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celtic67's review against another edition
2.0
Did not finish. Did not hold my interest and sent to abandoned book graveyard.
pannapark's review against another edition
5.0
In Broken Skin by Stuart MacBride, we find Detective Sergeant Logan McRae being buffeted between two duelling Detective Inspectors, Insch and Steel. Neither is a smooth option as both are impossibly demanding and extremely competitive. Insch on the one hand is fuelled by sugar induced stress and anger, Steel by nicotine cravings, sarcasm, swearing and sex! Logan McRae basically lives on a razor’s edge trying to please both and solve the never ending pile of crime so that each can outdo the other.
He lurches through an unfolding nightmare of a serial rapist who is possibly the local football club’s hero, a gang of eight year olds swarming innocent bystanders and escalating to knifing senior citizens and cops, and a dead porn star whose proclivities included bondage, domination and sadomasochism.
MacBride’s stellar descriptive style, dialogue and dour humour keep the plot moving at a riotous pace. Logan becomes increasingly exhausted and desperate as he tries to solve the crimes along with trying to figure out his live in girlfriend, PC Jackie Watson of ball breaking reputation, who he suspects is having an affair.
I think I picked up contact sugar and nicotine highs resulting in reading into the wee hours. I’ve now crashed but it was so worth it!
He lurches through an unfolding nightmare of a serial rapist who is possibly the local football club’s hero, a gang of eight year olds swarming innocent bystanders and escalating to knifing senior citizens and cops, and a dead porn star whose proclivities included bondage, domination and sadomasochism.
MacBride’s stellar descriptive style, dialogue and dour humour keep the plot moving at a riotous pace. Logan becomes increasingly exhausted and desperate as he tries to solve the crimes along with trying to figure out his live in girlfriend, PC Jackie Watson of ball breaking reputation, who he suspects is having an affair.
I think I picked up contact sugar and nicotine highs resulting in reading into the wee hours. I’ve now crashed but it was so worth it!
readdrinkandbehappy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
eilidhmccartney's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Masterclass by Macbride as usual. Had me laughing out loud and you never see the twist coming. Always the solution to a reading slump. I adore Steel, Rennie and Logan.
slavicsongbird's review against another edition
A very good story, though it might help my internal psychologist if I didn't start laughing at the most inappropriate scenes because a very funny bit was thrown in. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
kcfromaustcrime's review against another edition
4.0
There's something immensely satisfying about reading a book that tackles some very tricky subject matter head-on, with enough of the gory details to illustrate rather than titivate and just the right level of gallows humour. BROKEN SKIN is the third book featuring DS Logan McRae and it's as good as the first two.
It's February and it's raining again. McRae is on DI Steel's team and they are most definitely not at home to her favourite term for a complete disaster, particularly as DI Insch is well on the outer. There's also an awful lot going on. There's a vicious, nasty and cruel rapist - slicing up his victim's faces with a knife, but while PC Jackie Watson is taking that particular investigation very very personally, in the early morning, the blood-drenched, horribly injured body of a man is dumped outside A&E at the local hospital. There's also a massive upswing in burglaries and a major drug investigation.
The dead man is only identified when one of the PC Rickard says that he's recognised a distinctive tattoo in explicit sex films that could be connected to the death. Unfortunately for his sense of gravitas, Rickard also seems to have very direct connections to the local bondage community and, from the victim's injuries, it's very likely so did he.
Most of the characters from MacBride's two earlier books, Cold Granite and Dying Light are back - all behaving very much to type and all getting in each other's road and up each other's noses in equal measure. The twist in the focus for this book is that both DI's have equal exposure, they are both forefront and not liking each other's presence one little bit. McRae and Watson's personal relationship is ongoing but is, in a beautiful touch, going nowhere happily. All the other members of the investigation team endure just the right amount of success, failure and merciless ribbing.
As well as those characters, the taut storytelling in BROKEN SKIN carries you along the manic multiple threads, with a really realistic feeling of a cold, wet, miserable city full of cold, wet and miserable criminals and equally cold, wet and miserable police officers. The humour is again dark, savage and thoroughly engaging - DI Steel has got to be one of the all time great offensive women, and this reader in particular, thinks she's marvellous.
Being the third book in the series, the characters are now very well established. Reading the first two books will certainly give you the background for many of the relationships and the antagonisms. Whilst that will definitely help with some of the minor threads going on, it's probably not 100% necessary, particularly if you are the sort of reader that can just accept that there's some tension and not want the details of what lead to that.
If you're a fan of the no holds barred, character driven Police Procedural, then you should definitely read BROKEN SKIN and both earlier books if they've somehow passed you by. Gruesome subject matter delivered with deftness is the mark of this author's books. Savage, dry humour is the other common factor. Logan McRae's one of those characters that you certainly wouldn't want to work with - the pace that this book maintains would kill a normal human being - but he's the sort of character you'd like to have a beer with, provided you could handle the quantities.
It's February and it's raining again. McRae is on DI Steel's team and they are most definitely not at home to her favourite term for a complete disaster, particularly as DI Insch is well on the outer. There's also an awful lot going on. There's a vicious, nasty and cruel rapist - slicing up his victim's faces with a knife, but while PC Jackie Watson is taking that particular investigation very very personally, in the early morning, the blood-drenched, horribly injured body of a man is dumped outside A&E at the local hospital. There's also a massive upswing in burglaries and a major drug investigation.
