Stuart MacBride - Cold Granite

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Well written and atmospheric

I enjoyed Cold Granite, but I did have my reservations.

I have come very late to this series; this is the first Stuart MacBride I have read and overall I’m impressed. He writes very well and creates good characters and very realistic dialogue. He is especially good on the setting, and I cold almost feel the chill and wet of the Aberdeen winter seeping into my bones.

The story is quite well done, of child deaths and the hunt for the killer. It’s grim stuff which MacBride doesn’t flinch from, so there are some very dark, graphic scenes but they are never gratuitously grisly. There are some pretty obvious clues and red herrings, but it’s just about plausible until the inevitable Cornered Killer Climax, which I found rather silly and laboured. And I have to say that at nearly 500 pages the book is too long; tightening it up to nearer 350 pages would have improved it a lot.

Despite my reservations, I thought this was well written and atmospheric enough to encourage me to read more in the series. I won’t be rushing to get hold of them, but I’ll definitely persist and I can recommend this as a good starter.

(My thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC via NetGalley.)