2008-06-20 Excellent book, and looking forward to further stories in the series

One of Stuart McBride's more recent books caught my eye in a bookshop, but I decided to start at the beginning so I bought this, his first book.

It is an excellent book. Good storyline; complex enough (various children going missing, unidentified bodies being found), but there are enough subtle reminders to help you keep up. There are a few twists & turns as different strong suspects prove to be innocent; quite a good "whodunnit" element. I quite enjoyed the occasional humour.

Excellent characterisation. The main two characters in particular are very interesting, and I look forward to seeing them develop further in forthcoming books. There are plenty of supporting characters, making a very interesting cast, and plenty of scope to bring different people to the fore in future stories.

The characterisation is not at the expense of the plot though; the story moves at a decent pace (I have read some books recently that spend so much time describing characters & places that the story hardly progresses - this is not one of them).

This book is excellent when considered as a stand alone story, but it is also a superb starting point for (hopefully) a long series of stories. I can't wait to read the next one...