Macabre blend of murder and humour
M
ULTIPLE award-winning Scottish writer Stuart MacBride’s The Blood Road is the 11th in his series that features former police officer Logan McRae. Despite a very chequered career in the force, McRae now works for Professional Standards — meaning he has to keep an eye on the behaviour of his fellow officers.
Set in Aberdeen, the book opens with the discovery of a body in the driver’s seat of a crashed car. When the body is later identified as Detective Inspector Bell, it’s a total shock to everyone — because Bell died two years ago by taking
his own life. They had buried him in the local graveyard with full police honours, or so they thought.
An investigation is launched into Bell’s death and McRae begins digging into his past to try and find out where Bell has been for the past two years, why he disappeared and what was so vital that he felt the need to come back from the dead. More importantly, if it wasn’t Bell they buried, who exactly is lying in the graveyard?
Meanwhile, a number of very young children start going missing from the city and the pressure is on to find them safe and well.
With rumours of a paedophile ring operating an underground ‘Livestock Mart’, where stolen children are auctioned to the highest bidder, the clock is ticking for McRae and his team. But, the more they dig, the more bones they uncover and there are people who will
do anything to keep those skeletons buried. McRae knows that if they don’t stop them, DI Bell won’t be the only body they have to deal with.
The Blood Road is a tense and gritty thriller that is not afraid to deal with hard-core issues. While the paedophile storyline is stomach churning, the content rings true and is a reminder that evil people do live in the world. The darkness of the novel is well balanced by MacBride’s masterful characterisation of the wider police team. The highly entertaining antics between the engaging cast of side-kicks, coupled with brilliant Scottish humour, lightens the tone at the right moments.
Running to nearly 500 pages, it offers the perfect blend of rollercoaster storylines, comic wit and excellent characters, making it a very refreshing read.