This is terrific, a dark, angry story about child abuse and murder with an anti-hero and a cold, unforgiving setting, Aberdeen. It’s gritty, violent and graphic with a lot of black humour that lifts it. There is a past to our anti-hero, DS Logan McRae, which made me think I was reading a second novel, but no, this is the first of a series which is very good news. I think he is rather special.
Stuart MacBride's Number One bestselling crime series opens with this award-winning debut. DS Logan McRae and the police in Aberdeen hunt a child killer who stalks the frozen streets.
Winter in Aberdeen: murder, mayhem and terrible weather.
It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Three-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch: strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. And he's only the first. There's a serial killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood.
Soon the dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. And if Logan isn't careful, he could end up joining them.
