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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
knitreadlife's review against another edition
4.0
This is such a compelling series evoking as it does a time, place and community with such a feeling of authenticity. Harry McCoy is one of the most believable characters I've every encountered in crime fiction (although his physical endurance continues to amaze).
rowingrabbit's review against another edition
4.0
I know we’re only at book #3 but this series has quickly become a favourite. The time period, the setting, the characters…..all these elements add so much colour, atmosphere & personality to each instalment. Mix this distinctive vibe with compelling drama & you have a series that stands out in a crowded genre.
It kicks off with a prologue that is the stuff of parents’ nightmares. Twelve year old Alice Kelly has disappeared without a trace. It seems like every cop in Glasgow is on the case…except Harry. He had a run-in years ago with the man who is temping as his boss & apparently he has a long memory. While colleague Wattie runs down clues, Harry is assigned a hopeless robbery case that is going cold. Then he takes a call from a local hotel & finds Bobby March.
Contrary to the title, there’s zero chance of Bobby becoming immortal. At least not in the physical sense. What Harry finds instead is a sad cliché……an almost-was/has-been rock star in a cheap hotel room with a needle in his arm. Back in the day, Bobby came so close but eventually he was just another one hit wonder. In alternate chapters we go back & follow the arc of his career, from his first high to his last.
In the present, his demise looks pretty straightforward but don’t worry. As usual, Harry has a buffet of problems. His boss may become a permanent fixture, the search for Alice has gone horribly sideways, his old boss needs a favour & old pal Cooper needs a babysitter. He’s like one of those circus performers who is in perpetual motion to keep their spinning plates in the air.
The result is an entertaining & gripping read. The author’s style & story telling skills have been incredibly self assured from book #1 & that continues here. Characters appear on the page fully formed and come out swinging. At the centre of it all is Harry, a likeable & sympathetic guy who’s like a cross between Rebus & Bosch. But make no mistake…he is his own man. He may look the other way from time to time but his loyalty to Cooper is a testament to the personal tenets that drive his decisions.
The pacing is bang on & for the first time in a while, I found myself happily immersed in a good story. The only thing missing is a soundtrack. The classic bands & songs mentioned in Bobby’s chapters had me head bobbing along to old favourites (yes, I am that old
It kicks off with a prologue that is the stuff of parents’ nightmares. Twelve year old Alice Kelly has disappeared without a trace. It seems like every cop in Glasgow is on the case…except Harry. He had a run-in years ago with the man who is temping as his boss & apparently he has a long memory. While colleague Wattie runs down clues, Harry is assigned a hopeless robbery case that is going cold. Then he takes a call from a local hotel & finds Bobby March.
Contrary to the title, there’s zero chance of Bobby becoming immortal. At least not in the physical sense. What Harry finds instead is a sad cliché……an almost-was/has-been rock star in a cheap hotel room with a needle in his arm. Back in the day, Bobby came so close but eventually he was just another one hit wonder. In alternate chapters we go back & follow the arc of his career, from his first high to his last.
In the present, his demise looks pretty straightforward but don’t worry. As usual, Harry has a buffet of problems. His boss may become a permanent fixture, the search for Alice has gone horribly sideways, his old boss needs a favour & old pal Cooper needs a babysitter. He’s like one of those circus performers who is in perpetual motion to keep their spinning plates in the air.
The result is an entertaining & gripping read. The author’s style & story telling skills have been incredibly self assured from book #1 & that continues here. Characters appear on the page fully formed and come out swinging. At the centre of it all is Harry, a likeable & sympathetic guy who’s like a cross between Rebus & Bosch. But make no mistake…he is his own man. He may look the other way from time to time but his loyalty to Cooper is a testament to the personal tenets that drive his decisions.
The pacing is bang on & for the first time in a while, I found myself happily immersed in a good story. The only thing missing is a soundtrack. The classic bands & songs mentioned in Bobby’s chapters had me head bobbing along to old favourites (yes, I am that old
tummidge's review against another edition
4.0
This one plays with the format of the series and has McCoy drifting in his role as Police Inspector either through petty jealousies or injury seeing him taking on smaller cases and helping out his cohorts Murray and Cooper with issues.
There is a teenage girl missing in Glasgow, but McCoy finds himself dealing with the death of rock star Bobby March and a series of seemingly impenetrable armed robberies. On top of this, Murray asks McCoy to track down his 15 year old niece and we end up with an almost jazzy, freeform crime novel as McCoy finds himself pulled in a lot of different directions.
