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Yet another first class novel based in Glasgow - where better. Glasgow is a city of hard men but it has a heart of gold, however, Craig Robertson does not touch on this virtue unlike Craig Russell did in "Lennox".
The story is told by the killer himself. His ramblings are bitter, but he does not come across as the psychopath that we may have encountered in books of a similar nature. I will not go into the story and spoil it for readers, but six murders are committed for no apparent motive. The city is in a state of terror and the police go round in circles looking for "The Cutter". Eventually they have to call in the big guns from Nottingham.. A clever criminal, the Cutter is always one step ahead and covers his tracks superbly.
Mr Robertson is a reporter for the "Sunday Post", one of Scotland's fabvourite newspapers, and he must have been very successful if his standard of writing is anything like that of this novel. The chapters are short and he does not keep the reader hanging on. The facts and observations contained therein are interesting and informative.
I found it very easy to read and did so in record time. To be truthful, I couldn't lay it down.
I do hope that more novels are to come from the pen of this promising newcomer to the crime genre.
I will certainly be watching out for them.

I wanted to like this book far more than I did. Crime thrillers set in Glasgow are just my cup of tea and this was told mainly from the point of view of the killer, with the only additional information coming from newspaper clippings. It was a book that just screamed 'me'. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I expected.

The Cutter himself was quite an interesting character on paper, seemingly picking his victims at random. His methods of finding victims and killing them all differ. He even contemplates the thought of killing children, if his randomised methods happen to work out that way. However, I found him mostly unlikeable and unsympathetic, even after finding out his motives for killing. The only time I even remotely felt for him was when he was with his wife. Both of them were dealing, poorly, with personal tragedy. It was the only time he came across as human to me. Bad things happen to good people but most of them don't turn into serial killers so why did The Cutter? This was never really addressed sufficiently enough for me.

The characterisation of Glasgow was a complete cliché and didn't impress me at all. Gangsters, neds, drug dealers, addicts. All of them exist in Glasgow, as they do everywhere, but it's not what the city is all about. I do think that anyone familiar with Glasgow will get a lot more out of the story than those not. It mentions a lot of different places with little context as to where they are and I feel only a native or frequent visitor (I went to university in the city) would be able to place.

Another negative point for me was the mistakes in the book. From confusing the number of the person he was going to kill (one of his ways was to walk past people and count to a certain number, and that person would be his next victim) to misnaming a real-life murder victim that would take seconds to look up. The second was a big story in Scotland and the error jolted me right out of reading.

The novel, overall, wasn't bad. I enjoyed it enough to keep reading until the end but I was never really impatient to know what happened next.

I love this book, it is good how it is told through the killer's eye's. when I started I could not put it down. I can not wait to read what he write's next, It is hard to believe that this is his first book it is so well written. if you love a good crime book you defo need to read this

I bought this book in Cape Town whilst on holiday - I came upon it in a bookshop and thought it looked interesting - an odd place for a Glaswegian to pick up a book about Glasgow but it was fantastic! I read it in about a day and could hardly put it down. It is gruesome and I am worried about the author's mental health (how on earth could anyone think up the methods of murder) but it is really good book. Not for the faint hearted but I am keen to read the next one. The story is complex and you never know what will happen next, (except that it will be grizzly) and despite the fact that the main character is clearly insane, there is a sense of feeling sorry for him and somehow sympathising with him in some way........
Essentially there is a madman on the loose and he is cleverly able to out fox the police and others - but for how long?

I held little hope for this book fearing that it would trawl through every Glasgow hardman cliche imaginable. It touches on some but in other respects it captures the city quite skilfully.

The central premise is the story of a serial killer stalking the streets of Glasgow on a revenge mission told in the first person. So far so predictable. But to Robertsons credit he pulls all of the strings together in a nice little denoument and abrupt finish. It is not for the faint hearted being both violent and written in the colourful Glasgow vernacular. Easy read in short chapters.

I enjoyed it.

This is a dark serial killer killer novel with a difference. This is a diffrent take on the genre as you experience the world through the serial killer's eyes. Well paced and hard to put down with great characters, Ilook forward to reading more by Robertson.

I haven't read anything by the author prior to this, but I shall certainly keep an eye on the shelves from now on.

The book delivers in spades. It has an arresting (no pun intended)story line and the characters are full of depth and give a real sense of anger and despair. The book paints a vivid picture of the area where it is set and one gets a sense of how it must be to exist there. I don't mean in a negative sense either. It gives the reader a feel of the place and it's people and not many books can pull that off without being over-dramatic or over-sentimental. The book gives the reader an insight into the failings of justice and what is right. It also gives the reader a sense of how things can spiral when the system fails you. One can almost feel the depths of the emotions of the main character and ulitmately the need for sheer, plain old cold revenge. I actually found myself empathising with the main character but not for the majority of the victims I'm afraid lol++.

It was quite easy to fall into the pages and visualise the writing as I went along for the journey. That doesn't happen often, sadly. The ending is sad in a way, even though it was partially expected it still gave me a wee jolt.

So, would I recommend it? Indeed I would!

Thanks to AV for the opportunity to read it and to Craig Richardson for writing it. If his next book is of the same calibre I would be more than happy to read it.

rorobluesdad

As a début novel, you couldn't get much better. Well, actually, you probably could.

The premise is a good one, the story is well planned out and concerningly believable. The characters are very three dimensional and, when motive is revealed, very easy to empathise with (interestingly, with both victims and killer).

It has all the makings of a five star book, but really spoilt itself for me with a plot twist (which I shall not reveal, as I would recommend this as a purchase) mid-way through. I thought it detracted from the plot just enough to leave a question mark about its enjoyment value without marring it entirely.

A good read for anyone who is a fan of the murder mystery/crime thriller genre, and may have particular appeal to the many fans of "CSI Type" shows (and their accompanying novelizations).

Three stars is pretty good for me.
This story is told from an unusual point of view (the killer himself) and slowly the reasons for the murders become clear leaving the reader with a lot of sympathy with the killer. As the book progressed, I found that I had less sympathy but an understanding of what catastrophe led to this series of seemingly unconnected murders.
There are twists and turns with quite a shocking ending and, all in all, a compelling book.
If there is a negative, the lack of explanation of how this ordinary man manages to study his victims so easily stretches the imagination and the methods used are also a little unbelievable.
Despite that, a good read and I suspect more will come from this Author soon.

This is an interesting and intriguing debut. It is written form the viewpoint ofg the killer, which is rare if not unique in crime fiction.

The novel opens well with our "hero" (that CAN'T be the right word surely) picking his first victim using a random method. This is particularly creepy and Craig Robertson keeps up this atmosphere throughout the book. The reader is lulled into believing that these killings are really random, which in itself is shocking enough. But when the narrator reveals his actual motivation his callousness and disregard for his random victims ramps the shock factor way off the scale.

The first person narrative is supplemented occasionally by press reports, which have a great ring of authenticity, which they should have given the author's long career as a journalist.

It is a difficult trick to engage the reader with such an unsympathetic character controlling the narrative, but Robertson manages by making him interesting if revolting. He creates a convincing psychopath who produces pathetic excuses and justifications for his behaviour; his efforts to besmirch some of his victims and therefore somehow justify their fate add to this authenticity. Even the narrator himself seems to find this hard to take.

The author does box himself into a corner with the first person narrative a wee bit and some of the attempts to get round this appear a wee bit laboured ("A pal told me"). In addition the ending does seem a bit of a cop out.

Having said that this is an impressive debut. The blurbs compare Robertson to Rankin and Deaver. He is not in that class but then again neither were they with their debuts so who knows?