This is the fifth book in the Harry McCoy series and it’s another very good addition to the series.
It is now May 1974 and McCoy is back at work even though his stomach ulcer makes him scarcely fit. An arson attack on a hairdresser’s leaves five women and girls dead and the city baying for revenge. The three boys responsible are in custody but are snatched while in transit from court. A complex plot emerges involving possible involvement by two of Glasgow’s underworld bosses and a lot of delving into the nastiest aspects of the city, while Stevie Cooper remains a menacing presence in McCoy’s life and in the investigation.
It’s very well done – and about as noir as it gets. McCoy is ill and disillusioned, it is late May but still raining incessantly, there is a wide range of seedy or ruined characters and some of the violence is truly sickening. Nonetheless, it’s an engrossing story with Alan Parks’s evocation of the Glasgow of the period and its characters being as convincing and fascinating as ever and I was completely engaged. There were strong echoes of William McIlvanney here – which is just fine by me.
Parks is beginning to deserve to be ranked with other contemporary giants of Scottish crime writing like Rankin, Mina and McDermid, I think. This isn’t for the faint-hearted, but if you like crime to be really noir, I can recommend this warmly.
(My thanks to Canongate for an ARC vie NetGalley.)
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