Tangled Web UK Review November 2008
The Good Son by
Russel D McLean
pbk out October 08
(Five Leaves Publications)
at £7.99
I study so many factual books for work nowadays that I can rarely indulge in reading fiction. But I was willing to make an exception for Russel D McLean’s debut The Good Son. Russel has interviewed me for his Crime Scene Scotland website and for Crimespree magazine, plus his book is set in my birthplace of Dundee.
The main protagonist, McNee, is a private investigator who is mourning the death of his beloved girlfriend. He takes on a new client, James Robertson, who wants to know about his late brother Daniel’s secretive exploits. Daniel, the bad seed of the Robertson clan, has been found dead in an apparent suicide.
McNee’s investigations bring him into increasingly close contact with some very dangerous individuals and he begins to realise that nothing is as it seems. At the same time, he’s coming to terms with his own unhappy past and trying to carve out a more hopeful future. But will he and his contemporaries be murdered before they can discover the truth?
With its appreciation of life’s small pleasures, combined with a willingness to confront societal violence, The Good Son reminded me of early Martyn Waites novels. Evocatively describing the Dundee landscape, it’s a highly readable piece of noir.
(
Carol Anne Davis
Author of Children Who Kill)
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