Another great Scottish mystery writer—I don’t know how I could have overlooked MacBride for so long. He has an ongoing series featuring Detective Sergeant Logan McRae and a memorable cast of fellow officers working in the city of Aberdeen, also known as the Granite City. This is a dark series with frustrated police trying to solve horrific crimes while still pursuing their own lives and loves in occasional snatches of free time. McRae is an honorable but stubborn man whose experiences have left him sleeping badly, drinking excessively, and working obsessively. In Blind Eye, he is hunting for a man who is blinding a series of victims by gouging out their eyeballs. The crimes seem to be motivated by hatred of the growing population of Polish immigrants in Aberdeen, but each lead fails, while police and civilians are increasingly agitated by the horror of each new crime.
Once again, this is fairly violent, dark stuff. (It seems as though a good many American and European mysteries being written now are preoccupied with the underside of the human psyche–perhaps not a surprise to anyone reading the newspaper headlines day in day out.) However, the violence is the object of McRae’s concern, not something glorified, even covertly. And McRae is a character of considerable substance and interest. MacBride is a writer worth your time and attention.
did you see the Girl w. Dr. Tattoo yet? If so, what did you think of it?
Hi Joe,
I am curious about the movie, but because I have enjoyed the books and have my own vivid sense of the characters, what they look like, how they speak, how they move, and so on, I hesitate to watch someone else’s take on those things. Possibly after I have read the entire series and enjoyed it as my own inner movie, I’ll watch it on DVD. However, if anyone sees it and loves it, post a comment–I’d love to know what other people think of it.
Pat