Dark Blood (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

This is one of the easiest books I've had to review in a while:

If you've loved the previous 5 Logan McRae books you'll love this because its very much up to standard.
If you've hated the previous 5 Logan McRae books you'll hate this because .......... its very much up to standard.

For the rest of us who don't have really strong emotions one way or the other you'll probably find it an entertaining enough read. Crime fiction is a very broad genre and covers everything from the crime literature of Ian Rankin & John Harvey through to the darker humour of people like Christopher Brookmyre and Colin Bateman to the serial killer by numbers of americans like Patterson and Deaver. All very, very different types of novel. MacBride writes his own thing. He's not up to the standard of the Rebus novels so if you want another Ian Rankin you'll be disappointed with this. However if you like a fast moving less heavy weight crime novel with a vein of twisted dark humour this will probably tick the boxes.

I was reasonably impressed with 'Dark Blood'... it was slower to get started than some of the previous books and the various crimes seemed at first unlinked but it came together fairly convincingly at the end. The supporting characters, especially the truly foul DI Steel are rather overblown and rather stereotypical but this makes for some cheap laughs and adds some humour thats lacking in many crime novels. DS McRae himself is a believable and likeable character who showing some good character development. The pressure of his job especially the constant criticism in both his personal and professional life is leading to a fairly serious drink problem which in turn is making his life far harder. The situation he's constantly in of three superiors telling him to do three different things which inevitably means two of them will want his head on a plate the next morning is one I can relate too and you genuinely feel sorry for the poor guy being stuck between a rock (the monsterous DI Steel) and a hardplace (the idiot DI Beattie)

For some reason MacBride gets a lot of critism for being 'unrealistic'. The easy rebuke to that is 'its fiction'. If you want realism read true crime books. Even then its unfair because there's more realism in these books than many others. When Big Hamish Moffat sends the enforcers round to McRae's house McRae is damn scared. Compared to Rebus's relationship with Big Ger Cafferty its more plausible. Likewise McRae's drinking and attitude problems lead to an almost weekly meeting with professional standards and he's on the point of losing his job several times in this book. Rebus gets away with far too much for far too long with almost no censure. 'Dark Blood' is forensically quite accurate and there are some details in it that could only have come from a pathologist. Although fairly graphic in places its not nearly as sadistically violent as some of the books Val McDiarmid or Mo Hayder have written.

All in all I enjoyed 'Dark Blood' and was glad I bought it.

I'll sign off with one of my favourite sermons: most of the criticism this book has picked up is because of the policies of the major publishers not the authors themselves. They're signing less and less new talent and giving popular authors multi book contracts that force them to turn out a new work every 12 months. As a result quality is slipping and great characters are being written into soap operas in print. If JRR Tolkien tried getting the Lord of the Rings published in 2010 most publishers wouldn't want to know and any that did print his works would expect a new episode of Bilbo Baggins adventures every 12 months. This policy is killing literature.

This was my first Macbride, and like many other reviewers was initially put off by the foul language and attitude of DI Steel. However I stuck with it and when I realised I could laugh at her and the other characters I was riveted. The plot held together well and the scene where DI Beattie shows his 'powerpoint skills' had me laughing out loud; and I re read it three times! Anyone who works in an 'institution' will recognise the characters and absurdities that Macbride brings to life so well. I look forward to reading the rest of the books now.

First of all I'd like to declare myself as someone that has read all the books in the logan macrae series. And also would like to say that the last review giving this book a one star review is just unfair, "unrealistic characters saying unrealistic things in an unrealistic setting", hmmmmmm, now unrealistic characters might be close to the mark but as a resident of aberdeen myself Stuart always stays fairly true to his location. Nice to see some local news stories making it into the book as well with Trumpy's golf course development featured. However, I must say I am starting to get tired of Stuart Macbrides preoccupation with describing the gruesome, just plain manky! That said if you're a fan of other macrae novels you'll no doubt read it cover to cover and enjoy the journey! Enjoy