The above means this isn't as propulsive as the earlier two books, but allows us to see McCoy as he is and how he understands the playing of the game rather than looking to prosecute every crime he comes across.
It'll be interesting to see if McCoy is going to remain a police officer throughout the series as this one has him drifting around like a private eye rather than a bobby. There is a lot going on, but he does feel like Glasgow's answer to Matthew Scudder.
There is a teenage girl missing in Glasgow, but McCoy finds himself dealing with the death of rock star Bobby March and a series of seemingly impenetrable armed robberies. On top of this, Murray asks McCoy to track down his 15 year old niece and we end up with an almost jazzy, freeform crime novel as McCoy finds himself pulled in a lot of different directions.
The above means this isn't as propulsive as the earlier two books, but allows us to see McCoy as he is and how he understands the playing of the game rather than looking to prosecute every crime he comes across.
It'll be interesting to see if McCoy is going to remain a police officer throughout the series as this one has him drifting around like a private eye rather than a bobby. There is a lot going on, but he does feel like Glasgow's answer to Matthew Scudder.
smsdigitaluk's review against another edition
4.0
A stellar cast of characters come together in mid 70's Glasgow. A dark and ominous tale of gangland life. Gritty, violent and dark from the outset. It'll have you burning the midnight oil as the plot thickens and you have to keep going.
Really excellent work and Highly recommended
Really excellent work and Highly recommended
louise1608's review against another edition
4.0
You can find my full review for this as well as other books on my bloghere
I am really happy and excited to be taking part in this blog tour and to be able to promote this fantastic book to you all. Many thanks to the author and Random Things Tours for my gifted copy of the book.
I think it needs to be said first of all that this is the 3rd book in a series and that I didn't actually know that when I decided to review this book. Having said that it was perfectly fine to read as a standalone and I didn't find myself getting lost at all. I would definitely like to go back and read the first two books in the future though as Harry McCoy is an interesting and exciting character and I think that by going straight into the third book I have probably missed out on a lot of his development.
Regardless of that though I really did enjoy this story, it was well-written, easy to follow and had plenty of excitement and mystery that kept me guessing all the way to the end. The book is set in 1970's Glasgow as it quite gritty and dark and the author does an excellent job of painting a picture for the reader and tells it as it is which I thought was brilliant.
The story begins with the case of a missing child and the death of a famous musician. McCoy is pushed off the missing child case and forced to work a far less high profile case simply because his "superior" has it in for him and there is no glossing over that fact in the book. There is a lot of animosity between the two detectives.
McCoy spends his time trying to understand what happened to dead musician Bobby March as well as working an "off the record" case for a runaway teenager who happens to be the niece of his boss. I really love how all the cases are woven together and how they all eventually come to a head that I did not expect at all.
I really enjoyed all the characters, there are some that you instantly like and some that you instantly loathe but I think that if I had read the earlier books and knew more about who everyone was that I could have liked it even more.
There is a lot of violence, some of which is very graphic and overall I found it to be a really exciting read that I wouldn't normally have picked up.
Books like this can be very difficult to review and as such I have tried to keep it quite vague so as not to spoil the plot for a potential reader.
I would highly recommend this to someone who enjoys a dark and gritty crime thriller with a lot of police presence and some very dodgy characters too!
I am really happy and excited to be taking part in this blog tour and to be able to promote this fantastic book to you all. Many thanks to the author and Random Things Tours for my gifted copy of the book.
I think it needs to be said first of all that this is the 3rd book in a series and that I didn't actually know that when I decided to review this book. Having said that it was perfectly fine to read as a standalone and I didn't find myself getting lost at all. I would definitely like to go back and read the first two books in the future though as Harry McCoy is an interesting and exciting character and I think that by going straight into the third book I have probably missed out on a lot of his development.
Regardless of that though I really did enjoy this story, it was well-written, easy to follow and had plenty of excitement and mystery that kept me guessing all the way to the end. The book is set in 1970's Glasgow as it quite gritty and dark and the author does an excellent job of painting a picture for the reader and tells it as it is which I thought was brilliant.
