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No Less The Devil is more than just a crime fiction novel though. It is a stunning commentary on post Covid society and MacBride has chosen to mainly provide this commentary through the eyes of The Dunc, which works beautifully in my opinion.
Added to this are the problems resulting from the release of 27 year old Benedict Strachan who was jailed sixteen years earlier for murder. Scarred by his experiences he is convinced 'they' are just waiting for an opportunity to 'get him'. As Lucy used his case as part of her dissertation, 'Children Who Kill' he is now convinced only she can help him remain alive. Despite all the obstacles, McVeigh and the Dunk are successful in unearthing new clues to the identity of "the Bloodsmith", including apparent links to the elite St. Nicholas's College. Can they capture the killer before he (or she) strikes again?I’d really become invested in this storyline, a typically gripping crime thriller from Stuart Macbride, until we got to about 80%, and then it just seemed to veer off into the realms of fantasy from whence it completely lost the plot, and so did I! With "No Less The Devil" he has outdone himself. Fully absorbing, both hilarious and very very disturbing this novel is a tale of two halves and goes nowhere you could expect or predict.
Overall, this is far from being the authors best book and it’s not one for me. It’s a real shame as there is the makings of a very good plot here but it gets lost along a convoluted and meandering way. It sounds like paranoia, but what if he's right? What if the Bloodsmith isn't the only monster out there? I am now hoping for a Study Notes guide to accompany No Less The Devil so that I have a smidgeon of a chance of understanding what on earth actually happened in the end Whilst being a stereotypical MacBride character setup, No Less The Devil also stereotypical in the sense that it is a thrilling, darkly humorous, gory, well-written and brilliantly plotted tartan noir thriller. Recommended.Then around the 80% mark the story takes a sharp turn. I was expecting some of it—the foreshadowing of Lucy’s PTSD—but not all of it. There are more twists and turns through the last 20%, some I liked and some I didn’t like. But at the end, I was left with an uneasy feeling, because many of the killers escaped justice. In real life, this is often true, but most of us read thrillers because we want things to end right, the culprits caught, and justice to prevail. When an author doesn’t give us that satisfaction, we are left with a feeling of unease. Yes, MacBride throws us tidbits: not all the culprits escape; some are captured/killed. But some flourish.
For reasons unknown to me I suddenly found the urge to try, I spotted No Less The Devil on Netgalley and thought- here’s a way to make sure I finally read some more MacBride, I’ll sign up to review. So here we are.. With the case going nowhere the investigating team are restructured and DS Lucy McVeigh and her partner DC Duncan "The Dunk" Fraser are given the task of reviewing the victims and the murder scenes in the hope that someone will remember something that will help them close a case that has ground to a halt after seventeen months.
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It's been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast.
No Less The Devil is a standalone crime thriller by bestselling Scottish author Stuart MacBride, known for his brilliant Logan McRae / Roberta Steel and Ash Henderson series. Set in the fictional Scottish city of Oldcastle, No Less The Devil fits within the Ash Henderson universe, but like A Dark So Deadly features its own set of unique characters. But there was always the writing (well, that's not true, the writing only started two chapters above this one). I fell victim to that most dreadful of things: peer pressure. Two friends were writing novels and I thought, 'why not? I could do that'.
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No Less The Devil is written in third from the perspective of DS Lucy Mcveigh as she chases down gory serial killer ‘The Bloodsmith’ and attempts to help recently released child killer Benedict. If you don't believe that the human mind is the most dangerous place on earth, you are probably not going to get the most out of this book. Stuart MacBride delves into the deepest recesses of the mind: PTSD, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations and psychopathy. Delicious stuff for me!
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