Cold Granite is the debut novel written by
Stuart MacBride
Stuart MacBride is a Scottish writer, most famous for his crime thrillers set in the "Granite City" of Aberdeen and featuring Detective Sergeant Logan McRae.
Biography
Stuart MacBride was born 27 February 1969 in Dumbarton, Scotland and raise ...
. It features Detective Sergeant Logan McRae (who is later nicknamed "Lazarus") as its central character, who works for
Grampian Police in
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
, Scotland. Logan McRae went on to feature in a series of books which became a bestseller series for MacBride.
Plot
It is Logan McRae's first week back after being on sick leave for a year; courtesy of Angus Robertson (The Mastrick Monster) who carved him up with a knife. Someone is kidnapping children, murdering them and mutilating them afterwards. The local paper screams about police incompetence and is gunning for McRae's boss, Detective Inspector David Insch. McRae discovers that someone is leaking the stories to a journalist, Colin Miller, who inadvertently disrupts Grampian Polices' plans to apprehend the killer by revealing their plan to wait out in a secluded location which the killer thinks is safe.
McRae discovers that Miller's source is none other than his ex-girlfriend, Isobel McAlister, the police pathologist, who is now living with Miller and tells him about her day to unwind.
Meanwhile, the local council worker who removes all the dead animals from the roads (affectionately called "Roadkill") is found to have a dead girl in his tip and another dead girl is discovered on the local rubbish dump.
Reception
The book earned MacBride a Barry Award for Best First Novel. Matthew Lewin, writing in
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, described the book as "
Tartan Noir" which is laced with gallows humour but that the author
acBridejust can't pull off. He also said that the book left him with tears of boredom.
Susan Manfield, writing in
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...
, said that
References
{{Authority control
2005 British novels
Novels set in Aberdeenshire
Novels by Stuart MacBride
2005 debut novels
HarperCollins books