MORE GREAT READS FOR FEBRUARY, 2016
In the Cold Dark Ground, by Stuart MacBride
Logan Balmoral MacRae is
back, and about time, too, I say! In the
tried and true genre of Crime fiction – you know; burnt-out detectives with shattered private
lives but an uncanny knack for solving the most difficult crimes – well, Burn-Out
Logan makes his recent experience of demotion to Police Sergeant in a small but
dreary town in North East Scotland entirely credible. Yes, he – and his team of fellow reprobate
law-enforcers - all suffer from varying degrees of exhaustion and burn-out, but
policing anywhere is a tough job: someone has to do it and they’ve put their
hands up. More fools them.
Not much has changed since Logan’s last appearance in
‘The Missing and the Dead’ (see review below), except to worsen: his beloved girlfriend Samantha has been in a
coma for five years (truly!). She will
never wake and he has been told by hospital staff that it is time to say
goodbye, a situation he has been dreading and shying away from even though his
rational mind knows it is inevitable.
Another death is imminent: wee
Hamish Mowat, crime boss supreme of Aberdeen is in the terminal stages of
cancer. In a last conversation with
Logan, wee Hamish informs him that he wishes Logan to take control of his
empire for he knows that upon his death all the other crime lords from near and
far will be circling like vultures, ready to break up his ‘life’s work’: he is convinced that Logan (despite the fact
that he is a Police Officer – how I wish I’d read all those earlier books!)
will be the only one strong enough to hold it all together. All this under the homicidally jealous eye of
Reuben, the Reubenator, wee Hamish’s wing man who has the intimidatory strength
to keep things going – but not the brains.
Reuben hates Logan, and Logan knows it is only a matter of time before
the Reubenator mounts an attack.
He is almost relieved when a conventional murder rears
its ugly head: a man’s naked body is
found in the woods, hands bound behind his back and a rubbish bag taped over
his head. Despite the classic imitation
of a local gangland-style killing, Logan is not convinced that the Bad Guys
actually did this – for once, they are innocent – of this crime, anyway, and
when the Major Investigation Team from Aberdeen (still run by his old boss and
friend – and proud lesbian – DCI Steel) mounts an investigation, his suspicions
prove to be correct.
Sadly, Logan’s week from Hell doesn’t end there: he is also asked by the Police Internal
Professional Standards division to covertly investigate DCI Steel: there is suspicion that she manufactured
evidence to send a sexual predator and rapist to jail. As much as everyone abhors his crimes (for
which he was never convicted) Scottish justice has to be SEEN to be done: who better to investigate Roberta Steel, than
her trusted friend and confidante, the turkey-baster father of her children,
Logan Balmoral MacRae. Yes, let’s add
betrayal to the list of Logan’s Lousy Week.
Last but not least, a new Superintendent from the Serious
Organised Crime Task Force is visiting and seems have taken an inexplicable and
irrational dislike to him, thus making his life doubly miserable. Could anything else go wrong? Well, of course it can and it does, at a
breakneck pace that this reader could barely stand – I wanted to yell ‘Slow
down, slow down!!’ – and all because I didn’t want this mighty episode in the
hapless (but not entirely hopeless) life and times of Logan to end. Stuart MacBride is a storyteller
Extraordinaire, a superb wordsmith who is in the enviable position of being
unable to write fast enough to supply his readers’ demands. FIVE STARS
The
Missing and the Dead, by Stuart MacBride
True to form, I have made
the acquaintance of hapless detective Logan MacRae in the ninth book of his
adventures – to my disadvantage, for Logan is a thriller reader’s
treasure: canny; brave (well, of course!); not averse to using unconventional methods
to catch the crims – to the despair of his superiors; messy private life (I’ll say: his girlfriend’s been in a coma for FOUR
YEARS. Whaaaat???); and the absolute loyalty and devotion of his
team in rural Aberdeenshire, where he has been posted (a demotion? Of course not, merely a ‘development
opportunity’. For whom? Certainly not Logan).
Yep, Logan must have trodden on a lot of Brassy toes in
the previous books to have been consigned to what is essentially scraping up drunks
and druggies off the pavement on Saturday nights, and rounding up stray
livestock (any old night). A change of
uniform from Detective Inspector to the bullet-proof vest and black T shirt of
Police Scotland is a far cry from what he is used to, but he tries to be
philosophical about his new circumstances and rounds up drunks, druggies and
cows diligently – until the body of a little girl is found in an abandoned
swimming pool just outside one of the small towns he polices.
