Where the Bodies Are Buried

May 21, 2012
Brookmyre (A Snowball in Hell) introduces Det. Insp. Catherine McLeod and PI Jasmine Sharp in her solid first entry in a new Glasgow crime series. In alternating chapters, perceptive Catherine looks into the murder of a drug dealer, who was a henchman of a local mobster, while inexperienced Jasmine searches for her PI uncle/boss, who went missing while working a case involving a family that disappeared decades before. Jasmine’s only lead is Glen Fallan, a professional assassin who’s rumored to have been dead for 20 years. Catherine’s police investigation and Jasmine’s hunt realistically intersect as each learns they are up against “the biggest gang in Glasgow,” and that trust, even in the police force, is a rare commodity. Corruption, betrayal, and gallows humor fuel the noir plot, while family problems lend emotional depth, in particular, Jasmine’s grief over her mother’s death and Catherine’s concern that she doesn’t spend enough time with her two sons and husband. Agent: Caroline Dawnay, United Agents.

Starred review from July 1, 2012
Two women investigators--a veteran police detective with a distant husband and two young boys and a struggling actress working for her uncle, an ex-cop, as a private detective--cross paths in this offbeat tale of ruthless mobsters in Glasgow. A Scottish crime novelist known for his satirical gore fests (One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, 1999, etc.), Brookmyre here begins a new, straighter-faced procedural cop series. After a drug dealer is killed, Detective Catherine McLeod must penetrate not only the net of secrecy surrounding criminal lowlifes in "Glesca," but also the questionable motives of her superiors. Meanwhile, Jasmine Sharp, a slip-up waiting to happen, must get her act together after her uncle goes missing. He was working on a cold case involving the disappearance of a couple and had told their now-adult daughter he had news for her. Following clues to a women's shelter, Jasmine gets paired off with a handyman who goes by the unlikely name Tron Ingrams. After an attempt is made on her life, or his, he reveals he's really a bent cop's son, Glen Fallan, a name in one of her uncle's files. As more people are killed, maimed or disappear, Catherine's story becomes joined with Jasmine's and her former boss' pronouncement becomes apparent: "This is Glesca. We don't do subtle, we don't do nuanced, we don't do conspiracy...We do tit-for-tat, score-settling, feuds, jealousy, petty revenge. We do straightforward. We do obvious. We do cannaemisswhodunit." A brainy, barbed noir, this book takes its time setting the scene and establishing its characters. Most of its violence occurs off the page. But with its contrasting protagonists (it's easy to envision a series built around the endearing Jasmine), local color and language and skillfully orchestrated sense of bad things to come, the novel maintains a solid grip on the reader. Brookmyre isn't as well-known in the States as fellow Scottish mystery writers Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Denise Mina, but this first-rate effort may change that.

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February 1, 2012

A major crime novelist from Scotland, where the really tough guys write, Brookmyre crafts the story of two different cases that eventually collide. As Det. Supt. Catherine McLeod investigates the murder of a small-time heroin dealer (shame on him for sleeping with a drug kingpin's girlfriend), one-time actress Jasmine Sharp must step up her efforts to learn the ropes at her "Uncle" Jim's private investigation business when Jim himself disappears. This one's gritty.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2012
Detective Superintendent Catherine McLeod is assigned the investigation of the torture-murder of a notorious killer and drug dealer, and Glasgow's entire police force braces for all-out war between rival, mad-dog Glaswegian drug gangs. At the same time, twentysomething Jasmine Sharp, a stressed-out, bumbling PI trainee, begins to search for Uncle Jim, a retired cop and PI who hired her and then disappeared. In time, their separate investigations dovetail. Brookmyre, well known in Great Britain for mixing black comedy into his thrillers, has veered toward a semiconventional procedural here, but he spikes his tale with internal police intrigues, bent coppers, and assorted ne'er-do-wells. Catherine, Jasmine, and a handful of other characters are well sketched, and almost every character is supplied with some cynical, funny dialogue. The body count is respectable, but nearly all the bloodiest mayhem takes place off page. Red herrings and plot convolutions abound, but it's Brookmyre's sense of the city and its no-nuance criminals that makes this one a winner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)