Birthdays for the Dead
Taking a break from his Logan McRae series, MacBride offers a stand-alone whose premise is pure, twisted genius. Ash Henderson, a big, bruising police detective in fictional Oldcastle, Scotland, has been chasing a killer who snatches girls before their thirteenth birthday, tortures them to death, and then sends birthday cards&#x2014;with gruesome photos&#x2014;to the girls&#x2019; families each year thereafter. The kicker? Henderson has been getting the birthday cards, too, but won&#x2019;t tell anyone his missing daughter is also a victim: if he&#x2019;s taken off the case, he&#x2019;ll lose his chance to catch the &#x201C;Birthday Boy&#x201D; himself. This has all the hallmarks of MacBride&#x2019;s best books&#x2014;gruesome violence, foul weather, pitch-black humor, and entertainingly mismatched protagonists (Henderson is paired with &#x201C;freak-show&#x201D; forensic psychologist Alice McDonald). But despite all this has to offer readers so inclined, MacBride needs an editor who&#x2019;s not afraid to use a knife, as the book feels about 100 pages and one plot twist too long. On the other hand, those who enjoy spending time in MacBride&#x2019;s dark world may not mind a bit. --Keir Graff