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LIFE FOR A LIFE
by T. Frank Muir
Chicago Review Press, September 2015
400 pages
$14.95
ISBN: 1613733240


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

St Andrews, Scotland is justly famed as the home of golf, drawing millions of tourists to the charming town each year. But it seems it has a darker side, as DCI Andy Gilchrist is drawn to a coastal path overlooking the sea, where the body of a young woman lies amongst the tall grasses, frozen to death on a chill December morning.

With his DI in hospital recovering from an assault, Gilchrist is joined in his investigation by a new Detective Sergeant, improbably named Jessica (Jesse) Janes. She's recently transferred from Strathclyde, and very much a work in progress. With a cynical take on life, a smart mouth, and a lot of attitude—not helped by the fact that she's a single mother caring for a teenage son, deaf since birth—her dysfunctional family includes two brothers with criminal form and a manipulative mother who wants to take custody of her grandson and will stop at nothing, including fabricating stories about her daughter designed to land her in trouble, in order to do so.

On this, the first day of Jesse's new posting, it's the deep end of the pool for all concerned: before it has ended the team will discover two more bodies in a farmhouse nearby, both bound and murdered, and linked to the victim on the cliffs. Each of the three victims has a small tattoo underneath their arms: two small bones that resemble the figure eleven. It's meaning, however, is unclear.

Already enough to keep Gilchrist and his team more than occupied, the police soon receive a DVD that records, in appalling detail, a grisly beheading. The killer is not identifiable, but the victim is clear. It's one of their own: DS Gordon McArthur. Yet another disk depicts the decapitation of two notorious Russian mobsters, with their privates stuffed into their mouths. Clearly the killer, whoever he is, is both fearless and brutal. The police go all out to catch the man, but before it has ended the body count will approach a dozen, with Gilchrist's own life hanging precariously in the balance.

LIFE FOR A LIFE is one of the most atmospheric and gripping crime novels I've come across in a long while. Reminiscent of Ian Rankin's work for it's uncompromising portrayal of the dark underbelly of organized crime, coupled with a collection of interesting, though flawed, characters and snappy dialogue, Frank Muir takes his story to a new level of violence. All this gore is only slightly leavened by references to Gilchrist's personal life, which comes under the microscope when Rebecca Cooper, the married forensic pathologist, determines to get Andy Gilchrist into her bed, something he's reluctant to repeat since his own wife left him. LIFE FOR A LIFE is the fourth in a series that now includes a fifth (THE MEATING ROOM, 2014), with another (BLOOD TORMENT) scheduled for release in 2016. Among those who like their crime fiction dark and more than occasionally gritty, the series will find an avid audience.

§ Since 2005 Jim Napier's reviews and interviews have appeared in several Canadian newspapers and on various crime fiction and literary websites, including his own award-winning site, Deadly Diversions. He can be reached at jnapier@deadlydiversions.com

Reviewed by Jim Napier, September 2015

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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