Dying light
by Stuart MacBride
Published by St. Martin's Press
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
Detective Sargeant Logan MacRae has been assigned to work under a different D.I., Roberta Steel, after a raid he organized on a warehouse looking for stolen goods results in no arrests and one officer critically injured.
Steel's squad is called the "screw-up squad," where all the idiots and worthless and inexperienced are assigned. This gritty mystery is composed of several cases. One is the beating murders of naked women, prostitutes, occurring every four days or so; another is the murder by arson of two families in homes where the doors and windows have been screwed shut from the outside.
Logan's old D.I., Inch, is working on the arson cases, and ropes Logan in when he can. Logan's old friend journalist Colin Miller (now living with pathologist Dr. Isobel McAllister, Logan's old girlfriend) is onto something, and helps with the investigation, which results in his torture by two thugs from Edinburgh who are trying to move in on the drug trade.
Logan's dedication, hard work, and insights lead to his solving the murders of the prostitutes as well as the arson murders, and he manages to save a few lives into the bargain.
This is MacBride's second novel, following Cold Granite.
Armchair Interviews says: Non-stop suspense and scary thugs make this a book you cannot put down.