Bred in the Bone

Starred review from March 3, 2014
Glasgow gangland violence explodes off the page in Brookmyre’s superb third novel featuring PI Jasmine Sharp and Det. Supt. Catherine McLeod (after 2013’s When the Devil Drives). Stevie Fullerton, gangster extraordinaire, had his hands in myriad criminal pies, yet looked squeaky-clean on paper. When he’s found shot to death at a car wash, Catherine and her team assume it’s an act of retribution by a rival gangster, despite a lack of chatter about the murder beforehand. The case seems to solve itself when Glen Fallan—a thought-to-be-retired gangland enforcer and, coincidentally, the man who killed Jasmine’s father decades earlier—is caught all but red-handed. But nothing is as simple as it seems, as Jasmine is sucked into the investigation of a man and a life that have unnerving ties to her own. Catherine, bent on making this conviction stick, will do anything to solve the case, dredging up a 25-year-old murder in the process. Peppered with choice Glaswegian slang and oozing with just the right combination of black humor and sobering commentary on the city’s dark underbelly, this entry should cement Brookmyre’s reputation as one of today’s top Scottish crime writers. Agent: Caroline Dawnay, United Agents (U.K.).

February 15, 2014
Jasmine Sharp and Catherine McLeod return in the third book of their series, this time to investigate the gangland execution of a Glasgow crime boss and its links to much-older murders. On his 49th birthday, gangster king Stevie Fullerton celebrates by taking his car to the least impressive of his vast holdings--a small, cash-only car wash that's good for laundering more than cars. He doesn't survive the final rinse: The police find him shot to death in his car, with a strange symbol made in blood on his forehead. DS Catherine McLeod, who's in charge of the case, has evidence that Fullerton's supposedly dead rival, Glen Fallan, was the killer. She doesn't welcome the intrusion of the daughter of Stevie's late cousin, private investigator Jasmine Sharp, who has a paradoxical relationship with Fallan, her father's murderer. Catherine has her own reasons for hating Fallan and the other Glaswegian gangsters implicated in the death of a woman connected to a 25-year-old murder. Neither Catherine nor Jasmine will quit the search for answers, including discovering Fallan's true role in the events of the last quarter century, even though revisiting the past jeopardizes both their lives. Brookmyre (When the Devil Drives, 2013, etc.) spares no detail in his account of Glasgow's violent underworld. Although his characters are satisfyingly multidimensional, the uninitiated will find the long, slow exposition that relies on previous cases even more challenging than the Scottish slang.

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April 1, 2014

When top Scottish gangster Stevie Fullerton is ambushed in a Glasgow car wash, Glen Fallan, a known hit man, is quickly arrested. DS Catherine McLeod should be quite satisfied. Years before, Fullerton had set up mob boss Tony McGill for a long prison term, and this seems typical Glasgow payback. PI Jasmine Sharp is drawn into the case to help investigate Fallon and, as in Brookmyre's two previous books in this series (Where the Bodies Are Buried; When the Devil Drives), the past is vital to present solutions. Jasmine is searching for her unknown father, supposedly killed by Fallon. Catherine, too, has a violent past, carefully hidden. The two women hate each other, but their stories intertwine as the violence continues. Catherine believes her boss may be involved in cover-ups even as her career is threatened by political pressure. VERDICT Brookmyre's 17th novel is full of memorable characters in a complex plot set in a vividly drawn setting. Both police and civilians seem resigned to the inevitability of an eye for an eye. Solving the current murder involves peeling away layers to reveal earlier crimes in a riveting tale of revenge and, possibly, redemption. For fans of gritty British crime novels in the tradition of Ian Rankin and Val McDermid. [See Prepub Alert, 11/10/13.]--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

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