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The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin
The Dark Remains is undeniably authentic and a true testament to everything Glasgow was in the ’70s and ’80s. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the Laidlaw series by the late and great William McIlvanney but I will be rectifying that as soon as possible. Gangland Glasgow and its brutal violence and its territorial wars, the tone was set and it was addictive as it was horrifying. Ian Rankin had massive shoes to fill but he laced them up, took pen to paper, and paid homage to Scotland’s father of Tartan Noir. The Dark Remains is just that, dark. It doesn’t pull any punches, it doesn’t pretty anything up,…
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Review: Into The Dark by Stuart Johnstone
Into The Dark is a stark warning that we can all become products of our past if we allow it to consume us. The past can haunt us, and it can keep tiptoeing back into our lives. Is it ever possible to bury the past? This premise is one that sends chills down my spine. Edinburgh is known for its culture, its connections with Europe but it also has got a dark side. Murder and deceit can be found in dark corners just like any other city. Sergeant Donald Colyear is back in Edinburgh and is about to be found embroiled in a case that is as dark as it…
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Review: Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham
Sometimes there is just a powerhouse name in the thriller genre but somehow their work has just evaded you for one reason or another. Rabbit Hole was my first taste of the talented Mark Billingham’s work. I’m neither surprised nor shocked that I fell down the Rabbit Hole. The mind of Billingham is devious and twisted, he will take a common misconception in mental health and twist and turn it until it no longer resembles what it once was. The author did the groundwork, and the reader took one step and we fell into the dark and depraved mind of Alice Armitage. She is an ex-police officer who has been…
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One Good Lie by Jane Isaac | Blog Tour Review
When this book landed on my kindle I just had that deep instinctual knowledge that this was going to be my kind of book. The relationship between siblings is a deep and complicated one. We have this passed down expectation that we should be close with them but don’t look away too quickly because sibling rivalry will soon be skipping down the corridors of the mind. The blurb had me searching for clues, is there something hidden in plain sight? Is a shadow creeping at the very edge of your vision? This stand-alone thriller was everything I needed at precisely the right time. One Good Lie had a strong opening…
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The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd | Book Review
“The True end of tragedy is to purify the passions.” Aristotle. In a way I feel me taking The Rising Tide on was a bit masochistic. I have always had an indescribable fear of the sea. I think it has something to do with how little we know about it. It is a body of swelling emptiness, an ebbing flow of desolation and destruction. Water can give life but it can take it away just as easily. Lucy Locke and her family love the ocean, her children have grown up around it and in it, just what happens when a storm of a lifetime heralds the discovery of their family…
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The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison | Book Review
They say fire cleanses, but fire also leaves a bottomless pit of destruction in its wake. The Silent Suspect is the third book in the Paige Northwood series. I’ve only read this one, but you don’t feel like you’re missing chunks of her backstory. Its rounded up nicely and you are given snippets of her story through-out. She’s a British Sign Language Interpreter working with profoundly death social worker, Sasha Thomas. I really felt that the first half of the book was exceedingly slow, although there was action it was drawn out, and the investigating seemed to last an age. The social worker, Sasha Thomas, is seriously grating. She just…
