Flesh House- Stuart MacBride

Flesh House
Stuart MacBride
St. Martin’s, Oct 2008, $24.95
ISBN 9780312382636

In Aberdeen, Scotland, the remains of humans are found in a shipping crate and a butcher shop. The police brass immediately hone in on Kenneth “the Flesher” Wiseman who two decades ago got away with brutal murders on a legal technicality. Detective Sergeant Logan McRae goes to bring in the Flesher for questioning and perhaps a bit more.

Having been part of the mishandled investigation twenty years ago, Detective Inspector David Insch plans to insure this time the Flesher does not get away with homicide even if he bends the law. As more body parts appear around the terrorized city, McRae concludes the police are investigating the wrong man, but he remains clueless as to who the brutal serial killer is and there is pressure on him is to keep digging into the Flesher.

FLESH HOUSE needs to carry a warning label: “do not read on a full stomach” as Stuart MacBride gets ultra gory with this exciting Scottish police procedural. McCrae makes the tale in his fourth investigation (see BLOODSHOT, DYING LIGHT and COLD GRANITE) as he bucks the brass seeking the culprit elsewhere. While doing so his amusing cynical commentary contrasts nicely to the bloody scenes and the pomposity of his superiors. Not for everyone, this is a vivid action packed thriller that colors Aberdeen red.

Harriet Klausner