Halfhead. Stuart B. MacBride [Paperback]

Stuart MacBride (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2009

Terrifying serial killer thriller set in the gritty Glasgow of the near future, from the bestselling author of the Logan McRae series. Glasgow, not too far in the future. A new punishment has been devised for the perpetrators of serious crimes -- one that not only reduces the prison population but also benefits society at large. The process is known as halfheading: the offender's lower jaw is removed and they are lobotomized. They are then put to work as cleaners in municipal areas like hospitals, where they serve as a warning to all that crime doesn't pay. But for one halfhead, it seems the lobotomy hasn't quite succeeded. Six years after her surgery, Dr Fiona Westfield 'wakes up' surrounded by the butchered remains of a man she has just brutally killed. As her mind slowly begins to return, she sets out on a quest for vengeance. William Hunter, Assistant Section Director of the 'Network' -- a military wing of the police -- attends the crime scene left behind by the newly awakened halfhead. Sherman House is a run-down concrete housing development full of undesirables and Hunter and his team quickly find themselves in a firefight with the locals. With the help of old comrades and a new friend in the form of prickly but attractive Detective Sergeant Josephine Cameron, Will gets on the trail of the killer. But before long the investigation leads back to a terrible tragedy in his own past, as well as to a terrifying conspiracy to sow violence and misery among Glasgow's most vulnerable citizens.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Slick, gruesome and brutally intelligent, this is bare knuckles thriller-writing.' Michael Marshall 'Compelling' SFX Praise for Stuart MacBride: 'Riveting and gruesome' Telegraph 'Grim, gritty and great fun' Daily Sport 'Stuart MacBride goes straight for the jugular with a tight, thrilling novel' Glasgow Herald 'The action is fercious and the pace unrelenting' Northern Echo

About the Author

Stuart MacBride, without the 'B', is the bestselling author of a series of crime novels featuring DS Logan McRae and set in Aberdeen. He won the International Thriller Writers best debut novel award, and has been shortlisted for the Barry Award, and twice for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. In 2007 he won the Dagger in the Library, awarded for a body of work and in 2008 he won the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Breakthrough Author. Halfhead, published under the name Stuart B MacBride, is his first foray into Science Fiction. Stuart lives in north-east Scotland with his wife Fiona, cat Grendel, and a vegetable plot full of weeds.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager; First Edition edition (September 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007298706
• ISBN-13: 978-0007298709
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing book, November 4, 2009

By 

mickey starrs "ms" (East Meadow, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Halfhead. Stuart B. MacBride (Paperback)

Macbride is unbelievable. I'm not a sci-fi fan but I had to read this after Blind Eye. What a great read. It's shorter than the typical DS Mcrae book, but it literally flies non-stop at a breakneck speed. You cannot put this book down, albeit I had to to go to work, etc. The characters are well developed; the villians are... chilling in their evilness. The book is a well crafted police procedural in every sense, but in the future. Detail is typical in Macbride's style. What's great about this book is there are many terms that you can only figure out by the context - no glossory of what a bacon buttie is and the like. The ending is mindboggling and that's all I'll say. I loved this book. I only hope Stuart Macbride will read this review. DON'T MISS IT!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MacBride's first novel is a bit too gory and grim, July 25, 2010

By 

Cathy G. Cole (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Halfhead. Stuart B. MacBride (Paperback)

First Line: There's blood everywhere.

I've been known to warn folks that, if they have a low tolerance for gore, they might want to give MacBride's Logan McRae mystery series a miss. That warning would go quadruple for halfhead, a novel set in Glasgow, Scotland in the near future. It's a future firmly based in today's events, but I pray that it never comes to pass. Here's the synopsis from the back of the book:

"They call them halfheads: Convicted criminals, surgically mutilated and lobotomised by the State, then sent out do menial jobs in the community so everyone will know what happens when you break the law. There are no appeals, no reprieves, and no one ever comes back. Until now.

"Dr Fiona Westfield, one of the most prolific serial killers Glasgow has ever seen, is waking up. Surrounded by blood and death and darkness. And she wants revenge.

"William Hunter has risen through the ranks since putting Westfield away; now he's Assistant Network Director, in charge of tech-crimes and police actions. Then a routine murder investigation uncovers an appalling conspiracy.

"The vast connurb blocks on Glasgow's deprived south side are about to explode: eleven years ago the VR riots killed millions - now someone wants to start them all over again. And Will is being dragged back into a past he desperately wants to forget."

See what I mean? This world isn't pretty. Not even close. It's a world of Compressed Urban Habitation in which as many people as possible are crammed in as small a living space as possible. It's a world where the masses are kept tractable by continuous feeds of VR-- virtual reality. There are high tech weapons and high tech transportation, and lots of crime.

Even without reading about this book on MacBride's website, I would've known that this is his first novel, and that the Logan McRae mysteries that I love came later. Why? The plot and the action are very good, but the gore factor is so over the top that one scene in particular made me ill (and I'm not squeamish). The characters show depth, but MacBride's trademark twisted, dark sense of humor feels as though it's slipped a gear; it just doesn't quite work. Perhaps it was because the tone of the book was so unrelentingly grim and horrific, but I barely cracked a smile at the humorous bits, let alone laughed out loud.

Although the various elements don't always work smoothly, I did find halfhead fascinating for its view of what the future may hold, and for the simple fight of good against evil. However, if you're not in the mood for a huge slab of tough, extremely rare steak, I'd leave this one alone and stick with MacBride's Logan McRae books.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not one for the squeamish, November 15, 2009

By 

Steve Benner "Stonegnome" (Lancaster, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Halfhead. Stuart B. MacBride (Paperback)

"Halfhead" marks the first venture of Scottish author, Stuart MacBride, into what his publishers seem to want to call science fiction, but is probably more properly classed as science fantasy, or rather future-world thriller -- something of a major departure for an author best known for his Logan McRae series of crime novels, all based in contemporary Aberdeen, a gritty crime series set in the Granite City. (eg "Blind Eye") Regardless of its correct classification, this new book is written in MacBride's trademark no-holds barred mix of blunt prose and colloquial brogue, which makes for a fast and riveting read with the action fairly spinning off the page. It is also a gruesome and gory read, with graphic depictions of almost non-stop and gratuitous violence from the opening sentence, right up until the final climactic shoot-out. What with that, and the endless string of four-letter obscenities flowing from the mouths of the characters, one can almost smell the Hollywood producers lining up to develop this book for the big screen.

The story is set in a Glasgow "not too far in the future", although not a Glasgow that many would recognise as having much in common with the current city, except for the dialect, the appearance of current district and street names, and the ubiquitous presence of Irn Bru - just one of numerous Scottish in-jokes which pepper the prose. The plot is well worked out and with sufficient threads to sustain interest through the violence and blood-shed, and to keep most readers on the edge of their seats throughout, although it is obvious from very early in the book that there are only two possible endings for the book. It is to MacBride's credit that he manages to conceal until almost the very last page just which he'll finally opt for. The end, when it does come, is somewhat abrupt and anti-climactic and also ambiguous as to whether or not it completes, author and publisher clearly keeping their options open for a sequel.

There will undoubtedly be a sequel; MacBride's characters are too likeable and re-usable not to reappear, while the villain of the piece, like Thomas Harrris' Hannibal Lecter ("Hannibal Lecter Trilogy"), is altogether too grotesquely fascinating to be allowed to feature in only one book. Regardless of whether MacBride wants to continue this series or not, I suspect the public -- and therefore the publishers -- will demand more. I am sure that, in spite its many flaws, this book will rocket into the best-sellers list in no time. It is a pity that books such as this will undoubtedly out-shadow the same ideas much better done elsewhere (Sheri S. Tepper's "The Visitor" springing most immediately to mind) but that's just the way the world is, I guess.

If you're into light and frothy prose recounting grim and gruesome events at a break-neck pace in a bleak and unpleasant future, and if you don't mind a lot of foul language and a fair collection of silly ideas vwipping past, give this book a try. I suspect you'll not be able to put it down until you've finished it.