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    Dark Blood
    Dark Blood
    Dark Blood
    Audiobook12 hours

    Dark Blood

    Written by Stuart MacBride

    Narrated by Stuart MacBride

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The sixth gripping thriller in the No.1 bestselling crime series from the award-winning Stuart MacBride.

    Scotland’s finest see first-hand how starting again can be murder…

    ‘MacBride is a damned fine writer’ Peter James

    Everyone deserves a second chance…

    Richard Knox has done his time and seen the error of his ways. He wants to leave his dark past behind, so why shouldn’t he be allowed to live wherever he wants?

    Detective Sergeant Logan McRae isn’t thrilled about having to help a violent rapist settle into Aberdeen. Even worse, he’s stuck with the man who put Knox behind bars, DSI Danby, supposedly to ‘keep an eye on things’.

    Only things are about to go very, very wrong.

    Edinburgh gangster Malk the Knife wants a slice of Aberdeen’s latest development boom. Local crime lord Wee Hamish Mowat has ominous plans for Logan’s future. And Knox’s past isn’t finished with him yet…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 29, 2010
    ISBN9780007357642
    Author

    Stuart MacBride

    Stuart MacBride is the Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae and Ash Henderson novels. His work has won several prizes and in 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Dundee University. Stuart lives in the north-east of Scotland with his wife Fiona, cats Grendel, Onion and Beetroot, and other assorted animals.

