Bodies are piling up with grisly messages carved into their chests. Rival gangs are competing for control of Glasgow’s underworld and it seems that Cooper, McCoy’s oldest gangster friend, is tangled up in it all.
Detective Harry McCoy’s first day back at work couldn’t have gone worse.
New drugs have arrived in Glasgow, and they’ve brought a different kind of violence to the broken city. The law of the street is changing and now demons from McCoy’s past are coming back to haunt him. But vengeance always carries a price, and it could cost McCoy more than he ever imagined. You can hire
The waters of Glasgow corruption are creeping higher, as the wealthy and dangerous play for power. And the city’s killer continues his dark mission.
Can McCoy keep his head up for long enough to solve the case?
Bruised and battered from the events of Bloody January, McCoy returns for a breathless ride through the ruthless world of 1970s Glasgow.
There is always a frisson of hesitancy when you start reading the second novel by an author whose inaugural novel is outstanding. There is that sense of worry that the first book was a one of and book two can’t possibly hope to compare. Bloody January by Alan Parks was such a stellar debut I was concerned he couldn’t possibly repeat the feat with the second Harry McCoy novel. The good news is my fears were entirely groundless. February’s Son is as good, if not better, as its predecessor.
Picking up shortly after the events of Bloody January, Harry McCoy has only been back at work a handful of hours before he has a grisly murder to solve. There is a violent psychopath stalking the city streets and Harry has to stop them before all hell breaks loose. As before McCoy remains a bit of a contradiction. Glasgow and the people from there have long had a reputation for being a bit rough around the edges. I think that is one of the things I like most about this novel. Harry McCoy certainly falls into that category. He is ‘good polis’ but he manages to retain a morally ambiguous attitude towards many things; recreational drugs being the perfect example.
Stevie Cooper also makes a welcome reappearance. Harry’s oldest friend, and rising star of the Glasgwegian criminal underworld, Cooper is just unhinged enough to be genuinely menacing. Kudos to the author. There has long been a near mythological status that surrounds the quintessential Glasgow hard man. Cooper feels like he is the living embodiment of exactly that. Always trying to prove their worth, they are driven by their own slightly skewed code of values. Cooper is all smiles and charm one minute and then uncontained violence the next. McCoy and Cooper may be on opposite sides of the law but they have a bond that transcends everything. This makes things increasingly difficult for McCoy, he can’t continue to please all the people all the time. There is going to come a point where he has to choose between his job and his friendship with Cooper. The complex relationship between these two men acts as a larger story arc, connecting Bloody January and February’s Son together seamlessly. Parks takes the opportunity to explore their collective history further in this novel and this additional insight helps to flesh out each character. There is a moment, I think you’ll know it when you read it, where you realise McCoy and Cooper are not that different from one another after all.
I am just old enough to remember the Glasgow of the 1970s and it pleases me immensely that the author has captured the city so perfectly. As I read, there are tiny descriptions and throw away lines that frequently sparked vivid memories. I love it when I really connect with an author’s work. It feels almost like the Harry McCoy novels have been written for no one else but me*. I like crime novels, but the time period and location in this case are so familiar and strike so many chords it makes the entire experience of reading that much more enjoyable.
I can guarantee that if you’ve read and enjoyed Bloody January then you’ll love February’s Son. If you haven’t read either, and you enjoy your crime fiction/tartan noir suitably dark, then do yourself a favour and check out Alan Park’s writing now. I’m looking forward to the next Harry McCoy novel already. Based on the first two books names, I can only hope there will be at least another ten.
My musical recommendation to accompany February’s Son has a distinctly Glaswegian flavour and also manages to be time period appropriate. If The Best of Stone the Crows, especially Maggie Bell’s blistering vocals, isn’t the perfect soundtrack to Harry McCoy’s life then I don’t know what it. Gritty, bluesy soul with a Scottish vibe makes this an ideal companion for Alan Park’s fiction.
February’s Son is published by Canongate and is available from 31st January. Highly recommended.
*Based on the suitably grim nature of the books plots I’m not sure what that says about me. The less said the better.
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