Purchased for Christmas book swap

2022 UK Secret Santa

This is a wishlist book from my Secret Santa. Thank you.

This starts rather ploddingly with an emphasis on character building but I guess it’s because it’s a prequel and is setting the scene/history for the character. I could hear Ian Rankin’s voice in the short, sharp staccato conversational sentences so not sure how much McIlvanney is actually there. In a crime novel, I prefer to follow the investigation and not beat the detective to a finale with absolutely no suspense. The descriptions of the city started well but there was very little to make you feel it was 1972 other than the lack of mobiles phones and the occasional mention of a can of McEwan’s. He doesn’t quite pull it off.