Book Review: Dying Light

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

Dying Light     Amazon US HC Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada HC
Stuart MacBride
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   Hard Boiled
Series: Scottish Detective Logan McRae # 2
St Martin's Minotaur August 2006

Logan MacRae is not having an easy time of it. A case he was assigned to as a cop in Aberdeen, Scotland has turned out badly, leaving a fellow officer gravely wounded and MacRae assigned to a new squad supervised by a difficult officer. His previous supervisor still calls MacRae for assistance from time to time, leaving MacRae in a frustrating, exhausting, tug of war between two sets of work responsibilities as well as a less than understanding girl friend.

A sadistic arsonist is at work, nailing doors and window frames shut before sending Molotov cocktails through the mail delivery slots. And on the shady side of town prostitutes are found badly beaten and in at least one case, dead. As if that were not enough, law abiding citizens of Aberdeen while on outings to walk their dogs are finding mutilated decomposing corpses in the nearby woods.

All these issues and more land on MacRae's plate. With weather alternating between balmy sunshine and miserable summer rain, he and a handful of other cops strive to make sense of it all. A darkly humorous series stakeouts eventually produces a smidgen of evidence which begins to unlock the puzzles. A frantic housewife seeking answers to the disappearance of her philandering husband provides the remaining piece of information which makes all come clear.

Detective Seargeant MacRae is a welcome addition to protagonists in the current list of suspense fiction series.

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM