A review by subash
The Deep Dark Sleep by Craig Russell

4.0

Just when you think it can't get any better the third book comes along ... Here CR tones down the quips on Glaswegians (they haven't disappeared but there isn't the biting sarcasm as in the last two books) and a surprisingly tender love story takes shoot in here and it's all written up achingly well. The protagonists are the best yet in the series and while the 3 kings are not so much center and off as in the last two, they have their histories dredged up and it does make for some fascinating context given what we know about them from the last two books. Lennox really moves to the top of his game here though and becomes a fully realized character that makes for the Marlowe kind of cult classic. In the last two books he made surprisingly amateurish mistakes, but in this he shows a fully developed sense of who he is and while bodies do drop left and right and more than usual, this villain is one for the ages ... anyways can't say any more without giving it away. But the best part of the book was how Lennox is slowly reverting back to his true sense of honor and it's done so authentically you barely notice it ... like i said earlier it's all in the shading, how the quips are less bitter, how he becomes more aware of the damages to his psyche, and also more in how he's beginning to put some of the self loathing behind him and come to terms with the things he's done in the past and the real shading comes in how he treats the regulars in his life. Josh, Mrs. White, Archie and the surprising lengths he goes to save the life of a gutter rat who was blackmailing his client. All adds up to one of the more intriguing characters in Noir that I've run into in a while.

Now on to book 4 (hate to think this may have been the last in this series) (less)