Refreshing | Cold Granite (Logan McRae)

A new candidate for the Tartan Noire movement | Cold Granite (Logan McRae) | Stuart MacBride

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	• Cold Granite (Logan McRae) Stuart MacBride St. Martin's Minotaur, 2006 - 480 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Solid cast of characters, offbeat setting, good crime story

This was my first venture into the Scottish police procedural, though I guess there are quite a few titles out there if the category has its own name: "Tartan noir". In any event, I enjoyed the tough but likable law enforcement officers of Aberdeen, Scotland and the creepy yet engaging crime story in which they move about. "Cold Granite" also benefits from interesting supporting characters, including an ambitious reporter who keeps getting in the way of the police investigation yet still sort of becomes friends with the central invesitigator, Detective Sergeant Logan MacRae. There's even the occasional romantic scene, between Logan and one of his female officers, to lighten up the dark story from time to time (though the scenes don't so much as depict a romance as Logan's desire for one). I liked the energy and vibrant images of "Cold Granite", as well as its easy readibility. I'll be sure to look for Stuart MacBride's second offering.

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Refreshing

I won't delve into the plot of this book, as you can find that by reading other reviews.

I do want to say that the character of DS Logan McRae is a refreshing change from the "usual suspects" of the angst-ridden, misunderstood-by-his-superiors protagonist.

The story takes on some gritty issues (child murders) and is by no means a "cozy" but you can tell that Stuart MacBride doesn't take his characters too seriously. MacBride has given Logan some laugh out loud dialogue and I especially enjoyed the relationship between Logan and the corpulent, no nonsense, candy addicted DI Insch. I hope DI Insch is a regular character in the ongoing series.

The only main character I didn't particularly care for was Logan's potential love interest - WPC Watson. Watson tries too hard to compensate being a "woman in a man's world", runs roughshod over people and is gratuitously vulgar. I hope to see more depth to her character in future outings.

If you enjoy British police procedurals or mysteries, make sure to check out the Logan McRae series. Highly recommended.

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A new candidate for the Tartan Noire movement

This is an exceptionally mature and complex book considering it is MacBride's first novel. His comfort with the material and sureness of plotting remind me of Jim Kelly, whose first novel The Water Clock was another spectacular debut that has borne out over several follow-ons. I know that MacBride has written more books since but this was only recently recommended to me so I'm going to try and review it in isolation.

On the face of it, this is a really good police procedural that has a strong cast of characters, including the requisite flawed protagonist, who is a just-back-from-horrible-on-the-job-injury Detective Sergeant Logan McRae. He's a bit of a head case (natch) but he's also bright, insightful, and his earlier scrape with death has given him a perspective that few other experiences can provide. The main storyline involves the abduction and murder of young children. The introduction of these murders is handled with respect and compassion by the author but also with unflinching directness. Some of the murders have obviously common threads but others are far outside the profile and are deeply frustrating for the investigating team. There may or may not be an association with a known thug who has been fished from the local waters, quite dead and minus his kneecaps. With so much going on, it would be easy to make hash of the story, but MacBride weaves it all together with deftness; he doesn't waste a word. For those of you who are familiar with the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries of Reginald Hill, there is a police supervisor named Insch that bears more than a passing resemblance to Dalziel...and that's a good thing.

Finally, as if there isn't enough going on (and, believe it or not, I never had a problem keeping track - unlike some other books that require backtracking to keep straight), there is a marvelous turn on how the media can, by the stroke of a pen, manipulate the facts of an investigation and influence the opinion of a willing public that is always happy to believe the worst.

There is some awesome writing coming out of Scotland these days and the Tartan Noire movement is extremely well-named. I'm not sure MacBride is ready for official membership yet, but, based on this, he has his feet in the water.

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Enough killers to go around

The Chamber of Commerce should pay this guy not to write. Never, outside of a sci-fi hell, ever been less likely to visit a setting. Cold, wet and uninviting. Even a careless reader can find half a dozen suspects. They all did it.

After a long recuperation from a stab wound, Detective Sergeant Logan McRae?s first night back on duty in Aberdeen, Scotland, takes him to a crime scene where the body of a missing boy has been found on a riverbank. To the horror of even the most experienced cops on the job, all the details point to a ritualistic murder?a serial killer. Then twenty-four hours later, another child goes missing.

The case?s latest developments keep appearing as the next day?s headlines, leading the department to believe one of their own is leaking information. Logan is keen to catch the mole as well as the killer, but even with Police Constable Jackie Watson, assigned to help ?ease? him back into the job, it seems impossible.

From the violent world of organized crime to the dark fantasies of a murderer and the naughty games cops play to stay sane, Logan is moving through the Scottish winter in search of a few hard facts. And as the rain turns to snow, as new outrages are discovered, he begins to get his answers: one victim, one deception, and one killer at a time...

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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