Welcome to Litsy!

As you would expect from this author, atmospheric and pacey historical crime, rich in detail.
I was practically ready to sign up for the SNP by the end...

The mountains looking down from either side were silent, immovable, and the glens and peoples they hid might almost be unguessed at. For a moment lain had the mad thought that they would get to the other side of the loch and discover that nothing of the past years had ever been: no rising, no marching, no battles, no vengeance, no loss.

It‘s not that this wasn‘t a good book, because it was. It was just a really slow read. It did have a lot of history and I like that. There were several times I wanted to put it down and say it‘s that‘s enough but I had to finish it.

Is this one good? Just got it from the library 📚

A great debut Scottish Noir novel. The story was riveting and the characters were well developed. I had one quibble, the Main detective is a tall woman and the author keeps discussing how absurdly tall she was & how she kept wearing shoes and crime scene gear one size too small which made me sort of feel like the author didn‘t like her. I feel like unlikeable characters are wonderful but if the author doesn‘t like them, how can I?

Getting in some end of August outdoor reading before the school year gets underway. 2 weeks to go #teachersoflitsy

Kickstarting my day at the Rendezvous Cafe. I know this opinion may be a bit heretical, but I find that Anthony Horowitz‘s additions to the James Bond canon (like William Boyd‘s ‘Solo‘) are so much better than ian Fleming‘s originals. #rendezvouscafe #books #bookstagram #jamesbond #booksandcoffee #coffeeandbooks #fiction #caffeine #caffeineaddict #coffee #anthonyhorowitz #foreverandaday #inverness #williamboyd

The highland setting is dreamy but stark, highlighting the horror of the crimes against the backdrop of beautiful nature.
The end has lots of twists, some of which are fairly expected, and some of which were genuinely surprising. I found that by the end Monica was a less believable character, but I found found her very likeable anyhow. I found the villain's motivations highly interesting, and I would have liked even more insight into him.

When bodies of young boys start showing up on the rural banks of lochs in the highlands, detective Monica Kennedy gets obsessed. The case brings her back to her old stomping grounds and a whole world she had worked to forget.

This is book One in the series and it's a great beginning to the series. I really enjoyed the story and the twists and turns of the plot. The ending was good and finished the story well. It's quite a dark story but I liked that and wasnt sure who the killer was until close to the end. I really liked Monica until the bit with her daughter coming along that frustrated me though.
#readersfirst