“Dying Light,” by Stuart MacBride

FM's rating:

1.      Premise 8

2.      Prose 9

3.      Plot 8

4.      Characters 9

5.      Overall 8

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This is the first follow-up of the author’s debut book “Cold Granite,” a series featuring Detective Sergeant Logan MacRae.  One of the “Tartan Noir” Scottish writers who feature a specific city in Scotland as the setting for their books, MacBride gives us a fascinating look at Aberdeen.  His approach to crime novel writing sets him apart, as the Houston Chronicle puts it, “By tangling together a half-dozen competing plotlines…” This is impressively accomplished, following the daily, not-so-routine grind of the antagonist, not flashing back and forth between two or three sub-plots which many writers so tediously subject us to.  MacBride consistently displays a fine, wry sense of humor, mostly through the dialogue and manages to give plenty of detail without ever getting tedious.  Good, dark entertainment – becoming one of my go-to writers when my next read HAS to be good!