Not Our Face: Flesh house - Stuart MacBride

I can’t really be bothered to look it up, but how much crime is there in Aberdeen? Nothing springs out at me from the deep mines of trivia I call my mind, except that some Wolverhampton based gangsters went to try and start the crack cocaine trade up there. It’s one of those statistics about your home town that you can’t help feeling an equal mix of shame and pride, like having the highest rate of teen pregnancy, but at least you’re the best at something.

The reason I ask how much crime there is in Aberdeen, is that judging by the novels of Stuart MacBride, there seems to be a hell of a lot. In the first novel, Cold Granite, there was serial killings, corpse collecting, hit and runs on children, and a paedophile white slaving ring. That sounds like a lot for one small city of 180,000.

The series’ hero is Logan “Lazarus” McRae, so nicknamed for having died on the operating table just prior to book 1. McRae is actually a fairly well realised character in the world of crime fiction, as sometimes authors can stick a first name in front of a second name; add a police title, and then just mix in three wacky affectations and a few murders. The book tends to swing between the grim grisly crime scenes, and the drawn out investigations of modern police procedure. Being as everyone now knows from CSI and its ilk that all crimes are solved by DNA, there has to be a lot of charm in what is now just a paperchase, and MacBride does seem to have a nice ear for the bantery dialogue of colleagues.

By the time we catch up with him in book 4, Flesh House, McRae and the team are searching for a serial killer who was let out by a mistrial on the original investigation. This serial killer is called The Flesher, due to the habit of turning victims into meat. The descriptions of butchery are detailed, almost lovingly described, and it comes as no surprise to me that some readers reported having nightmares after reading it, either from the images of people being massacred or the subplot of a woman who is kept captive by The Flesher, and her descent into madness.

A strong stomach is required, but it is worth it if you can handle it for a tense, well worked thriller

Paul Savage

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Not Our Face

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