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    Reviews for Dark Blood

    4/5

    151 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I really enjoy this series despite the sometimes excessive violence because the dialog can be very amusing sometimes and I enjoy the characters. But I have to say that this one was my least favorite so far. It took awhile to get to the ‘point’ in my opinion, and I just didn’t get into it like I had with the others. I will still read the next one, but hopefully it holds my attention better. Ta!!
    • 5/5
      The reader is amazing! Hope he reads more of husbond!
    • 5/5
      Edinburgh is as bleak as always, and so is the overall mood. But unlike some of the earlier novels, this one is relatively free from torture and other horrors. However,... there is still plots within plots within plots. DI Steel is still annoying and mad as a hatter with the world in general and everyone in it. I wish McBride would tone her down a bit. Logan makes odd choices which get him into trouble with his superiors, who themselves don't make a very professional impression. I hope the Scottish police are not actually like this. In spite of the police blunders and DI Steel...the entire series is curiously addictive.
    • 4/5
      This is the 2nd Detective Sergeant Logan Macrae novel I have read. A pervert who likes to rape older men is released and transferred to Aberdeen from Newcastle. The local people and Cops are happy about Richard Knox settling in the Granite city. Soon he is discovered and moved he escapes after drugging his handlers. A Policeman from Newcastle was also looking after him DSI Greame Danby also goes missing. Some Geordie heavies are hot on Knox's tail as they know he has squirreled money away from his previous employer. There are also a few other cases for Macrae and his colleagues to solve. Namely the murder of a smalltime thief that was stealing from a building site, a teenager passing counterfeit notes,A Grandad who is rubbing Jewellers. His Superior officers have it in for him though and he is facing some disciplinary issues. Knox had done a deal with DCI Danby to split the money, Danby nearly gets away with it and plans his escape to New Zealand. Danby gets grabbed by the Baddies, Knox gets away. This is a good well researched book that flows well and has good supporting characters.
    • 2/5
      It is always a little bit sad to consider a writer whose work I have previously enjoyed, but who seems to have lost their way or, to put it a little more brutally, to have exhausted their stock of talent.There seem to be several examples among recent crime writers. Patricia Cornwell’s early books featuring Kay Scarpetta were taut thrillers with well-constructed plots and a cast of highly plausible and empathetic characters, liberally seasoned with intriguing insights into the techniques and wonders of forensic pathology. Unfortunately, about six or seven novels in, she jumped the metaphorical shark, and was reduced to simply trading on the Scarpetta ‘brand’, churning out increasingly weak stories with ever more fatuous plotlines. Peter Robinson went the same way. He wrote a few perfectly serviceable novels featuring Alan Banks before suddenly hitting mid-season form with a run of five or six very strong book. Unfortunately, he too lost his grip and succumbed to simply recycling the same old set of scenarios and disputes between his now rather weary characters.The latest example I have uncovered of this sad waning of crime writing talent is Stuart MacBride. I thought that his early novels featuring Logan McRae were excellent, with a mix of very strong, gritty storylines and a set of characters that complemented each other marvellously. His foul mouthed, chain smoking, raucous lesbian, DI Steel is one of my favourite characters from recent Scottish fiction. Unfortunately, however, MacBride has also succumbed to this malaise. This addition to the canon seemed far too formulaic. I almost wondered whether MacBride himself had become bored with the exercise, and decided to keep the pot boiling with a remix of former favourite scenes, mashed together in haste, and with no ‘Scottish noir’ cliché knowingly overlooked. I am pretty confident that this is the last of his books on which I will squander any more of my time.
    • 4/5
      Violent, bleak read with a twist at the end. Very much a page-turner. The hero is a very messed up young man trying to deal with events that happened in previous books, besides the general mess his life is in at present. Nice the way disparate things come together near the end. Very well read as an audible book by the author.
    • 4/5
      Not a bad volume in the Logan McRae series, but definitely not one of the better ones. This one slogged along for most of the book, but really picked up with the last quarter of the story. Stuart MacBride is a master at tying up his books neatly and cleanly, and this one was no exception. The problem with this one was getting there: there was simply too much going on, almost like he was trying to make it as complicated as possible before the finale. Still, the character development and the back stories of the main characters is very compelling, and I'll be jumping into the next book very soon.
    • 3/5
      This episode in the Logan McRae series is different, just as gory as the previous ones, but there is more from the point of view of others than just Logan. And this is where it gets convuluted. The writing style is not the same, such as the repeated use of the phrase "you know what I mean?", and it almost tries to be deliberately confusing. I didn't like this aspect of the writing and found it frustrating.The ending as usual is still left in the air for many of the story lines and you only get a very broad over view of some.But other wise the story wasn't too bad.
    • 5/5
      Life is not going at all well for DS Logan McRae in Dark Blood by Stuart MacBride. In this, the 6th entry of the series, McRae is dealing with being passed over for promotion, and seeing an incompetent co-worker in a superior position. Having to work for him and even call him “Sir” is almost more than he can stand. Being called on the carpet for having a bad team attitude, juggling too many cases, being threatened with a lawsuit for police brutality, and still having to deal with the difficult DCI Steele, who herself is not in the best of moods these days is causing him to wonder if being a policeman is worth all the aggravation. To top is all off, his girlfriend is one of many who think he is drinking too much, so to prove a point he’s going cold sober, which isn’t helping his mood. Having been called upon to baby-sit released violent rapist, Richard Knox, who has decided to settle in Aberdeen, McRae isn’t totally surprised when Knox manages to savagely beat his caretakers and disappear. To make matters even worse, a high ranking visiting policeman, a sworn enemy of Knox’s, has been abducted from his hotel. Fast paced, humorous, and violent, this series just keeps the entertainment high and the plot rolling. After six books the reader knows the characters and can anticipate how they are going to react, but this in no way takes away from the overall enjoyment of the story. The author delivers an intricate plot with great style and verve. These books are ones that I know I can rely on for a gritty crime story that will absorb me totally, and all I can say is bring on number seven!
    • 4/5