The dead man is only identified when one of the PC Rickard says that he's recognised a distinctive tattoo in explicit sex films that could be connected to the death. Unfortunately for his sense of gravitas, Rickard also seems to have very direct connections to the local bondage community and, from the victim's injuries, it's very likely so did he.
Most of the characters from MacBride's two earlier books, Cold Granite and Dying Light are back - all behaving very much to type and all getting in each other's road and up each other's noses in equal measure. The twist in the focus for this book is that both DI's have equal exposure, they are both forefront and not liking each other's presence one little bit. McRae and Watson's personal relationship is ongoing but is, in a beautiful touch, going nowhere happily. All the other members of the investigation team endure just the right amount of success, failure and merciless ribbing.
As well as those characters, the taut storytelling in BROKEN SKIN carries you along the manic multiple threads, with a really realistic feeling of a cold, wet, miserable city full of cold, wet and miserable criminals and equally cold, wet and miserable police officers. The humour is again dark, savage and thoroughly engaging - DI Steel has got to be one of the all time great offensive women, and this reader in particular, thinks she's marvellous.
Being the third book in the series, the characters are now very well established. Reading the first two books will certainly give you the background for many of the relationships and the antagonisms. Whilst that will definitely help with some of the minor threads going on, it's probably not 100% necessary, particularly if you are the sort of reader that can just accept that there's some tension and not want the details of what lead to that.
If you're a fan of the no holds barred, character driven Police Procedural, then you should definitely read BROKEN SKIN and both earlier books if they've somehow passed you by. Gruesome subject matter delivered with deftness is the mark of this author's books. Savage, dry humour is the other common factor. Logan McRae's one of those characters that you certainly wouldn't want to work with - the pace that this book maintains would kill a normal human being - but he's the sort of character you'd like to have a beer with, provided you could handle the quantities.
charlie_allin's review against another edition
5.0
This is by far one of my favourite book series and book 3 has not disappointed. DS Logan McRae has A LOT to deal with in this book while also stuck between two senior officers and issues in his love life. This dark, gritty and frequently gruesome is a great next step into the series and I cannot wait to read the next
dwintaylor's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
simonrtaylor's review against another edition
5.0
Detective Logan McRae is back with another handful of cases - this time with no gory decomposing bodies! This time he's juggling a runaway eight-year-old murderer, a victim of murder or BDSM misadventure, and increasingly violent rapes that may be the handiwork of the local star footballer.
Detective Inspectors Insch and Steel get pretty much equal page time, and it's dynamite as they play off McRae's reluctant loyalties to each of them. If Cold Granite had Steel as a supporting character, and Dying Light as an interloper, it's in Broken Skin that she becomes a bona fide co-star. She's outrageous and hysterical.
The supporting characters are all perfectly drawn out and drawn in. Big Gary is always slurping tea and complaining McRae's phone is switched; Hissing Sid is still at his sneaky, infuriating best; Ma, the local bookie, is hilarious and Colin Miller has to embrace fatherhood with fewer fingers than he's used to.
MacBride's tongue-in-cheek writing style offsets the horrendous nature of the crimes. The downright cruelty of our villains is viewed through a withering and sarcastic lens. That's not to say it's trivialised; Jackie Watson and even Insch are horrified on behalf of the victims of crime - particularly the rapes - and there are genuinely sobering moments.
He also does a great job of showing his research without being a show off. Where Connelly can be guilty of lengthy exposition of police procedures or systems, MacBride is more subtle. We learn a lot without ever being coached. There's even a nod to the other great Scottish crime writer of our time: Ian Rankin.
It's hilarious - genuinely laugh-out-loud funny - and brilliantly paced. Broken Skin is moreish and very entertaining, packing a punch with its final cliffhanger that could make the next instalment a game changer. In short, this is crime fiction at its most flawless.
Detective Inspectors Insch and Steel get pretty much equal page time, and it's dynamite as they play off McRae's reluctant loyalties to each of them. If Cold Granite had Steel as a supporting character, and Dying Light as an interloper, it's in Broken Skin that she becomes a bona fide co-star. She's outrageous and hysterical.
The supporting characters are all perfectly drawn out and drawn in. Big Gary is always slurping tea and complaining McRae's phone is switched; Hissing Sid is still at his sneaky, infuriating best; Ma, the local bookie, is hilarious and Colin Miller has to embrace fatherhood with fewer fingers than he's used to.
MacBride's tongue-in-cheek writing style offsets the horrendous nature of the crimes. The downright cruelty of our villains is viewed through a withering and sarcastic lens. That's not to say it's trivialised; Jackie Watson and even Insch are horrified on behalf of the victims of crime - particularly the rapes - and there are genuinely sobering moments.
He also does a great job of showing his research without being a show off. Where Connelly can be guilty of lengthy exposition of police procedures or systems, MacBride is more subtle. We learn a lot without ever being coached. There's even a nod to the other great Scottish crime writer of our time: Ian Rankin.
It's hilarious - genuinely laugh-out-loud funny - and brilliantly paced. Broken Skin is moreish and very entertaining, packing a punch with its final cliffhanger that could make the next instalment a game changer. In short, this is crime fiction at its most flawless.
truckasaurusb's review against another edition
5.0
Oh man oh man oh man. Definitely not one to read whilst eating - I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach tomato ketchup ever again. Finds just the right balance between horror and humour, just like the previous books in the Logan McRae series.