Despite the arrival of a Major Investigation Team, there
are no leads as to the identity of the little girl, in fact their enquiries seem to reach a dead
end on every front – and the last thing they need is a maverick consigned to
the sticks trying to stick his oar in.
Enter Detective Chief Inspector Roberta Steel, Logan’s
former partner, proud wife of Susan and mother of two daughters for whom Logan
donated the sperm (yes, truly! I wish
I’d gotten onto these books sooner, then all these revelations would seem quite
normal). Regardless of her various
little quirks (she is serially unfaithful) DCI Steel also thinks outside the
square, and she needs Logan’s help. Which is not forthcoming, for he has been
ordered to stay away from all pending investigations, on pain of
dismissal. He has been accused – not
entirely without foundation – of wrecking months of other peoples’
investigative work with his under-the-radar methods, so Steel will have to
soldier on alone.
This is a great read.
Mr MacBride has another more recent anti-hero, detective Ash Henderson
in operation , which is how I was introduced to this latest opus. What makes Mr MacBride’s stories so credible
is his skill at writing of the foibles and vagaries of characters so real we
can recognise in them people we know – and ourselves. He is a superb storyteller, and lifts
crime-writing up several notches with each book. Highly recommended.
Napoleon’s Last Island, by Tom Keneally
In
2012 Australian author Thomas Keneally attended an exhibition in Melbourne of
artifacts and mementos of Napoleon Bonaparte;
his ‘garments, uniforms, furniture, china, paintings, snuffboxes,
military decorations and memorabilia’.
The origins of this collection intrigued him, for a large part of the trove
was supplied by the Australian descendant of the Balcombe family, whose head
was the providor and agent for the British East India Company on St. Helena,
when Napoleon was exiled permanently to this island in the Atlantic after the
Congress of Vienna decided his and Europe’s future in 1815.
William Balcombe, his wife and family of five children
had already been residents of St Helena for several years before Napoleon made
his impressive arrival. St Helena was an
important trading stop for His British Majesty’s ships as they travelled east
to Africa or west to the Americas.
Various regiments were garrisoned on the island and its benign Governor
was provided by the British East India Company:
for the Balcombes the organisation and provision of stores for the
troops as well as the locals gave them status and security that they would not
enjoy back ‘home’ in England. Life was
good, and the arrival of Napoleon, ‘The Great Ogre’ and his colourful entourage,
all of whom brought unaccustomed French Style and more than a whiff of
celebrity notoriety, was more excitement
than the gossip-starved inhabitants had enjoyed in many a year.
Betsy Balcombe, a name that leapt out at Mr Keneally at
the exhibition was barely a teenager at this time, but he decided that he would
tell of Napoleon’s last exile in her voice.
She kept a journal which he read, and this superb novel is narrated by
her – that wilful, blunt and witty girl, ‘the Emperor’s chief friend and
annoyer’. She speaks to us eloquently of
events and characters that are undimmed after two centuries, and the
injustices, penury and exile her family endured (to the penal colony of
Australia) thanks to their friendship and support for OGF – Our Great Friend,
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Betsy recounts that at first, the Ogre’s exile was
comfortable; he was billeted in a
charming little pavilion on the Balcombe’s estate ‘The Briars’, and such was
his charm and magnetism that many of the military who were ostensibly his
guards availed themselves often of his august company, excellent wines and the
exotic foods prepared by his personal chef.
William Balcombe in particular profited handsomely from all the
entertaining, as it was his duty to provide all the ingredients for the
Emperor’s table – a satisfying situation for everyone, until the Crown decided
to relieve the British East India Company of its administrative power on St
Helena. Mild-mannered and tolerant
Governor Wilkes was replaced by Sir Hudson Lowe (‘Lowe by name and Lowe by
nature’ according to Betsy, coiner of many apt phrases), Napoleon’s new jailer,
and one who took his position seriously.
Governor Lowe has many questions, such as: ‘This prisoner is living in great
comfort. In no other prison are
prisoners afforded such conditions: why
is this? Why is the prisoner allowed
entertainments and exotic food? Why does
he have a retinue of servants?’ It is
Lowe’s task – which becomes an obsession – to bring Napoleon to heel: under Lowe’s watch, the self-styled Emperor
will eat crow instead of chicken for the remainder of his miserable life. Luxury is now a thing of the past.
Mr Keneally has reconstructed history in thrilling fashion; what a master he is at breathing wonderful
life into his characters great and small, especially Betsy, who misses nothing,
speaks her mind – and even uses her fists when she must. If she were alive today she would be
Australian Prime Minister! FIVE STARS