The story begins with the case of a missing child and the death of a famous musician. McCoy is pushed off the missing child case and forced to work a far less high profile case simply because his "superior" has it in for him and there is no glossing over that fact in the book. There is a lot of animosity between the two detectives.
McCoy spends his time trying to understand what happened to dead musician Bobby March as well as working an "off the record" case for a runaway teenager who happens to be the niece of his boss. I really love how all the cases are woven together and how they all eventually come to a head that I did not expect at all.
I really enjoyed all the characters, there are some that you instantly like and some that you instantly loathe but I think that if I had read the earlier books and knew more about who everyone was that I could have liked it even more.
There is a lot of violence, some of which is very graphic and overall I found it to be a really exciting read that I wouldn't normally have picked up.
Books like this can be very difficult to review and as such I have tried to keep it quite vague so as not to spoil the plot for a potential reader.
I would highly recommend this to someone who enjoys a dark and gritty crime thriller with a lot of police presence and some very dodgy characters too!
mononoke_88's review against another edition
4.0
Another great book from Alan Parks with Detective Harry McCoy. I have read each in the series so far and although other dysfunctional, grumpy Scottish detective series are available I enjoy that these are set in the 70's which brings an interesting perspective. This one felt stronger than the last and this is a series I will continue to look forward to.
domino911's review against another edition
5.0
I never do this!
“For a bit of excellent Tartan Noir”, said my Glaswegian pal, “try Alan Parks starting with Bloody January.” So, Paul’s recommendations being highly valued, I started with BLOODY JANUARY. A couple of weeks later, I had read all four of Park’s Harry McCoy novels back-to-back.
The third novel the series, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, is set in August 1973 with Glasgow in the middle of a heatwave. A young girl has gone missing, a citywide manhunt in operation, but McCoy is shut out of the investigation run, as it is, by an old adversary in the force. Reduced to following up a series of small time bank robberies, McCoy also looks into the apparent overdose death of fading Glasgow rock star, Bobby March. This is possibly my favourite of the novels, with a fever-dream-like visit to ‘70s Belfast a highlight.
All four novels are well plotted mystery-thrillers, Alan Parks clearly knowing how to construct a story. But it is the characters and the setting, the atmosphere that sets these books apart. Parks’s Glasgow is a dark, bleak place populated by drug dealers, prostitutes, criminal gangs, the homeless, good and bad polis, police in the Glasgow vernacular. It feels authentic, as much a character in the stories as Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles or Lawrence Block’s New York.
“For a bit of excellent Tartan Noir”, said my Glaswegian pal, “try Alan Parks starting with Bloody January.” So, Paul’s recommendations being highly valued, I started with BLOODY JANUARY. A couple of weeks later, I had read all four of Park’s Harry McCoy novels back-to-back.
The third novel the series, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, is set in August 1973 with Glasgow in the middle of a heatwave. A young girl has gone missing, a citywide manhunt in operation, but McCoy is shut out of the investigation run, as it is, by an old adversary in the force. Reduced to following up a series of small time bank robberies, McCoy also looks into the apparent overdose death of fading Glasgow rock star, Bobby March. This is possibly my favourite of the novels, with a fever-dream-like visit to ‘70s Belfast a highlight.
All four novels are well plotted mystery-thrillers, Alan Parks clearly knowing how to construct a story. But it is the characters and the setting, the atmosphere that sets these books apart. Parks’s Glasgow is a dark, bleak place populated by drug dealers, prostitutes, criminal gangs, the homeless, good and bad polis, police in the Glasgow vernacular. It feels authentic, as much a character in the stories as Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles or Lawrence Block’s New York.
kenpaul's review against another edition
4.0
Maybe not quite the full 4 stars, but a solid 3.75, which is very good in my scale.
These Harry McCoy books have all been excellent. Can't wait for April. Seem very authentic to both time and setting (Glasgow & Belfast of the early '70's) which is very cool with tough as nails noir.
These Harry McCoy books have all been excellent. Can't wait for April. Seem very authentic to both time and setting (Glasgow & Belfast of the early '70's) which is very cool with tough as nails noir.
juliebean1020's review against another edition
5.0
A young girl has been kidnapped and the press is crying for results from the police. Harry McCoy, however, has been sidelined to work on a string of robberies. His DCI, Murray, has been seconded to another station, and his nemesis, Raeburn, is in the charge of the station, and the kidnapping. When the investigation goes tragically sideways, it is up to Harry to find the truth.