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Good Son

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"I've already shot a man this evening, so what's the difference now? Like smoking, it gets easier after the first one, right?" - J. McNee

Dundee, Scotland based J. McNee (full first name never given) is not at a good place in his life when we meet him in author Russel D. McLean's debut novel, The Good Son. Formerly on the Dundee police force, McNee was forced into early retirement following a car crash that killed his fiancée and left him physically disabled and psychologically crippled.

Now working as a private investigator, McNee receives a visit from local farmer James Robertson whose estranged brother, Daniel, was found hanging from a tree on the family's farm. Though the police have it down as suicide, James is convinced his brother did not kill himself and hires McNee to investigate what Daniel had been up to during the 30 years since James last saw him.

In addition to putting him at odds with his former colleagues on the police force, McNee's investigation opens up a Pandora's box of local thugs, London gangsters and a mysterious woman with connections to both, as a visit to London reveals that Daniel had been working for one of that city's most notorious gangsters, Gordon Egg.

Not pleased with either Daniel's unexplained disappearance from London, with a substantial sum of Egg's money, or McNee's visit inquiring about him, Egg sends two of his thugs to Dundee to get to the bottom of things. And that's when things go seriously sideways, as Egg's thugs, Ayer and Liman, cut a bloody path through Dundee in their efforts to retrieve the missing money.

Convinced that James Robertson knows where the money is, and that he told McNee, Ayer and Liman pay a visit to McNee's office that results in him being beaten and his office assistant shot. Already burdened with almost incapacitating guilt over his fiancée's death, the shooting of his friend pushes McNee over the edge, to the point he's determined to stop Ayer and Liman no matter the cost... and McNee is willing to pay quite a high price.

In McNee, author McLean has done a spectacular job of portraying a man in the seemingly contradictory position of being incapacitated by apathy for his own life, yet driven by guilt over the loss of his fiancée's. The blunt, edgy dialogue and outbursts of pull no punches violence in The Good Son bring to mind the hard-boiled writing of the legendary Ken Bruen, and I believe it's a well-deserved comparison. But make no mistake about it, McLean has demonstrated with his debut offering that he has a fresh, unique voice all his own. The Good Son is very, very good indeed.

McNee. That's his name, don't wear it out. The name used by his wife, her family and his police colleagues. At least that's what his wife called him before she died in an accident as she was driving him home, McNee riding shotgun, her father in the back. And it's what the police still call him even though he left the force under a cloud of depression, a weight of guilt following said wife's death and san incident where he smacked one of his superiors in the nose.

Since the accident, he's not been able to talk to his father-in-law who blames him for it all and he's had a bad leg which doctors think might be psychosomatic rather than physical. Great name for a Scot with a gammy leg then, McNee, like some joke from fifty years ago.

The man's been carrying that weight of guilt around with him since the accident. It fuels him. Gives him a reason to get up in the morning. Helps him in his work as a Private Investigator.

As we get to know him, we'll realise that his wife's accident has little to do with the way he is, that he's always been burdened, always been socially inept and difficult to get to know. A hard man in respectable clothing.

The more I got to know this guy, the more I liked him.

We met in the first pages. Everything was kicking off.

McKnee has a gun pointed at someone's head. He's already killed someone, he tells us that, so one more might not make any difference.

Those opening pages are full of madness and rage, confusion and adrenalin. It's a great way to get to know a bloke and had me hooked from the off.

Backtrack to the beginning of the story.

Farmer James Robertson comes to McNee, asks him to find out why his brother Daniel (not been home for 30 years) has returned to Dundee and hung himself from a tree.

As McNee digs, he'll find that Daniel Robertson was not a nice guy. Was the right hand man of a London gangster (Egg, and definitely one of the bad variety) and was sleeping with the gangster's wife.

Gangster's wife heads north and is soon brutally dispatched by person or person's unknown.

Dundee, unsexy place for a PI, bursts into action and adventure as the local hard-men try to see off the London mob invasion.
McNee's colleagues on the force get on to his back and resurrect ghosts from his time on the job and his wife's sister and an ex-one-night-stand try and patch things together.

He's like a leaky boat our protagonist. It's why I liked him so much.

There's never a dull moment as he bails like hell to get rid of all the water even as it's rising above his neck.
It's like McLean started to write the character and McKnee decided to go it his own way, ignoring his creator and doing what he pleased. What fun.

This is a first novel, which is hard to believe.

The plot, characters and dialogue are superb. The Dundee setting works surprisingly well and the author shows of an intimate knowledge of the type of city it is. The twists and turns are unpredictable and that's the way I like it.

Each chapter ends with a sentence that uses the first person narrative to good effect and owes something to the classic PIs of our American brothers and sisters. You feel an uneasy resolution and a need to move on quickly.

McLean's touch is interesting. Mostly I found it easy and flowing, one of those page-turners that brings a constant source of pleasure. He almost fooled me with that, for he also has a range of weapons at his disposal. He has blunt which he uses now and then to stun as he throws in a cold, hard phrase to unsettle. There are the sharp objects in there, descriptions and force that cut as the phrase turns. There are guns and fists lurking too. And there's a little wry-smile that jumps out when you're least expecting it as if Harry Lime's lurking in the shadows and having a bloody good time.

