Close to the Bone

April 8, 2013
In Scottish author MacBride’s predictably grisly but cleverly twisted eighth thriller featuring Det. Insp. Logan McRae (after 2011’s Shatter the Bones), the Aberdeen cop looks into the case of a man found strangled and stabbed with a burning tire around his neck, suggesting a gangland execution. The local filming of a popular fantasy novel, Witchfire, makes Logan realize that the horrific manner of death is straight from the novel’s story of an alt-universe Scotland. Suspecting a crazed fan of turning fiction into reality, Logan revisits a neglected missing persons case, the disappearance of teenagers Agnes Garfield and Anthony Chung, uncovering disturbing connections. Saddled with an over-eager new underling, Det. Sgt. Lorna Chalmers, Logan must stay one step ahead of a killer whose crimes are becoming even more horrific. MacBride’s humor is as dark as his plot, and Logan continues to impress as a scarred but persevering hero. Agent: Philip Patterson, Marjacq Scripts.

May 15, 2013
A full plate of grisly and baffling crimes challenges Aberdeen DI Logan McRae and his contentious colleagues. The scene of a screaming man trapped in a burning tire turns out to be from a movie filming locally, but the next morning, Logan is called to a murder site that uncannily resembles the film shoot. Unfortunately, an annoyingly chipper new sidekick, DS Lorna Chalmers, has beaten him to the scene and is eager to impress. More female annoyance comes from his acerbic boss, Chief Inspector Steel, and from his far-from-helpless old Mum. The medical examiner determines that the male victim was stabbed, burned and strangled, but Steel balks at the expense needed to sort out the crime. A turf war with another ME complicates the matter still further. Meanwhile, other cases beckon. A distraught mother, Mrs. Garfield, seems to blame police inertia for the plight of her missing teen daughter Agnes, but Logan and Chalmers find more evidence of escape from a repressive environment than of abduction. Agnes' boyfriend, Anthony Chung, provides a solid lead in the ensuing search. More corpses in tires are discovered around the city, a gang war breaks out, and Asian immigrants fall victim to disabling attacks. Could some or all of these cases be related? Can Logan adjust to his chirpy new partner? And what sick perp has been leaving random skeletal remains around his house? MacBride's gritty prose and righteous, reckless hero (Birthdays for the Dead, 2013, etc.) improve his overstuffed, overheated plot.

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May 1, 2013

In his latest outing (after Shatter the Bones) Scottish DI Logan McRae is working under Acting Detective Chief Inspector Steel, who is dumping cases and more paperwork on Logan than he can handle. Among his cases are rival drug gangs fighting over the cannabis trade in Aberdeen, a pair of missing teens, and a jewelry store robbery. Logan also has a new detective sergeant assigned to him who is efficient but very ambitious and eager to make a name for herself. Plus, Wee Hamish Mowat, the Aberdonian mob boss, is still trying to involve him in criminal enterprises. Meanwhile, strange little knots of bones keep turning up on his doorstep, and then a body is found with a burning tire around the neck. VERDICT MacBride keeps the tension high and never fails to provide a tightly woven story with plot twists galore. Fans of "Tartan noir" will enjoy this.--Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg

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