The Missing and the Dead

April 6, 2015
In MacBride’s uncharacteristically plodding ninth novel featuring Det. Sgt. Logan McRae (after 2013’s Close to the Bone), McRae gets reassigned to the tiny town of Banff in northeast Scotland, where most of the crimes involve drunk driving or drug offenses, with the occasional call to clear livestock from the road. When the body of a little girl is found in an outdoor pool, McRae thinks he’s found a case worthy of his talents, until the Aberdeen Major Incident Team—including his former boss, cranky Det. Chief Insp. Roberta Steele—take over. McRae, who has never been good at taking orders, hovers at the periphery of the investigation, which focuses on trying to identify the victim and perhaps tying her to the recent disappearance of a known pedophile in the area. MacBride, who usually excels at weaving together disparate plot threads, can’t seem to pull them all together, and the reader’s mind too often wanders. Agent: Philip Patterson, Marjacq Scripts.

April 15, 2015
Even in exile, a veteran detective can't escape the lure of a major crime.Fresh from catching a brutal murderer who placed his victims in burning tires (Close to the Bone, 2013), maverick DS Logan McRae is initially seen tackling a female accomplice to murder, rescuing a mortally wounded victim, and violently hauling in the presumed perp, serial killer Graham Stirling. Identifying Stirling's victim as cross-dresser Stephen Bisset puts Logan in an awkward spot with Bisset's angry son, David, who insists that his dad isn't a "pervert." As usual, Logan bends the rules as freely as Dirty Harry, but this time it's not on his home turf of Aberdeen. He's been sent to rural Aberdeenshire on the North Sea and put in charge of the small local force. Not surprisingly, paperwork is not the restless Logan's strong suit. Luckily, he's able to harness his excess energy renovating the house he's been given to live in, a stone's throw from the police station. It's the perfect place for him to tend to his wheelchair-bound wife, Samantha. But big-city crime seems to find him. While searching for a reported pedophile, Logan gets the sad news that a little girl's body has been found at a local swimming pool. Logan's heavy hand with Stirling allows the perp to go free, and Stirling is not the kind to forget a grievance. McRae's ninth appearance packs a potent punch, blending gritty police procedural with surprising grace notes of the hero's humanity.

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Starred review from May 1, 2015

In typical fashion for DS Logan McRae, who solved his last case (Close to the Bone) but rankled his superiors, he is sent to far northeast Scotland for a "development opportunity." This means chasing petty thieves, traffic violators, and escaped cattle. Of course, with Logan, it soon involves more: the murders of several pedophiles, a major drug operation, and the battered body of an unidentified five-year-old girl. Logan, despite official warnings, can't help but continue his own prying, ultimately stumbling on solutions to several crimes. MacBride's ninth DS Logan mystery retains the characteristics of earlier ones. Macabre and gruesome crimes, often involving children, mix with mundane police work in great detail. Striking characters like Logan and his irascible lesbian boss engrave themselves in the reader's mind while the plot jumps from bumbling stakeouts to shocking violence. Logan is true to form, keeping a ragtag collection of colleagues efficient, wondering if it's all worth it, and yet managing to solve cases in spite of interfering bureaucracy. VERDICT Aficionados of gritty British procedurals will find this a fine entry in a highly recommended series.--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

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