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MacBride's books have always been ambitiously plotted and firmly character-driven ... They are only getting richer and more rewarding. The Blood Road is his best work yet' Scotland on Sunday First, that title. Rarely does a title alone grab me but I was sold on sight. The book was smiling at me - the barely there sort covering a wealth of mordant humor. I wanted to mine it all. So – did it work? Well, by and large yes. There are two threads to this story. The first is the investigation into the abduction and murder of young boys from around Oldcastle. This is the case that Ash and Dr Alice McDonald are working on when they get a call to attend a scene of a tragic maritime accident in a small coastal village, where an unexpected discovery has been made. Bones. Lots of them. In a garden which is rapidly disappearing into the North Sea due to coastal erosion. But it is not this alone that forces Ash to work alongside DI Malcolmson, a.k.a. ‘Mother’, and her Misfit Mob, but the altogether more grim findings in the basement of the home that the garden and said bones seem to belong to. All those small, square photographs in their rectangular white 'frames', the greying plastic stained with the dark swirls of bloody fingerprints.
I also didn't like the alternation between third- and first-person narrator. It's confusing and it feels like lazy writing. DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of The Coffin Maker's Garden written by Stuart MacBride and narrated by Ian Hanmore. The story features a cast of colorful characters set on the Scottish coast in a Whodunnit frame. Ripe with heaping doses of grit, this was a stand out among other police procedurals for me. I have enjoyed the 'Logan, McRae' series for a few years now and would highly recommend it to readers who fancy a crime series that's full of humour and a little different. I have been meaning t start this series for sometime and although I realise it is not an ideal place to start with book 3 I didn't feel that it spoilt my enjoyment of this book. There was plenty to like about this book and I had mixed feelings throughout without completely connecting with either the characters or plot. For me the characters were too similar to the one's I already know from Stuart MacBride's other series.
Only, what do you do when society is, quite rightly, really sodding concerned about a virus that’s officially killed four million of us (though estimates say the real total is probably more than twelve million)? The media are baying for blood, the top brass are after a scapegoat, and ex-Detective Inspector Ash Henderson is done playing nice. He's got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way. About This Edition ISBN: That was magnificent! I am a huge fan of Stuart MacBride and have read pretty much all of his books. (Former Detective Inspector) Ash Henderson is now working as a civilian consultant for the Lateral Investigative and Review Unit (LIRU) along with forensic psychologist Dr Alice McDonald. They both have plenty of demons. In addition Alice is drinking far too much and Ash is recovering from a bullet wound in his foot. There’s still an element of ‘crime fiction as a mirror’ about it, but a lot of ‘crime fiction as an escape’ too. Maybe not quite as much of an escape as Tufty the Vampire Slayer, or The Horrible Haunting of Tartan Haggis MacFunland, but an escape nonetheless. For years I’ve been saying that crime writers reflect the fears of society. That’s why 1970s crime fiction is so different to 2000s, or 2010. It holds up a mirror to our collective psyche and asks, ‘What are you afraid of?’
Ash Henderson and his gang of misfits are called in to investigate a case no one wants. It's deemed impossible and too high profile for anyone else to consider destroying their career over.
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As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the sea. The trouble is: that’s where he’s been hiding the bodies. I know MacBride has a legion of fans and I would have liked to join them but, although the plot was good, particularly at the beginning, the execution of it let it down. The novel is mostly told from Ash’s point of view in the first person and as he has a rather dark, cynical take on life it makes the read fun and even laugh out loud funny at times. I am Scottish so it all seems very natural and makes perfect sense to me but I can’t judge if it would be the same for non natives. I wouldn’t say that his judgement is always sound as his decision making seems to involve violence on a regular basis, both given and received, but he can always justify it, perhaps. Old school is probably the best description.
Ash Henderson is arrogant, rude, violent and treats everyone as less intelligent than himself. The only person he appears to have some tenderness for is McDonald, a functioning alcoholic who can't work unless she's had a large helping of alcohol. But university and I did not see eye to eye, so off I went to work offshore. Like many all-male environments, working offshore was the intellectual equivalent of Animal House, only without the clever bits. Swearing, smoking, eating, more swearing, pornography, swearing, drinking endless plastic cups of tea... and did I mention the swearing? But it was more money than I'd seen in my life! There's something about being handed a wadge of cash as you clamber off the minibus from the heliport, having spent the last two weeks offshore and the last two hours in an orange, rubber romper suit / body bag, then blowing most of it in the pubs and clubs of Aberdeen. And being young enough to get away without a hangover. They begin the story working together but finish of working separately on the 2 cases. Once again Mrs Kerrigan's lynch mob are afoot but have gone into business themselves and have no hesitation dealing out their punishments ... erm ... business. These 2 are so polite and then bash your brains out. Comical to say the least, or is it? The writing style itself feels inappropriate for a novel, with blatant abuse of italics, words in all caps and lots and lots of exclamation points (sometimes all three of them at the same time). A stormy night in Clachmara, a boat floundering near an unstable cliff, a helicopter attempting rescue, a rumble and disaster as the cliff collapses revealing the Coffinmakers Garden. Di Malcolmson (aka Mother) of Oldcastle Division, Ash Henderson and Dr Alice McDonald of LIRU (Lateral Investigative and Review Unit) investigate and make further horrifying discoveries. As if this isn’t bad enough there also a child killer to catch.Home> Fiction from Scotland> The Coffinmaker’s Garden The Coffinmaker’s Garden By (author) Stuart MacBride; Read by TBA
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