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As soon as I received my own copy of this title it was most definitely going to be my next read. It had to jump my to-be-read queue. It was once again so good that my 10th generation kindle couldn't cope and crashed severely that I had to have a new one. It was only 3 months old!! I found the intense description of the treatment of the little boys unnecessary and I know a lot of readers would have found it harrowing. It wasn't necessary and trying to draw readers in with that sort of writing is a bit beyond decent when it comes to kids. It would be great if the author were to alternate these novels with the Logan McRae ones on an annual basis, thus keeping both series fresh for the reader. I’m always intrigued with UK settings and the Scottish locale here was no exception. Before the finale, I learned about butty sausages, chippies, mince and tatties, brollys, brookit, and lorries. Colloquialism abounds-and I was enthralled! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It is set to be published in January 2021.
I’ve been reading this author’s work for ages & while I enjoy the Logan McRae books, have to admit I prefer this series. It’s been 7 years since A Song for the Dying. So I’m thrilled to see the return of Oldcastle’s crankiest, perpetually injured ex-DI. The Coffin Maker's Garden is deliciously creepy and oh so twisty. A tale that starts out on a dark and stormy night and just keeps getting better and better. My interest never flagged for a second. Der Hauptprotagonist Ash Henderson ist ein verbitterter und zynischer Expolizist, der sich selbst und seine kurze Zündschnur nicht im Griff hat und der deshalb ständig mit anderen Menschen aneinander gerät. Sowas muss man mögen - ich auf jeden Fall nicht 😅 With the storm still raging, it’s too dangerous to retrieve the bodies and waves are devouring the evidence. Which means no one knows how many people Smith’s already killed and how many more he’ll kill if he can’t be found and stopped. There's murder, mystery, fabulous characters and dark humour that had me laughing out loud throughout. So, despite it's dark subject matter, it's just so well balanced with humour.
BUY THIS BOOK
The specialised team are established characters from previous books, but this was my first encounter with them. I felt very comfortable with them as they felt natural, with no stiffness about their characters like, at times, when they are new. Alongside, the case of the serial killer is also the disappearance of a neighbour’s daughter. As more horrors are discovered, ex-detective Ash Henderson is done playing nice. He’s got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way. I would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for an advance copy of The Coffinmaker’s Garden, the third novel to feature former DI Ash Henderson, now a consultant to Police Scotland in the fictional town of Oldcastle. I really enjoy this MC. He’s grumpy, snarky & never at a loss for words. The dialogue is particularly entertaining & some of the conversations made me laugh out loud….often followed by a cringe and/or “eeeww”. He’s the perfect foil for Alice, a timid psychologist who can introduce more topics into a single sentence than any other human. I also didn't like the alternation between third- and first-person narrator. It's confusing and it feels like lazy writing.
A stormy night in Clachmara, a boat floundering near an unstable cliff, a helicopter attempting rescue, a rumble and disaster as the cliff collapses revealing the Coffinmakers Garden. Di Malcolmson (aka Mother) of Oldcastle Division, Ash Henderson and Dr Alice McDonald of LIRU (Lateral Investigative and Review Unit) investigate and make further horrifying discoveries. As if this isn’t bad enough there also a child killer to catch. A village is collapsing into the North Sea and as another massive storm hits the coast one house reveals too many secrets as buried human remains are suddenly exposed. On this occasion we join Ash Henderson again as he attempts to catch a serial killer who has gone undetected in his actions for decades and Ash is going to stop at nothing to catch them. Logan McRae is the everyman, a decent guy trying to do good in a world that is both cruel and absurd. When he does break the rules, it’s for the greater good. Ash Henderson is a very different character, a vigilante fuelled by a need for revenge, constrained only by what he can get away with. While the humour is there, the overall feel is bleaker. Ash is a Superhero - able to continue despite all the beatings, injuries, amputations, torture, stabbings and shootings he receives along the way. But he's the nasty evil Superhero with a psychopathic love of inflicting pain and torturing anyone he assumes to have done wrong. This to me was the ultimate hypocrisy as he himself doesn't seem to even know the rules, let alone follow them. But, in the meantime, I had to get on with the day job and produce a proper full-length police thriller. One that didn’t include haunted funfairs, mummies, or anatomically impossible taxidermy. And still the question remained: what the hell was I going to do about the pandemic?fivestarread #contemporaryfiction #crime #detectivefiction #murdermystery #scottishnoir #serialkillerthriller #suspense #thriller As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the sea. The trouble is: that’s where he’s been hiding the bodies.
Ex Detective Inspector Ash Henderson, now part of the Lateral Investigative and Review Unit (LIRU) is called in as a consultant to help detectives with this particular case, due to his previous expertise investigating serial killers, and despite the fact that Ash is no longer a serving police officer, it doesn’t obstruct him in any way, and he’s definitely not someone to cross in his investigations! Just like the Incredible Hulk, you don’t want to make him angry - you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry!
It requires quite a large suspension of belief to accept this pair as capable of solving not one, but two, major crimes simultaneously without much help from the police. MacBride very rarely introduces a likeable character and, when he does, they are always secondary to Henderson who rides roughshod over everyone in his path. A female police officer appears for a large section of the book but doesn't do much more than drive Henderson about and get leered at, by quite a few characters, because she has attractive boobs. She disappeared after a while and was never referred to again.
The book begins in the coastal village of Clachmara ,which due to coastal erosion is slowly falling into the North Sea. A massive storm is blowing and a fishing boat is in trouble with the Coastguard helicopter in attendance.. Single parent Margaret Compton is horrified to realise that her young son Alfie is missing, a lad with a fascination for helicopters. Rushing into the storm she finds him watching the rescue attempt on the cliffs next to an abandoned house, Part of the cliff falls into the sea ,just after Margaret has snatched Alfie to safety and a cache of human bones is exposed.. My first Stuart McBride book and boy what a fun read! Ultra violence, dark humour, gruesome subject matter and most importantly a compelling story. As much as I love the Logan Macrae series, I have really struggled to like Ash Henderson. The previous stories were good but the character never sat well. It's all changed in this book. Maybe it's because the murdered daughter storyline is resolved (as much as losing a child can be resolved, it is still prevalent in this book) and we've moved on a few years and it's a wholly new serial killer (two actually, we are spoilt here) with no personal attachments but this book feels like a breath of fresh air after the first two. Ash is likeable and I wanted to know more. Granted he's still a thug and very dodgy and has very little morals but this time his character worked for me.The story is about the murder of young boys and as we're introduced to this horrific news item, Ash finds himself at a row of houses by the sea, all being speedily taken by the storm that's eroding the coast and one house in particular hides a gruesome secret. Stuart MacBride’s books are always so good and this is one is no different. This book is clever, gritty and funny. There’s still an element of ‘crime fiction as a mirror’ about it, but a lot of ‘crime fiction as an escape’ too. Maybe not quite as much of an escape as Tufty the Vampire Slayer, or The Horrible Haunting of Tartan Haggis MacFunland, but an escape nonetheless. I know I'm the odd one out here, but I really didn't enjoy this book. Too violent. Too dark. Too much rule breaking. Too much torture. Too much sexism. Too much racism. Too incredulous.
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