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My first Stuart McBride book and boy what a fun read! Ultra violence, dark humour, gruesome subject matter and most importantly a compelling story.
The story features a cast of colorful characters set on the Scottish coast in a Whodunnit frame. Ripe with heaping doses of grit, this was a stand out among other police procedurals for me. fivestarread #contemporaryfiction #crime #detectivefiction #murdermystery #scottishnoir #serialkillerthriller #suspense #thriller Ash Henderson is arrogant, rude, violent and treats everyone as less intelligent than himself. The only person he appears to have some tenderness for is McDonald, a functioning alcoholic who can't work unless she's had a large helping of alcohol.Ash is a Superhero - able to continue despite all the beatings, injuries, amputations, torture, stabbings and shootings he receives along the way. But he's the nasty evil Superhero with a psychopathic love of inflicting pain and torturing anyone he assumes to have done wrong. This to me was the ultimate hypocrisy as he himself doesn't seem to even know the rules, let alone follow them. The strength of MacBride’s books for me has always been the way they combine violent and disturbing storylines with humour. The Logan McRae novels are police procedurals, and follow the logic of an investigation, but the characters are all heightened, funny, odd, with their own idiosyncratic motives, from lust for power, to vanity, to laziness. And so to UNIVERSITY, far too young, naive and stupid to be away from the family home, sharing a subterranean flat in one of the seedier bits of Edinburgh with a mad Irishman, and four other bizarre individuals. The highlight of walking to the art school in the mornings (yes: we were students, but we still did mornings) was trying not to tread in the fresh bloodstains outside our front door, and dodging the undercover CID officers trying to buy drugs. Lovely place.
Home> Fiction from Scotland> The Coffinmaker’s Garden The Coffinmaker’s Garden By (author) Stuart MacBride; Read by TBAI’ve been reading this author’s work for ages & while I enjoy the Logan McRae books, have to admit I prefer this series. It’s been 7 years since A Song for the Dying. So I’m thrilled to see the return of Oldcastle’s crankiest, perpetually injured ex-DI. The Coffin Maker's Garden by Stuart MacBride sees the welcome return of Ash Henderson and his motley crew 7 long years since their previous outing in A Song For The Dying. So – did it work? Well, by and large yes. There are two threads to this story. The first is the investigation into the abduction and murder of young boys from around Oldcastle. This is the case that Ash and Dr Alice McDonald are working on when they get a call to attend a scene of a tragic maritime accident in a small coastal village, where an unexpected discovery has been made. Bones. Lots of them. In a garden which is rapidly disappearing into the North Sea due to coastal erosion. But it is not this alone that forces Ash to work alongside DI Malcolmson, a.k.a. ‘Mother’, and her Misfit Mob, but the altogether more grim findings in the basement of the home that the garden and said bones seem to belong to. MacBride's books have always been ambitiously plotted and firmly character-driven ... They are only getting richer and more rewarding. The Blood Road is his best work yet' Scotland on Sunday
A satisfying read and a hugely thoughtful novel ... there's no let-up for the reader' Scotland on Sunday Stuart lives in the northeast of Scotland with his wife Fiona, cats Grendel, Gherkin, Onion, and Beetroot, some hens, horses, and a vast collection of assorted weeds. Ash and Alice actually have a falling out in this book and much of the action happens while Ash is working with another member of the Lateral Investigation and Review Unit (LIRU) or with his old police buddy D.I.Shifty Morrow. Henry the Scottie dog accompanies them and caused the most stress for me in the course of the story.The media are baying for blood, the top brass are after a scapegoat, and ex-Detective Inspector Ash Henderson is done playing nice. He's got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way. About This Edition ISBN: As if that isn’t enough, there is also a child killer on the loose who has already killed three young boys and who has just snatched a fourth. But Ash has Gordon Smith in his sights. A neighbour of Smith’s turns out to be Helen MacNeil whom Ash has a history with, not romantic, Helen is a criminal and a pretty scary woman - stronger than many men and totally ruthless. She bails Ash up about her missing granddaughter, Leah, who was literally brought up by the Smiths as Helen was in prison and her mother, Sophie, committed suicide. Or did she? Caroline Smith, Gordon’s wife, has since died. No one knows if she was complicit in his crimes but how could she not know? That was magnificent! I am a huge fan of Stuart MacBride and have read pretty much all of his books. (Former Detective Inspector) Ash Henderson is now working as a civilian consultant for the Lateral Investigative and Review Unit (LIRU) along with forensic psychologist Dr Alice McDonald. They both have plenty of demons. In addition Alice is drinking far too much and Ash is recovering from a bullet wound in his foot. As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the North Sea. But the crumbling headland has revealed what he’s got buried in his garden: human remains.
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