Bloody January

January 29, 2018
Det. Harry McCoy, the protagonist of Scottish author Parks’s tautly woven first novel set in 1973, doesn’t put much stock in information he gets from a criminal like Howie Nairn, but when Nairn—locked up in Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison—tells McCoy that a woman named Lorna is going to die the next day, the copper takes notice. The subsequent murder of 19-year-old waitress Lorna Skirving at a bus station by 17-year-old small-time thief Tommy Malone, immediately followed by Malone’s suicide, sends McCoy on a hunt through the city’s dankest slums and brothels all the way up to one of Glasgow’s richest families, the Dunlops. McCoy’s personal connection to the Dunlops—who are nearly untouchable when it comes to the police—makes him all the more determined to find a link between them and not only Lorna but also the other bodies that soon pile up. Stevie Cooper, McCoy’s childhood friend who now makes less than savory business deals in the city, gives even the good guys a glossy sheen of blood and corruption. A worthy addition to the tartan noir canon, McCoy is a flawed hero to watch, as is his creator. Agent: Tom Witcomb, Blake Friedmann

February 1, 2018

The first 20 days of the vile month of January are chronicled in this suitably dark and violent debut novel that resurrects the tartan noir phenomenon. The setting is a grim and grimy Glasgow, the year is 1973, and the mood is indigo. Within the first two days Det. Harry McCoy is tipped off that a young girl is under threat. He follows up just in time to see her shot dead in central Glasgow by a young boy who then kills himself. Returning to his informant, McCoy finds that he too is dead. Everybody agrees that the whole thing is unfortunate, but it is all done and dusted. A more reasonable officer would reach the same conclusion, but McCoy is many things but not that. Carrying a lot of baggage from his youth and intimately complicit with Glasgow's underworld, McCoy, with his colleague Wattie in tow, plunges on with his investigation, regardless of the consequences. VERDICT Anyone who has seen Chinatown or L.A. Confidential will recognize the plot elements, but the familiar story line is reinvigorated by spare, tough prose. And the characters, even Wattie, who might have been safely relegated to sidekick status, are ones that readers will welcome back in the likely sequels.--Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2018
A gritty Glasgow detective enlists the dregs of the underworld in his one-man war against an untouchably wealthy family.A punchy prologue recalls the month in 1973 when there were six murders in the city. The story opens on Jan. 1, when detective Harry McCoy, trolling the lowlife informants on his beat, gets a tip that a waitress named Lorna will be killed the next day. Taking his green new partner, Wattie, McCoy goes to the busy bus station closest to Lorna's restaurant but fails to save her from a frantic teenage hit man who shoots in McCoy's direction but hits Lorna instead. While fleeing, the young assassin shoots himself in the head. Lorna dies as well. So does Nairn, the thug who gave McCoy the tip, whose body is discovered with his throat slit and his tongue cut out. From that moment on, trouble seems to dog the two-fisted detective. Lorna's roommate, Christine, reveals that Lorna made extra money as a party girl, "dating" several suspicious characters. McCoy's probe grinds through Glasgow's tenderloin, from sleazy clubs to strip joints to a Salvation Army shelter. As more victims pile up, clues from their unseemly murders point incongruously to the highly respected Dunlops, an affluent and influential Glasgow family with deep investments in construction and factories. McCoy sees Wattie as a younger version of himself; the junior detective plays less like a sidekick than a conscience to his older partner.Parks' debut novel has an in-your-face immediacy that matches its protagonist. Compelling portraits of minor characters tucked into several scenes add texture and interest.

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