Please note, To Die in June is book six in an ongoing series. It’s possible this review may contain minor spoilers for those of you who haven’t read books one to five. Consider yourselves duly warned.  A woman enters a Glasgow police station to report her son missing, but no record can be found of the boy. When Detective Harry McCoy, seconded from the cop shop across town, discovers the family is part of the cultish Church of Christ’s Suffering, he suspects there is more to Michael’s disappearance than meets the eye. Meanwhile reports arrive of a string of poisonings of down-and-outs across the city. The dead are men who few barely notice, let alone care about – but, as McCoy is painfully aware, among this desperate community is his own father. Even as McCoy searches for the missing boy, he must conceal from his colleagues the real reason for his presence – to investigate corruption in the station. Some folk pray for justice. Detective Harry McCoy hasn’t got time to wait. Working on the assumption that each Harry McCoy novel is going to contain a month of the year in the title, with To Die In June we have…

Please note, The April Dead is the fourth Harry McCoy novel. Though these novels can be viewed as standalone works I would suggest beginning with book one, Bloody January. With that in mind, the review that follows may contain a mild spoiler or two if you haven’t started there. Consider yourselves suitably warned. When an American sailor from the Holy Loch Base goes missing, Harry McCoy is determined to find him. But as he investigates, a wave of bombings hits Glasgow – with the threat of more to come. Soon McCoy realises that the sailor may be part of a shadowy organisation committed to a very different kind of Scotland. One they are prepared to kill for. Meanwhile Cooper, McCoy’s long-time criminal friend, is released from jail and convinced he has a traitor in his midst. As allies become enemies, Cooper has to fight for his position and his life. He needs McCoy to do something for him. Something illegal. McCoy is running out of time to stop another bomb, save himself from the corrupt forces who want to see him fail and save the sailor from certain death. But McCoy discovers a deeper, darker secret – the sailor is…

Please note, though this is a standalone novel it is the third book featuring detective Harry McCoy. I’d recommend reading Bloody January and February’s Son before picking this book up. I’ll guarantee that if you do when you do read Bobby March Will Live Forever you’ll enjoy it all the more. WHO IS TO BLAME WHEN NO ONE IS INNOCENT? The papers want blood. The force wants results. The law must be served, whatever the cost. August 1973. The Glasgow drugs trade is booming and Bobby March, the city’s own rock-star hero, has just OD’ed in a central hotel. Alice Winters is twelve years old, lonely. And missing. Meanwhile the niece of McCoy’s boss has fallen in with a bad crowd and when she goes AWOL, McCoy is asked – off the books – to find her. McCoy has a hunch. But does he have enough time? It is universally understood that the people of Scotland do not function well in high temperatures, so finding Harry McCoy attempting to solve multiple crimes in the midst of a blistering heatwave does not bode well. When we join the detective, he is attempting to locate a missing child, unravel the story behind a…

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…

When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn’t a random act of violence. With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops. McCoy’s boss doesn’t want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouchable. But McCoy has other ideas . . . My final review of 2017 needed to be something a little bit special, and the good news is that Bloody January by Alan Parks is exactly that. Time for an old school crime novel set during the 1970s in a city with a notorious reputation for violence. I’ve long since held the belief that the best detectives are the ones who are a complete shambles as a human being. Harry McCoy is no exception. He has a childhood friend who is a psychopathic gangster (more on him in a minute), a relationship with alcohol and recreational drugs that borders on a problem, and an easy-going attitude towards organised crime. Peel back the layers and you…

Please note, Bad Actors is the eighth book in the Slough House series. It is likely what follows, if you haven’t read what has come before, will contain some mild spoilers. Consider yourselves duly warned.  In MI5 a scandal is brewing and there are bad actors everywhere. A key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, one-time First Desk of MI5’s Regent’s Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent’s Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5’s radar. Over at Slough House, the home for demoted and embittered spies, the slow horses are doing what they do best: adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation. In a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing is the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they’ll need to get their own act together before the final curtain. I don’t get as much time as I would like to enjoy on-going series when it comes…

Glasgow, 1932. When the son-in-law of one of the city’s wealthiest families is found floating in the River Clyde with his throat cut, it falls to Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn to lead the murder case – despite sharing a troubled history of his own with the victim’s widow. From the flying fists and flashing blades of Glasgow’s gangland underworld, to the backstabbing upper echelons of government and big business, Dreghorn will have to dig deep into Glasgow society to find out who wanted the man dead and why. All the while, a sadistic murderer stalks the post-war city leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake. As the case deepens, will Dreghorn find the killer – or lose his own life in the process? Much like corporation buses, you wait for one historical crime novel set in Glasgow to arrive and then three come along at once. I recently read and reviewed Bobby March Will Live Forever by Alan Parks and in a couple of weeks I’ll be reading The April Dead, also by Parks. Sandwiched between the two we have Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison. Fortunately, Alan Parks’ novels are set in the nineteen-seventies while Morrison’s debut…

Occasionally, publishers very kindly include a quote from one of my reviews on the covers of their books, whether it be the book I’ve reviewed or a newer release by the same author. Here is a page dedicated to those quotes. Quote from Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan review ” Night of the Living Dead meets Countryfile ” Featured on the back cover of Apocalypse Cow   Quote from Blood Fugue by Joseph D’Lacey review ” If you’re a horror fan and you’re not already reading Joseph D’Lacey you had better have a bloody good excuse. ” Featured on the back cover of Black Feathers   Quote from Hereward by James Wilde review ” Wilde’s début novel is fantastically realised. There are strong, believable characters, lashings of fast paced action but this is matched by some excellent intrigue and betrayal that helps to keep the plot moving forward. Hereward is a great example of the historical fiction genre. I recommend it highly. ” Featured on the back cover of Hereward: End Of Days by James Wilde   Quote from The Red Knight by K T Davies review ” Heroes, Villains, Violence, Magic – Not just your basic, average, everday, ordinary,…