I read this before my summer break, but I reckon this is the perfect book for a holiday- you don't have to put in much effort to get an awful lot of satisfaction

If the character's name amuses, get this. The author, McLean has written a story that's anything but.

And something else that made me chuckle, it only cost me 99p for the Kindle.

Fantastic.

The premise is simple: injured P.I. gets a case, which turns nasty, and instead of going to the police right away, he investigates himself. The author has managed to work that premise into something really good and quite unique in a number of ways. I wouldn't say I liked the main character right away, but I found him absolutely compelling. The writing was strong, witty and managed to make me shed a few tears.

James Robertson begs Private Inspector McNee of Dundee, Scotland to learn why his brother Daniel would hang himself. (Perhaps suicide is in their genes because their father also committed suicide.) The police believe it is an ordinary suicide. McNee thinks otherwise, especially when Daniel's girlfriend is found bludgeoned to death and some thugs from the nightclub where Daniel worked begin bullying and shooting anyone who knew him. The Robertson brothers shared dark secrets and McNee must learn what they were before more people die.

An excellent debut novel from Russel D. McLean, "The Good Son" is a fun slice of Scottish noir. It is reminiscent of the classic PI novels written by Mickey Spillane and Ellery Queen. "The Good Son" is classic who dunnit. Did Daniel Robertson hang himself or did someone want to make his murder look like a suicide? The ending was rather shocking and morally twisted. The resolution disturbed me as much as it did McNee.

The central theme for "The Good Son" is guilt and how it affects our actions. From the title, the reader knows that family plays a significant role in the novel`s plot. McNee feels a tremendous amount of guilt over his wife's accidental death. He was arguing with her seconds before their car was forced off the road by an unknown driver. He feels guilt whenever someone close to him is wounded or killed during the course of his investigation into Daniel's suspicious suicide. The Robertson brothers felt tremendous guilt, especially Daniel for disappointing his family. He was not the good son that his father wanted him to be.

McNee is the type of person who irritates me. He keeps all of his emotions buried deep inside him, allowing them to gnaw at his conscious. He can never give straightforward answers about his feelings; he is purposely deceitful. It is no wonder that his associates can't understand how his deceased wife, Elaine, was able to tolerate him. It is no wonder that he fought his superiors in the police force and had to go into business for himself as a PI. He has a lone wolf mentality.

Fortunately for McNee, he is surrounded by likeable people who give him support. Rachel, Elaine's sister, keeps insisting that he forgive himself and rejoin her family. Susan Bright, a former coworker at the police department, keeps him updated on the investigation into Daniel's suicide and provides him with emotional support. Bill is McNee's faithful, conscientious administrative assistant. Naturally, McNee has a nemesis in the form of his former boss, Detective Inspector George Lindsay. McNee must also contend indirectly with George Egg, the gangster who owns the night club where Daniel worked.

The setting for "The Good Son" is very quaint and picturesque. Most of the action takes place in the small rural communities in and around Dundee, Scotland. The descriptions of pubs, moors, meadows and cemeteries are appealing. The setting contrasts sharply with the senseless bloodshed that ensues.

"The Good Son" is a highly recommended crime thriller. The plot moves at a quick pace that is spurred on by ruthless thugs that increase the body count. As I said earlier, the ending is rather shocking. I look forward to reading more crime novels from Russel D. McLean. I also hope that we haven't seen the last of the haunted PI McNee. In future novels, I would like to see him grow closer to his dead wife's family and to learn who was driving the car that caused her to wreck. I would also like to see him develop a more intimate, more romantic relationship with Susan Bright.


Joseph B. Hoyos

Had to order this book from the UK, but it was well worth it. Russel McLean has put together a nasty tale of a family that fell apart years earlier, the aftermath of that, and the troubled PI who tries to figure where all the pieces go.
If I'm not mistaken, this book is also the first Scottish PI novel ever. Willing to be corrected.

Farmer James Robertson finds his brother Daniel hanging from a tree. Although the siblings were estranged for decades when Daniel left home at sixteen after an argument with their father, James rejects the official opinion that Daniel committed suicide. Instead he hires former Dundee police officer J. McNee, who is still recovering from a car accident that severely injured him and killed his fiancée.

McNee quickly uncovers that the deceased worked as a thug for former gangster Gordon Egg, who owns a London nightclub. Meanwhile Kat from London arrives insisting she was close to Daniel while two more bad eggs follow her. McNee fears he is in over his head as a hardboiled detective battling crime kings because his throbbing leg keeps telling him.

Taking the injured hardboiled urban American detective to Dundee makes for an engaging refreshing tale though the lead character never quite feels like he is from Scotland rather than the United States. Still his inquiry, aching leg and all, makes for a fun tale as the cops tell him to stay out, the thugs warn him to stay out, and his common sense pleads with him to stay out; three strokes and he stays in. Fans will enjoy McNee as an avenger trying to survive the case of the dead farmer's brother.

Harriet Klausner