Customer Reviews
Cold Granite - By: L. smith, 01 Dec 2008 
First book I have read of this author & a nice change from American style. Excellent story with twists & intrigue, will be reading many more.
Brilliant - By: Mr. Nigel Greenwood, 21 Nov 2008 Fantastic debut novel - excellent characters, good story lines. Reminds me of Ian Rankin. Just caught up with this author & am ordering the rest of his books now
Fantastic debut - By: A. Douglas, 15 Nov 2008 I read a lot of crime thriller books & I am adding this author to my list. Logan is fantastic, he is a nice guy who gets back to work after being signed off for a year. My favorite has to be WPC Watson! She's a great character & just gets on with it, kicking down doors & crushing windpipes! I can't wait to read the next few books to see what happens with them.
Left Me Cold. - By: R. Howe, 29 Oct 2008 
When will I ever learn? There's a reason that you can buy certain books for a pound in outlet shops near Christmas. I thought I'd spotted a diamond here for my pound. Nice meaty book, nice & shiny, gripping Police procedural etc etc.
Oh dear oh dear. I'm beginning to think that us Brits don't 'do' crime anymore. Despite a great history with Christie, Rendell, Wingfield & P.D James, the current crop of UK crime writing is monumentallly poor. Rankin remains the only one with any credibility.
In the last few months, I've read Peter James (mind-bendingly bad), Simon Kernick (utter utter rubbish) & Michael Robotham (staid & boring). And I'm afraid let's add MacBride to this list.
Plot? Fuggedaboutit! Simply have a lot of violence & a lot of swearing, & don't forget to have a girlfriend you describe as 'balll-breaker' (that's cringe-worthy enough as it is). Laughably, McRae's ex-girlfriend is the chief pathologist, something that bends believablility to the nth degree in itself.
The style is is GCSE standard, the settings are invisible, characters dire - there is nothing about McRae that reallly binds you to him & alll this book reallly is is a collection of set pieces (with violence & swearing - NOTE violence & swearing by themselves makes a crime novel not.) that somehow rumble on to a conclusion.
There's very little of anything to recommend this book - its better than Peter James or Kernick, but that's not saying much. It is in big type though, so you can read it fast, if you're like me & always finisha book you'ver paid for (even if it is only a quid). The author studied English at University & I would've expected more from him. It seems that, disappointingly, UK crime fiction is going the same was as its film cousin - super-fast, crass & violent with no depth & laughable characters.
Avoid at alll costs.
So annoyed!!! - By: Shiloh, 18 Oct 2008 
I read this book in a bit of a rush - I wanted to know who had killed Georgie & why? What might happen between Logan & Jackie? Who was Miller's inside leak?
But I was so annoyed because I was still immersed in the story when I suddenly realised I had reached the last page. I'm not making that mistake again - am buying the next two in the series together so I don't have to leave Lazarus after just one book!
Excellent debut - I tried reading Rebus & Skinner & couldn't get through them, so I won't compare Stuart MacBride to them - but if you like your heroes human, mistakes, a healthy chunk of reality, & a story that you dive into whether you want to or not, grab a copy of this!
