Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
This is the debut novel for A J McCreanor and it is first-rate. A real page-turner, it gets into your head and niggles away at you when you aren’t reading it. The solution is not an easy one to guess and you are desperate to find out who the guilty party actually is. It is right up my street! Although she no longer lives there, the author was born in Glasgow, and indeed that is where the story is set. You can tell it is a place that she knows well.
The story opens with two young lads trying their luck at housebreaking. To their horror, they find that owner of the house is not out, as they had hoped, but dead and swinging from a beam in the ceiling in the lounge by means of a rope. They call the police and the hunt is on to find the killer and his/her motive.
The deceased, a Mr James Gilmore, was a quiet and solitary individual. He worked as a psychologist and was involved with helping troubled youngsters at the schools in the area. DIs Steven Ross and Kat Wheeler are called in to solve the crime but it is not a straightforward case, as Gilmore lived a ghost-like existence and nobody knows much about him or his work. Determined to get to the bottom of this particularly brutal murder, they dig deeper and find themselves face-to-face with less than savoury characters involved in Glasgow’s underworld. All the while, the killer is watching them. Waiting…
A super story with a breath-taking ending that leaves you wondering whether the truth is better left unsaid at times. I loved this story and am keen to read more by this author in the future. She is definitely a name to watch!
Highly Recommended.
Amanda Gillies, October 2014.
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