Review by Booklist Review
Brutal, cunning Glasgow gang lord James Machie has been dead for five years, killed in a police van taking him to prison. DCI Jim Daley has been promoted and transferred to command police in small, quiet Kinloch. DS Brian Scott, recovered from a bullet wound inflicted by Machie, is with Daley in Kinloch, where the most serious crime they confront is tobacco smuggling. But unbeknownst to Daley and Scott, a hood who ratted out Machie lives in Kinloch under witness protection. Meanwhile, another of Machie's associates is murdered in Australia, and video indicates that Machie killed him. Scott is incredulous. He watched Machie's autopsy and cremation. Soon, the killing moves to Scotland, and Machie even leaves a selfie to torment the coppers. Daley and Scott know they must face the gangster again. Fans of international crime will slog through much Scottish dialect to learn how Machie cheated death, and most will find it well worth the effort.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Scottish author Meyrick (Whisky from Small Glasses) makes his U.S. debut with this promising first in a crime series starring Chief Insp. Jim Daley, who's recently posted to the Scottish town of Kinloch. Five years earlier in Glasgow, Daley helped take down notorious gangster James "JayMac" Machie, only to have Machie gunned down in an attack on a prison ambulance. With the Machie case behind him, Daley can concentrate on his wife, Liz, and keeping the peace in Kinloch. That is, until Gerald and Marna Dowie, a couple closely associated with Machie, are gunned down in Melbourne, Australia, and a familiar face shows up on the CCTV. With the help of his colleague on the Machie case, Det. Sgt. Brian Scott, who also grew up with all the key players, Daley must figure out how a dead man committed murder, and what he's planning next. A compelling lead and a satisfyingly twisted plot make this a welcome addition to Tartan noir. Agent: Anne Williams, Kate Hordern Literary Agency (U.K.). (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
When James Machie is assassinated in a Scottish prison van, it appears his extensive criminal enterprise in the UK has been stopped. Five years later, one of his former lieutenants who turned witness against Machie is brutally murdered in Australia. Frank MacDougall, however, a second turncoat witness, is in witness protection in Kinloch, a fact previously unknown to local DCI Jim Daley and his colleague Detective Sergeant Scott, who had helped put Machie in prison. Daley's car is blown up, his boss's office is bombed, and members of -MacDougall's family are killed, all by someone who looks exactly like the cremated Machie. A subplot involves drugs and tobacco smuggling, all of which ties together in a bloody but only partial resolution. VERDICT This is the second of four "Detective Daley" tales, but the first to be published in the United States. Meyrick is a former Glasgow cop and freelance journalist. His writing is ragged, and the Scottish dialect can be intrusive, but the striking characters and shifting plot vibrate with energy. The bodies pile up, the tension builds, the blood flows, and the weather threatens-quite like a graphic novel.--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Glasgow mob boss seemingly returns from the dead to exact his revenge on those who brought down his empire and sent him to prison in this exceptionally brutal debut. This gangster, James Machiea particularly nasty specimenwas done in by a combination of intuitive police work and associates willing to turn evidence in exchange for being placed in the Scottish equivalent of witness protection. When those stoolies begin turning up as corpses, DCI Jim Daley, whose young partner also had a decisive hand in the case, is confronted with evidence that the villain he believed long dead is still among them. The race to find this resurrected baddie before he can cross off every name on his kill list would be much more compelling if the plotting didn't keep stumbling over itself. The novel favors after-the-fact explanations of events, which would be fine if the explanations weren't often so unclear. Still, the book might have gotten by if it weren't for the violence which, though it appears intended to alert us to just how brutal an opponent the gangster is, is merely revolting. Before even 10 pages have passed, a nurse attending a patient has her face pierced by flying metal and then her teeth kicked out. A young cop sees his partner's head blown apart before he's killed. A man is macheted to death and his bound-and-gagged wife shown the corpse before her own head is blasted off her neck. Meyrick takes the low road. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
