Alan Parks - Bloody January

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very noir indeed

I thought Bloody January was a good crime novel and a promising start to a series.

Set in Glasgow in January 1973, Harry McCoy is a Detective Inspector who gets a cryptic tip-off from a gangster in prison that a murder is about to take place.  McCoy and his new partner then investigate an increasingly complex case involving Glasgow's seamiest criminal side of drugs, prostitution and violence in which some very rich and powerful people seem to be involved.  It's a good story, well told.  Alan Parks writes well and generates a very good, convincing atmosphere of both the period and the milieu.  It is pretty unremittingly dark, with plenty of drink, drugs, miserable weather and some sickening violence.  (There is language to match, which is completely appropriate to the characters, but some readers may like to be warned of liberal use of both the c- and f-words.)

I did think that the book was treading some quite well-worn paths at times.  I mean, does a maverick Scottish Police Inspector with a desolate emotional life who drinks far too much, has a morally ambiguous relationship with a powerful criminal and is barely tolerated by his superiors sound at all familiar?  Or a plot with aristocrats behaving badly and using their highly-placed contacts to protect themselves? 

Nonetheless, I still found this an involving read and I will look out for the next book.  Harry McCoy has the potential to be a very interesting character and I think Alan Parks may develop this into a very good series. Recommended if you like your crime dark and seedy.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)