      First Line: Run.Richard Knox was a violent rapist of elderly men. He was caught, put on trial, and convicted of his crimes. While in prison, he found God, and now that he's been released all he wants is to make a new start in a place where no one knows his past. Unfortunately for Detective Sergeant Logan McRae, Knox's new home is in Aberdeen, Scotland.Add Knox to a stew that contains gangsters from Edinburgh, a local crime lord, an inspector from Newcastle who wants to keep an eye on Knox, and folks from Newcastle looking for a missing mob accountant, and you can see that there's more than enough to keep McRae busy for two or three lifetimes. His problem is that he's still being jerked back and forth between two detective inspectors who can't seem to be able to live without McRae being at their beck and call every single hour of every single day.MacBride writes edgy, violent tales with such a finely-honed dark sense of humor that I've often found myself laughing like a total nutter only a page or two after being left stunned and slightly sickened by something else. I know that makes me sound as if I'm a bit schizophrenic, but perhaps being a bit unbalanced helps you to understand what's going on once you've immersed yourself in MacBride's world.I find myself having very strong and very personal reactions to the books in this series now. Logan McRae has found himself caught between two superior officers for far too long. At first, I found both of the superiors (and I'm using the term very loosely here) to be hilarious although their lack of willingness to do any real work greatly bothered me. I've gone through in the real world what McRae is going through in MacBride's fictional one. Although I did my best to find the humor in what I went through, there wasn't much to be found, and as McRae's woes keep going on a seemingly endless loop, almost every molecule of humor has been leached from the situation for me. I love the character of McRae too much to stop reading, so I'm hoping that MacBride will be kinder to him in the next book!Despite my negative reactions I found Dark Blood to be another excellent book in this series. All the plot lines seem hopelessly tangled, and it's a miracle that McRae is able to sort out any of them at all. But MacBride reminds us that life isn't a fairy tale. Real life isn't neatly wrapped up and tied with a bow just as the last page is turned. The ending of Dark Blood may leave you as angry as it did me, but-- sadly-- what happens is far from being a new occurrence on planet Earth. I only wish that McRae had seen "The Shawshank Redemption" as many times as I have.
    • 5/5
      My first Logan McRae novel and I was impressed; gritty realistic Aberdeen area locations, interesting albeit dysfunctional characters, novel plot lines and witty dialogue. However not for the squeamish, although the writer doesn't dwell on those few scenes and generally treats them with humour. Recommended and I'll be looking out for the other books in the series.
    • 2/5
      Standard Logan McRae fare; entertaining stuff. But dont expect any boundaries to be pushed in the Crime genre.
    • 5/5
      The problem with an author making it onto my "Pre-Order IMMEDIATELY list" is that once the book arrives I have that dreaded "do I read immediately or hoard" dilemma. It's easier with some of my all time favourite authors - there's a few, well not to put too fine a point on it, aren't as young as they used to be. Stuart MacBride, on the other hand, is a young man. Last time I set eyes on him he looked to be in remarkably good health. But still, you never know. Publishers are queer folk and they may suddenly have a brain freeze, or worse still, Stuart may just get distracted by .. well gardening stuff... and forget to write the next one.So I've come up with a reasonable compromise with these books which is simply "hang onto them until you can stand the suspense no longer!". I held out pretty well with DARK BLOOD but I'm really really pleased I didn't keep it up forever (and the latest book has arrived so it's not like I don't have another one to hoard ... just for a little while.)DARK BLOOD starts out with one of the best opening sequences I have read in years. One of those opening pieces that make you sit up straight and pay attention. From there the reader is launched into a world of missing informants, sawn-off sledgehammers, fake money, counterfeit goods and jewellery shop robberies. Add to the standard mayhem of Aberdeen on a normal day (well a MacBride normal day anyway), and about the only thing that McRae, Steel and the entire Aberdeen command can agree on is that having one of England's most notorious sex killers "dumped" into their patch on his release from jail is just about the height of all cheek. Which is bad enough, but a Northumbrian DSI tagging along to "keep an eye on things" is dangerously close to taking liberties.There is always something comforting about returning to a favoured series character - and Logan McRae is one of my favourite characters, although DI Steel is not above giving him a bit of a nudge. Having said that, other readers of these books will be wondering what exactly I'm sniffing if I think McRae, Steel or any of the circumstances of MacBride's books are comforting. But in a strange (okay so slightly twisted) way, they are comforting. That's not to say that things also don't move on in their lives, albeit sometimes slowly. McRae's been doing quite a strong line of greatly put upon, martyrdom in recent books, but in DARK BLOOD he's actually firing up a bit, getting a bit bolshie. Which needless to say doesn't go down well. Nobody could possibly have imagined it would go down so badly that DI Steel would be giving him "advice" on how to get on with others mind you. But advice she does dole out. At the same time that the impending birth of her child is making her life a lot more complicated than she thought it would... especially with conciliatory and caring not exactly coming naturally to DI Steel. As usual McRae doesn't just have to deal with Steel, DI Beattie seems to be going out of his way to behave like a prat, whilst all the time journalist Colin Miller is needling away at the police in general and McRae in particular.The problem with an ongoing series has to be that it's sometimes too easy to slip into familiar patterns, particularly where the characters and their interactions are concerned. Avoiding this DARK BLOOD has something a little more edgy about McRae - sure he's still a bit of a martyr to the cause, but there's just the occasional flash of a fight back. DI Steel is still delightfully, gloriously over the top, but she's softening just a little, impending parenthood is obviously going to have some sort of affect, but what exactly... well some things aren't to be contemplated too closely. DARK BLOOD also veers away from the more gruesome aspects of some of the recent books, and works harder on a really tight, taut, pacey and interesting plot. There's a realistic feel of pressure - external and within, of competing priorities, and changing levels of urgency. It feels like each of these characters is doing a fine line of tight-rope juggling - personally and professionally. MacBride also isn't afraid to ditch popular characters, to put them in unexpected situations, to pick them up again, and generally to move his chess pieces where the will takes him. But, as always, there's a real underlying humour - some of it observational, some of it almost slapstick, but always with sneaking sense of great affection. The characters for each other, the author for his cast, and in the case of this reader, the reader for the whole package.
    • 4/5
      He is one of the new breed of thriller writers who does not shrink from scenes of torture and uberviolence yet MacBride’s dark, intensely witty story – the sixth in the Logan McRae series – while not for the squeamish, is no gore festThe comparison the Ian Rankin is unfair to both writers but, like his compatriot, MacBride’s characters are deeply rooted in a Scottish setting – in his case Granite City, i.e. Aberdeen: local police are furious when Richard Knox, a sadistic serial rapist of old men, decides to relocate to their city once his sentence is served. Has he reformed as he claims, or is he responsible for a new series of violent sexual attacks on Aberdeen Granddads? Disturbing and funny, Dark Blood is perversely pleasurable.