Detective Chief Inspector Roberta Steel got caught fitting up Jack Wallace — that’s why they demoted her and quashed his sentence. Now he’s back on the streets and women are being attacked again. Wallace has to be responsible, but if Detective Sergeant Steel goes anywhere near him, his lawyers will get her thrown off the force for good. The Powers That Be won’t listen to her, not after what happened last time. According to them, she’s got more than enough ongoing cases to keep her busy. Perhaps she could try solving a few instead of harassing an innocent man? Steel knows Wallace is guilty. And the longer he gets away with it, the more women will suffer. The question is: how much is she...
OVER 40 NEW STORIES FROM BRITAIN’S LEADING CRIME WRITERS Leading editor and reviewer Maxim Jakubowski has compiled another beguiling collection of the year’s best new short crime fiction from the UK. Ian Rankin’s perennially popular Edinburgh cop, Inspector Rebus, makes an unexpected comeback in a short, but intriguing story, ‘The Very Last Drop’, and the collection closes with another Rankin story, ‘Driven’. Making their first appearance in the series are many luminaries such as Kate Atkinson, Louise Welsh, Stephen Booth, Christopher Brookmyre, Colin Bateman, A. L. Kennedy, Sheila Quigley, Lin Anderson, Simon Kernick and David Hewson. Also represented are exciting up-and-coming...
‘We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.’ It’s been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer to catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast. Now isn’t the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn’t have much choice. When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man. No one’s ever figured out why Benedict did it, but now, after sixteen years, he’s back on the streets again — battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy ‘They’ are out to get him, and...
A house of secrets... As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the sea. The trouble is: that’s where he’s been hiding the bodies. A killer on the run... It’s too dangerous to go near the place, so there’s no way of knowing how many people he’s murdered. Or how many more he’ll kill before he’s caught. An investigator with nothing to lose... As more horrors are discovered, ex-detective Ash Henderson is done playing nice. He’s got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way.
From the No. 1 bestselling author of THE MISSING AND THE DEAD comes the short novel: 22 DEAD LITTLE BODIES, plus two short stories: STRAMASH and DI STEEL’S BAD HEIR DAY, and a novella: THE 45 % HANGOVER, all featuring his most popular characters — DS Logan McRae and DCI Roberta Steel. They say ‘small is beautiful’, but as Stuart MacBride demonstrates in these four tales, it can also be dark, violent, disturbing, and sometimes really quite rude. So pour yourself a wee dram, curl up on the sofa and enjoy DS Logan McRae and his sometime boss, friend, mother substitute, and nemesis, DCI Steel at their best. Here you’ll find Logan’s week from hell; Steel’s own personal nightmare before...
Scream all you want, no one can hear... Inspector Logan McRae is looking forward to a nice simple case — something to ease him back into work after a year off on the sick. But the powers-that-be have other ideas... The high-profile anti-independence campaigner, Professor Wilson, has gone missing, leaving nothing but bloodstains behind. There’s a war brewing between the factions for and against Scottish Nationalism. Infighting in the police ranks. And it’s all playing out in the merciless glare of the media. Logan’s superiors want results, and they want them now. Someone out there is trying to make a point, and they’re making it in blood. If Logan can’t stop them, it won’t just be his career...
Logan McRae’s personal history is hardly squeaky clean, but now that he works for Professional Standards he’s policing his fellow officers. When Detective Inspector Bell turns up dead in the driver’s seat of a crashed car it’s a shock to everyone. Because Bell died two years ago, they buried him. Or they thought they did. As an investigation is launched into Bell’s stabbing, Logan digs into his past. Where has he been all this time? Why did he disappear? And what’s so important that he felt the need to come back from the dead? But the deeper Logan digs, the more bones he uncovers — and there are people out there who’ll kill to keep those skeletons buried. If Logan can’t stop them, DI Bell...
У сержанта Логана Макрэя дел невпроворот. В ходе расследования в лесу найдено тело. Следственная группа направляется на место преступления под контролем бывшего босса Логана, детектива Стил. И, как обычно, она хочет, чтобы всю пыльную работу сделали за нее, но это будет нелегко. Интриги в полиции и передел сфер влияния в криминальном мире – это настоящая война. Логан попал в самый эпицентр этой войны за темную землю, нравится ему это или нет.
На дне канавы найден обезображенный труп. Им оказался пропавший несколько месяцев назад трехлетний Дэвид Рид. Сержант Логан Макрэй начинает расследование. Маньяк бесчинствует: исчезают дети, трупы множатся. Местные СМИ подняли вой и жаждут крови. Сержант понимает, что если он не предпримет решительных шагов, то окажется следующим в списке жертв безжалостного убийцы.
Несколько лет назад маньяк по прозвищу Потрошитель убил четырех женщин и еще трех жестоко изуродовал. Жертвам он распарывал живот и помещал в него пластмассовую куклу. А потом убийца просто исчез. Прошло восемь лет, и он вернулся. Найдено тело медсестры. Ее живот был заштопан, а внутри находилась кукла. Бывший детектив Эш Хендерсон, занимавшийся делом Потрошителя, находится на лечении в психиатрической больнице. Восемь лет назад он стал жертвой мести преступника и лишился всего: семьи, дома, любимой работы. Узнав о возвращении убийцы, Эш понимает, что новых жертв не избежать, и приступает к расследованию.