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Ash Henderson, ex police officer and now a 'consultant' of some kind, and Dr Alice McDonald, a forensic psychologist, are sent to the scene to assist the police and become embroiled in the hunt to find the serial killer. Simultaneously, they are involved, to some degree, in an ongoing investigation into another serial killer who is strangling young boys. Logan McRae is the everyman, a decent guy trying to do good in a world that is both cruel and absurd. When he does break the rules, it’s for the greater good. Ash Henderson is a very different character, a vigilante fuelled by a need for revenge, constrained only by what he can get away with. While the humour is there, the overall feel is bleaker. I really enjoy this MC. He’s grumpy, snarky & never at a loss for words. The dialogue is particularly entertaining & some of the conversations made me laugh out loud….often followed by a cringe and/or “eeeww”. He’s the perfect foil for Alice, a timid psychologist who can introduce more topics into a single sentence than any other human. Overall, this is tartan noir at its best. It’s exciting, suspenseful with an excellent plot and a well written, humorous storyline. However, if there’s to be another in the series the characters need to rethink their food choices if they are to survive without a coronary before the finale! But there was always the writing (well, that's not true, the writing only started two chapters above this one). I fell victim to that most dreadful of things: peer pressure. Two friends were writing novels and I thought, 'why not? I could do that'.
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. It’s too dangerous to go near the place, so there’s no way of knowing how many people he’s murdered. Or how many more he’ll kill before he’s caught.I did work out a few of the twists in the tale along the way, and perhaps that is just because I read so much crime fiction that I just kind of expected it. But it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the story, or stop me from wanting to see just how Ash would ensure that the killer was caught or at the very least received their dues. And it was a rather fitting ending to be fair, quite dramatic and right down to the wire, but very apt. It must be painful to live in Ash Henderson’s world and if you are thinking that Stuart MacBride may have been. a little easier on him with his advancing years, you’d be wrong. It is more a case of how much he can take than how much can you expect to be doled out. The plot kept me interested throughout with the two main strands and several side issues to occupy my mind. I felt as if my mind was constantly whirring with possible scenarios of how it would play out and being wrong at every turn as it took a different direction. There is the mystery of the unknown child killer and there is the hunt for the murderous pensioner Gordon Smith, who still has all his marbles and hasn’t given up his urges. It’s great stuff.
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).
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We have duel investigations going on with these two, a serial killer who has been undetected for decades and also a child murderer who is escalating his crimes with every kill. There's murder, mystery, fabulous characters and dark humour that had me laughing out loud throughout. So, despite it's dark subject matter, it's just so well balanced with humour. As if that isn’t enough, there is also a child killer on the loose who has already killed three young boys and who has just snatched a fourth. But Ash has Gordon Smith in his sights. A neighbour of Smith’s turns out to be Helen MacNeil whom Ash has a history with, not romantic, Helen is a criminal and a pretty scary woman - stronger than many men and totally ruthless. She bails Ash up about her missing granddaughter, Leah, who was literally brought up by the Smiths as Helen was in prison and her mother, Sophie, committed suicide. Or did she? Caroline Smith, Gordon’s wife, has since died. No one knows if she was complicit in his crimes but how could she not know? As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the North Sea. But the crumbling headland has revealed what he’s got buried in his garden: human remains.
A village is collapsing into the North Sea and as another massive storm hits the coast one house reveals too many secrets as buried human remains are suddenly exposed. On this occasion we join Ash Henderson again as he attempts to catch a serial killer who has gone undetected in his actions for decades and Ash is going to stop at nothing to catch them. There are definite similarities between this & the Logan McRae series. Both feature 2 smart & long suffering detectives saddled with female colleagues that drive them to drink (albeit in VERY different ways). They’re both usually sporting bruises/bandages from their last thumping. And neither has any trouble expressing themselves in colourful Scottish vernacular. I think the difference for me are the respective casts of characters as a whole. Ash, Alice, Mother, Shifty, Rhona….I’ve grown fond of them all & enjoy what each brings to the story. DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of The Coffin Maker's Garden written by Stuart MacBride and narrated by Ian Hanmore.The end was okay and there were not bits left hanging, except his last victim. Maybe the best was the little dog was okay and it was with him the book was finally finished.
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