Flesh House [Hardcover]

Stuart MacBride (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2008

Killers have terrorized Aberdeen in the past—Detective Sergeant Logan McRae has the scars to prove it—but when body parts show up in a cargo container at the harbor they kick off Scotland’s largest manhunt in twenty years. Last time they were searching for Kenneth Wiseman, a brutal killer who terrified the country, who was eventually caught only to be acquitted eleven years later on a technicality. Now he’s gone missing, people are dying, and the police are certain he’s at work again.

As the violence escalates,  DS McRae is forced to work with the senior officers assigned to the original case who have returned to Aberdeen to finish what they started. With decades of secrets and lies coming to light, the only thing that’s certain is that the city will never be the same again.

Once again, award–winning author Stuart MacBride fuses his signature dry wit with a dark and twisting plot to tell his most searing and accomplished story yet.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, MacBride's superbly unsettling fourth novel (after Bloodshot) sets Det. Sgt. Logan McRae on the trail of a serial killer in Aberdeen, Scotland. When human remains are discovered first in a shipping container and later in a local butcher shop, McRae's superiors send him to round up Kenneth Wiseman (aka the Flesher), who terrorized the city 20 years earlier but was released on a technicality. Det. Insp. David Insch, who was part of the original Wiseman investigation, is determined to see the man behind bars. But when tragedy strikes, leaving Insch teetering on the edge of throwing away his entire career, McRae realizes that the police have been looking in the wrong direction. As more body parts turn up, McRae must fit the grisly pieces together before time runs out. MacBride's dry wit turns what could have been a gratuitously gory slasher story into a crackling thriller. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Apparently, rain and dark skies are what’s needed to cultivate crime writers: Scotland has a bumper crop, with growing talents such as MacBride joining veterans like Ian Rankin and Denise Mina in a fertile field. In MacBride’s fourth and most ambitious effort, Aberdeen’s Detective Sergeant Logan McRae and cohorts are trying to catch a serial killer. “The Flesher” wears a Margaret Thatcher mask and a butcher’s apron and has a butcher’s skill with blades: the victims are professionally bled, skinned, and sectioned. But the butchery doesn’t stop there: vacuum-packed pieces of human meat are turning up in shops. The good news is that the police think they know who the Flesher is. The bad news is that they don’t know where he is. McRae and his cranky crew—the hypertensive Insch, the icy McAllister, the unsentimental Steel—work together with the ease of a veteran cast, and MacBride adds a couple of new faces, including a BBC cameraman who’s filming the investigation, to keep the chemistry fresh. MacBride may have hit his stride in book one, but here he breaks into a run. The push-pull of tensions from within and without exacerbates a seemingly unsolvable case whose horrors take on staggering dimensions. But though the blood, booze, and rain do pour, persistent black humor sweetens the potion. With weather like that, you’d have to be able to laugh at just about anything. --Keir Graff

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312382634
• ISBN-13: 978-0312382636
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #939,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Scottish

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary as a horror movie, November 24, 2008

By 

Jeri Nevermind "loves to read" (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Flesh House (Hardcover)

This is one book that grabs you by the throat and won't let you go. Not to mention that it has many more twists and turns than the average amusement ride.

Over twenty years ago, the serial killer called the Flesher stalked and killed in Scotland. The police thought they caught the man, and Insch, who was in charge of the case, was deeply upset that never find the evidence to pin all the killings on Wiseman.

Now Wiseman is out of jail and once again the bodies begin to pile up. Worse, much worse, body parts appear in butcher shops.

The story line is as terrifying as it gets, and the number of the murdered is truly astonishing.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not John Harvey, yet.., October 22, 2008

By 

J. Ryberg - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flesh House (Hardcover)

I lucked onto the first DS Logan MacRae book at the public library and have preordered them all since from Amazon. The quirky crew at Grampian police were a real change of pace, and the dialog between the characters is consistently terrific. The players themselves make the books worth reading, particularly DI Roberta Steele. This last installment is no different, but it's the story, particularly the conclusion (or lack thereof), that disappoints. Well written, great characters and dialog, but a nearly 500 page "shaggy dog story".

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Loved it/hated it, but couldn't stop reading it., August 7, 2008

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flesh House (Hardcover)

First Sentence: `No, you listen to me: if my six year old son isn't back here in ten minutes I'm going to come round there and rip you a new arsehole, are we clear?'

Twenty years ago, there was a serial killer knows as "The Flesher" who was purported to kill people and eat them.

Now, seven years after the killer has been released from prison, human meat has been found in a local butcher shop and DS Logan McRae are trying to track down a serial killer dressed in a butcher's apron wearing a Margaret Thatcher mask.

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. Be aware that murders are very graphic and gruesome, but I can deal with that.

My issue is the characters. McRae is about the only remotely likeable character and, even for him, you have very little background or real sense of who he is. The characters are realistic but largely unpleasant.

On the other hand, the plot, while unrelentingly grim, is thoroughly engrossing and delightfully twisty. There was less humor in this book than in ones in the past. A bit more light to offset the dark would have helped.

McBride is definitely a good, skilled writer. I can't say I enjoyed the book, because of the theme, but I couldn't stop reading it.