eight fat furry felines prowled through the long grass, each one staring up at Lucy and licking its lips… Let [GED] deal with the rotting, half-eaten corpse and cannibal cats. Not only has she got Professional Standards breathing down her neck but the family of a man she killed is harassing her. Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh and her colleague The Dunc end up having to sort out the mess that The Bloodsmith Killer has caused. Anyway, there were also parts of this book that made me wonder if I'd lost my mind so look out for that. Otherwise, this is the kind of entertaining, dark, hilarious and thrilling crime read that we have come to expect from MacBride.

No Less The Devil by Stuart MacBride REVIEW: No Less The Devil by Stuart MacBride

Still, as many other readers/reviewers, I was not completely prepared for what happened after the first shock. He’s now 27 and has recently been released back into the community, but he claims that ‘They’ are after him, whoever ‘They’ may be. Then some more freelance design work, a handful of voiceovers for local radio and video production companies and a bash at being an actor (with a small 'a'), giving it up when it became clear there was no way I was ever going to be good enough to earn a decent living. Stuart MacBride is one of my favourite authors and although not perfect, this story is up there with his best in my opinion.

Set in the fictional Scottish city of Oldcastle, No Less The Devil fits within the Ash Henderson universe, but like A Dark So Deadly features its own set of unique characters. It’s clear she is struggling with PTSD so professional standards are on her back to engage with her therapist. I would like to thank both Netgalley and the publisher, for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I'm a big fan of Stuart MacBride but initially felt No Less The Devil was once again treading familiar - yet enjoyable - territory.

Book review: No Less the Devil, by Stuart MacBride - The Scotsman

Someone has committed five brutal murders, including souveniring the hearts, of seemingly unconnected strangers in the Scottish town of Oldcastle. However, she is currently suffering PTSD from having recently killed a man in self-defence and is being harassed by his mother who believes she murdered him. While it does keep you turning the pages, the full horror of her ordeal when revealed takes the reader into the dark recesses of her memory.There were times when it was a 3, and also times when it was a 5+++ so in the end I've plumped for a 4. The words "Help Me" written in blood on a nearby wall link the crime to a gruesome series of murders committed a couple of years previously by a killer dubbed "the Bloodsmith" by the baying press. Lucy and The Dunk are trying to catch The Bloodsmith and after 17 months Police Scotland are still without results. Also, throughout the narrative, the presence of questionable “mums” rears its head over and over again; mums who fail to adequately nurture their children, who care about these children only after they are dead.

No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBride - The Bookery No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBride - The Bookery

It is a lengthy story which lurches from one improbable scenario to another and is not one of the author’s most entertaining books. The Dunk, on the other hand, seems to serve as comedy relief—woefully out of shape, dresses like a hippie from the 1960s, spouts constant pithy statements about the privileged few, until he meets some, at the super-exclusive St. I'll admit I'm still a little on the fence, although the reading experience has made me realise that my tastes and expectations for crime fiction are fairly orthodox, and perhaps it wouldn't hurt me to read more books that push the traditional boundaries a little. On top of this, Benedict Strachen was just 11 when he confessed to killing a homeless man, and he has just been released from prison. Next up was an elongated spell in Westhill -- a small suburb seven miles west of Aberdeen -- where I embarked upon a mediocre academic career, hindered by a complete inability to spell and an attention span the length of a gnat's doodad.

I hope it may be the start of a series - there were certainly story lines there which could be followed up. One thing that does irritate me about MacBride's work however, is the incessant radio dialogue everytime a character is in a car. Both the media and the police seniors are demanding results but the investigation is constantly hitting brick wall. Not Logan McCrae, nor Ash Henderson, but another cop heads up this book and this time it is a woman - DS Lucy MacVeigh.

Goodreads Loading interface - Goodreads

ABOUT 'NO LESS THE DEVIL': It's been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer to catching him. The first 80% is a taut, twisty detective novel with wit and sarcasm aplenty…the norm for a Stuart MacBride novel. Intercut with her progress is the decades-old case of an 11-year-old boy who, with an unknown accomplice, confessed to killing a homeless man. Seventeen months have passed since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and the police are no closer to catching him.He can convey, thoughts, sounds, places, weather, pain, expressions like no-one else I have ever read.