Bloodshot – Book #12

|-------------+----------------------------------------|
| Title | Bloodshot |
|-------------+----------------------------------------|
| Author | Stuart MacBride |
|-------------+----------------------------------------|
| Genre | Adult Mystery (Tartan Noir) |
|-------------+----------------------------------------|
| Pages | 439 |
|-------------+----------------------------------------|
| Publisher | St. Martin’s Minotaur |
|-------------+----------------------------------------|
| Copyright | 2007 |
|-------------+----------------------------------------|



Synopsis (from this web-site)
The pounding rain of Aberdeen, Scotland is predominant in the third thriller by Scottish writer MacBride. Detective Sergeant Logan McRae is suffering under his superior, Detective Inspector Steel and her team of screw-up cops. Logan is extremely busy these days – he is involved in tracking soccer star Rob Macintyre, who is the prime suspect in a series of brutal rapes, and a porn star soon turns up dead following a horrible crime. To top it all off, an eight-year-old boy is on the run after killing an elderly man. Logan’s live-in girlfriend, Police Constable Jackie Watson, is growing increasingly distant to Logan as she works the Macintyre rape case and when Macintyre is found severely beaten, Logan wonders if Jackie is to blame.

Why I read It
I have been reading Stuart MacBride’s blog since before he published his first book thanks to the link on the great Sarah Weinman’s site. Speaking of which, I really need to list the book websites I frequent in the sidebar. If you are interested in mysteries at all, Sarah’s site, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, is the greatest blog ever. I can trace about 50% of all I read back to reviews I have seen on her blog.

Anyways I read Stuart’s first book, Cold Granite, when it came out and then over the years I forgot about him – Sorry Stuart if you are prone to googling yourself and read this. Anyways I was looking over my log of books read (a good practice to get into for just this reason) when I remembered him. A short search and I learned he had gone on to publish a book every year and my library system stocked them. So I am just now catching up.

Plus it is good solid Scottish Crime fiction, sad and violent on the one hand and blackly funny on the other. Plus the books are set in Aberdeen letting you know that Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Lock Dubh are not the only place to die a nasty death while on vacation.

What I Thought About It
Good story that just makes you fear Scotland as the crime capitol of the world :-) I like the implied social commentary about fame and its usefulness in getting away with crime. Plus what role do we as family have in helping versus enabling each other in nefarious behaviours? While you can read the books randomly I recommend you start at the beginning to get the overall character development.

Mormon Mentions
None

Author Biography

Stuart MacBride lives in the North East of Scotland, where he writes gruesome crime novels and grows gruesome potatoes.