Talk about a noir story. Searching for a killer who cooks and eats their prey, and the investigation is a mess. Wrong suspect, can't figure out who is being targeted, can't catch them, and the bodies mount up. ( )

This was one of the strangest books I've read in a while. I'm not sure what to make of it. First of all, I'm beginning to suspect that the Keystone Cops have come back in the form of this series. There's a lot of zaniness throughout, and lots of laughs. Kind of strange considering the crimes are so gruesome - people being butchered and cut up into meat packages that make their way into stores. Lots of laughs - seriously.

Then there was the ending. That got complicated and strange, and I can't help thinking I missed something. I'm not 100% sure who did what, or who was real, or even what happened to some of the people. Part of the problem was that there were so many characters spread out over many years, and it was hard to keep up with them. But it was confusing even knowing the characters. But lots of fun to read, nevertheless. ( )

So, I was going to do this tomorrow. I finished the book a little before ten, and was just going to go to bed. Do this tomorrow. But I was restless, wanted to start another book, but couldn't bring myself to do so without writing my little review. And so, here I sit, in my jammies, writing about one sick bastard. I'm looking at you, Stuart MacBride.

There's got to be a point where description turns to pornography, right? A limit to the amount of glee a writer can take in describing the violence of which I don't doubt humanity is capable (I was in Gainesville during the Danny Rolling manhunt after all), yeah? And yet, MacBride gets more disturbing in not only the creative ways people can destroy one another, all the while increasing the level of likability of his main character. When I first started the Logan McRae series, I wasn't sure I would stick with it. Serviceable tartan noir, but nothing remarkable and Denise Mina and Ian Rankin had spoiled me. Still, I liked that McRae, for all his brilliant, intuitive leaps, never seemed to get promoted from detective sergeant to detective inspector (but come on, it's going to have to happen, or you're going to have to explain why, MacBride) and gave us insight into the workhorses of the Scottish police force. So I read the forth, and it was pretty damn good.

Look, this isn't the best of Scottish crime writing, but then I'm not sure MacBride is shooting for that. Honestly, I'm not sure what he's shooting for, he may just be enjoying himself, but his books are compelling on a few levels. First, the crimes are so horrific, yet believable in their unfolding and eventual solving. Largely, MacBride has avoided the trap that always seems to catch Michael Connelly, namely that he (Connelly) never really reveals anything until the BIG reveal, making the solution a little unbelievable and sometimes a bit too unsatisfying. Logan has intuitive leaps, but they come after bits of evidence that are also clues to the reader-- this time around, I kinda sorta figured out the mystery, and it enhanced my enjoyment rather than diminishing it. Second, the chaos. I've mentioned this before, but MacBride never ignores that cops have more than one thing to do at a time. As much as I love Rebus, it never seemed like his caseload was all that full. Occasionally there would be multiple crimes, but they always appeared to be connected at some level. Again, not a complaint so much as an observation about what MacBride does differently. Logan, as a DS, is attached to at least three superior officers at various points in the book, is absolutely brutalized with expectations of work to be done, and the cast of characters he interacts with in the course of it all are legion (well, perhaps not so big, but big enough) to provide a bit of dizziness.

In this book, MacBride does a risky thing: he beats up on his own a little, and rather than introducing heretofore unknown cops on which to beat, he does it with major, recurring characters. Connelly did this a third of the way through the Harry Bosch series, but it was with an absolute bastard and a one-dimensional one at that. The character who suffers the most in this novel may not be that fleshed out (sorry, bad pun if you've read it), but he's kind of a big deal and decidedly not a "bad guy." Moral ambiguity. Mmmm.

Still, the book isn't perfect. Really, I give it four stars in relation to the other McRae novels. It's better, but uneven. DI Steele, a character I initially hated but have come to really enjoy and favor, seemingly disappears near the end of the book, which is odd as she was so central through most of it to that point. Though, thinking back on it now, she really could have been replaced with any other DI and only the humor would have been missing-- which is saying something, don't get me wrong. Yet, Auntie Roberta was like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (as a student recently pointed out to me): not necessary at all and the plot would turn out the same way. And while I don't need my loose ends tied up, especially in crime fiction, the way this one ended was a bit jumpy.

All-in-all, a good read. I'll continue, if this is a flavor (sorry, can't help myself) of what's to come. ( )

Disappointing Scottish police procedural. Best thing about it was all the drinkin & cussin. ( )

Logan (the only smart Aberdeen policeman) searchers for killer/butcvherr while being harassed by his boss and others. Killer is an unexpected non-butcher. ( )