Friday, April 25, 2014

Review: The Unburied Dead, Douglas Lindsay

The Unburied Dead (Thomas Hutton, #1)The Unburied Dead by Douglas Lindsay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A serial killer is brutally slaughtering young women in Glasgow. In pursuit of the maniac is the most dysfunctional police squad I think I've ever encountered in print. Drunks, has-beens, cuckolds,  horndogs of both sexes and all orientations, every blessed one of them seriously morose and tormented...it's astounding that they just don't all join hands and jump into the River Clyde together, except they seem to loathe one another too much to get that organized.

In the center of it all is DS Thomas Hutton, who's carrying around a head full of nightmares from his wartime service in Bosnia. As the investigation goes on, members of the team start dying, and Hutton begins to suspect that the murderer may actually be one of their own. And it wouldn't be the first time...

I love discovering a great writer I've never read before, and I really loved this book. It's dark, grimly humorous, with twists, reversals and surprises that made me go "holy sh*t!" out loud, more than once (if you're wondering how to pronounce that, the "*" is silent). I've already got the second book in the series from Blasted Heath Publishing, and I'm looking forward to it, after a short break to recover. It's got that kind of impact.

Highly recommended.


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