly sordid on their second and third albums and the same can be said for Macbride. It is necessary to secure the fan base first. However, there is subtelty in the overall presentation in that we sense the sadness and compassion of Logan and others towards Miller and that of all the police towards the prostitute victims. The social realism is also present with the drug dealer torture taking place in a high-rise block on the River Don overlooking the North Sea. I have not been to Aberdeen but I'm sure those that have appreciate Macbride's realism.

As mentioned in my review of Cold Granite, Macbride did an excellent job in giving all characters believable life histories that predate the start of Cold Granite. Logan's media success and stomach injury as a result of his defeat of The Mastricht Monster are vital for the development of his character and all future plots. He is forever "the Police Hero" of Yesterday and must deal with both his own regrets at never capturing the moment again and the petty jealousy of others. It would be great to see Macbride actually go "back in time" and give us the Mastricht Monster story in the same way that Lee Child's recent book The Affair takes us back in time prior to the events of book one of the Jack Reacher series.

Overall, this is an excellent follow-up. Everything we enjoyed in the debut is here and here we get introduced properly to the marvellous and extreme DI Steel. I was in no way disappointed although my prior hopes had been set high. I'm a dedicated Macbride supporter after two books. I rate Dying Light only very marginally below Cold Granite. This is some of the very best contemporary writing in the crime fiction genre.

Also highly recommended: Tony Black, Paying For It.

I love this series. I have one question, am I the only one that hears DI Steel's dialog in Jane Lynch's (Glee, 2 and a 1/2 men, Criminal Minds) voice? I wonder if she can do a Scottish accent?

The story lines are dark, the dialog entertaining - what's not to love?