The Sideman

By Caro Ramsay, published by Black Thorn, £8.99.

The modern genre of Scottish crime writing – the aptly-named “tartan noir” – has been a full and rich one, with many leading lights of this increasingly well-read category gathering global followings.

Glasgow-born Caro Ramsay trained and still practises as an osteopath. But her writing career now stretches to the publication of both standalone thrillers and close to a dozen police procedurals, featuring the often troubled but always sparky double act of investigation team Colin Anderson and Winfred Prudence Costello, who is nothing like as buttoned up and hidebound by convention as her name might make her sound.

The tenth book of the series, The Sideman, follows on almost immediately from the events of The Suffering Of Strangers, which gained its author a nomination for the McIlvanney Prize.

It opens with a no-holds-barred resignation letter from DI Costello, traumatised by what she sees as her superiors’ lack of interest in what seems to her an obvious case of someone, quite literally, getting away with murder. Deeply unhappy about a case with personal overtones, involving the killing of a child, she decides to take matters into her own hands and pursue the now dormant case in her own time and her own way.

The minute you hear the phrase “rock-solid” alibi”, you know that particular rock is there to be broken apart. Live investigations and cold cases cross and re-cross, woven together skilfully by a flowing style that leads smoothly to the next shock that brings you up short.

The plot is cleverly structured, although there are clues scattered around for the picking if the reader is determined to work out whodunnit.

It does strike the layman that so many interestingly interconnected people would never be allowed anywhere near a serious murder investigation. But it’s a neat conceit, and in the world of the imagination, Caro Ramsay makes her creations’ actions and motivations credible and in character. Those characters are often flawed and not particularly sympathetic but they manage to be compelling nonetheless.

She also has a great ability to conjure up and capture a strong sense of place. Here settings, urban and rural, reek of the reality of Scotland’s city and landscapes and her descriptions of lochs, mountains, are very effective.

Review by Helen Brown.

8/10