Reviewed by Linda Lee
Stuart MacBride has really lifted his game with the "Ash Henderson" novels. A Song for the Dying is only the second book in what I hope will be a long series, but I am already preferring them to his Logan McRae books.
To get a proper sense of A Song for the
Dying, you really must read Birthdays for the Dead. The traumatic
events of that novel are the catalyst for this. The opening chapters
have Ash Henderson in prison, on the receiving end of a beating, one
designed to keep him in prison that bit longer, as every time he is up
for parole, he is involved in a fight that looks like he started. His
nemeses, vicious criminal Mrs Kerrigan is determined to keep him inside
until she is sick of this game and decides to end his life once and for
all.
When a killer from his past, "The Inside Man" who murdered four
women and left three at deaths door (each with a doll stitched inside
them), appears to have resurfaced after an eight year absence, Ash is
released from jail to help with the investigation. He however has
another agenda, and that is to kill Mrs Kerrigan. Wearing an ankle
monitor that is connected to that of Alice, his sponsor, is a problem
he has to deal with if he hopes to carry out his plans on revenge.
Added to the mix is the threat of returning to prison if he cannot make
headway with the investigation, it is his shot at redemption and to earn
his freedom.
The writing is spot on, sprinkled
with black humour and memorable characters. It is hard not to compare
them to the Logan books, but here the humour is more restrained, the
language less slapstick. The subject matter is pretty horrific in
places (anything to do with child pornography is!) but nothing is gone
into in great detail...the imagination working overtime filling in the
unsaid.
A keen crime reader will recognize
other crime authors names he has pilfered for some of his characters. That gave me a chuckle.
Linda Lee is a passionate crime fiction reader and the book buyer for Penny's Bookstore in Hamilton. She regularly attends crime fiction events.
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