Not going to finish ( )

As Singing to the Dead opens readers are introduced rapidly to several story arcs. In the first of the two main threads two small boys have gone missing in Glasgow but it’s hard to know if they might have been kidnapped or are runaways due to their fairly grim home lives. There’s also an elderly man who has been killed in a house fire but Police soon learn that there might be something more sinister at play as it seems he may have been poisoned. The Police at Partickhill station are still recovering from the loss of their old DCI, Alan McAlpine, and are having to deal with a new boss who they find it hard to like.

Ramsay’s strength lies in her ability to create very credible characters, in particular because she doesn’t shy away from depicting unlikable people who still manage to do good things. This is rarer than it ought to be in fiction. Not that all the characters are unlikable of course though, as in life, some of them are but, again as in life, pure evil is rare. These kind of complex characters are far more interesting than easily identifiable heroes and villains. Between a whole police squad and all the players needed to keep several story arcs running there are quite a lot of characters but I never found myself overwhelmed. In fact I enjoyed the literary version of an ensemble cast in which no one character really played a lead role. On top of maintaining interest it made it harder to predict what would happen and who would turn out to be the bad guy(s).

Ramsay also juggles her many threads well and it would be a fussy reader indeed who couldn’t find enough content to keep one’s mind whirring with all that’s going on in this book. That said, I found the middle of the book a bit ‘woolly’ and think it could have done with tighter editing. There was some duplication and labouring of points, particularly in the thread concerning Eve and her sister Lynne, which slowed down the action and made the book longer than it needed to be (another 500 page tome). However, the stories are wrapped up masterfully and even if you predict the outcome of one thread I suspect you’ll struggle to work them all out.

This is quite a different book to [b:Absolution: A Novel of Suspense|1850317|Absolution A Novel of Suspense|Caro Ramsay|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1189184642s/1850317.jpg|1850811]. It doesn’t have the emotional punch of its predecessor but on the flip side it’s far more complex and suspenseful. Overall I found it an excellent follow-up book, not least because it didn’t stick to exactly the same formula as the first which shows the author isn’t afraid to take some risks and I have to applaud that. ( )

Excellent plot, characters and dialogue in authentic Glasgow locations. I kept wanting to know what happened next and characters who initially seemed unsympathetic were transformed later in the plot. Can't wait to read another in this series. ( )

Caro Ramsay's second book - SINGING TO THE DEAD - has a lot to live up to. ABSOLUTION was just a fantastic book, with a particularly brave ending. That ending means SINGING TO THE DEAD starts out looking back to some of that story, and with a need to shift the focus to many of the lesser characters from the first book, as well as introduce new ones.

The disappearance of two seven-year-old boys starts an investigation which finds itself stretched to the limit when a house fire turns into a full-scale murder hunt as well. Then another seven-year-old boy disappears and this time it's the son of DI Colin Anderson.

ABSOLUTION was undoubtedly one of my favourite debut books from last year, so SINGING TO THE DEAD was always going to be interesting reading - particularly as I was keen to see if Ramsay would continue to be as bold as she had been first time around. The start of SINGING TO THE DEAD did seem to be a little unfocused, and there was a rather hefty concentration on the personal aspects of some of the team members - but once a lot of the setup is cleared away, and Ramsay gets down to the core of the investigations the pace picks up markedly.

Ramsay handles the multiple threads of these investigations - and ultimately - the team members really well. She also addresses their reactions to the events at the end of ABSOLUTION well, solidly giving the book a sense of history, without dwelling on the past. I don't think you would have to read the first book to understand events in SINGING TO THE DEAD - it's probably enough to realise that there is history for many of this team and that each of them is reacting to that history in varying ways. The chacterisations are great, the police procedural aspects of the book solid, and there's a real skill to the way that the various threads are interwoven. SINGING TO THE DEAD threw me a little at the start, but I ended up liking this as much as I did the author's first book. ( )

http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/2009/05/07/jennies-review-singing-to-the-dead-by-caro... ( )