Flesh House [Paperback]

Stuart MacBride (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2009

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, when they tracked down Kenneth Wiseman, a brutal killer who butchered his victims, he was later acquitted 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, McRae is forced to work with the senior officers assigned to the original case who have returned 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.

Once again, knuckle-biting suspense and wry humor come together in Flesh House to make for another brilliant addition to Stuart MacBride’s award-winning series.

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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 467 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312584075
• ISBN-13: 978-0312584078
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,158,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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.

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite in the Logan MacRae Series So Far, November 18, 2011

By 

Martha "Avid reader and audiobook listener, m... (Virginia Beach, VA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flesh House (Paperback)

I have listened to all of the Logan MacRae series on audiobook with the exception of "Flesh House", since I can't find it as an audio download anywhere. It's only available on audio CD in unabridged form (Flesh House) for almost $100. I can wait until it comes out in abridged format. Stuart MacBride is absolutely BRILLIANT and, IMHO, this book is some of his best work. I love the characters in the series (especially DI Steel) and DS Logan MacRae is definitely not one of your run-of-the-mill crime novel heroes. He's smart, cranky, and makes loads of mistakes (and frequently gets the mickey taken out of him by Steel, et al), while still managing to catch the bad guys. I love the way MacBride ends his books. He sort of leaves you hanging a bit and very often introduces a new conundrum to make you anxious for the next book in the series. He uses humor to lighten up what could otherwise be quite gruesome crime scenes. Many of his characters are very UN-politically correct and it seems pretty obvious to me that he has fun writing these novels.

If you like edgy and darkly humorous crime fiction, you will LOVE Stuart MacBride's books.