Broken Skin (Logan McRae 3)

Travel Guide

“In the chill grey of an Aberdeen February…
…violence is just around the corner…”

Aberdeen is known as the granite city – it’s cold and wet too but this is a side of the city you will never seen on the tourist trail. Even when the seedy side seems to reach as far as the star player at the city’s football team.

This is a city with a rapist on the loose and the cloud of fear and tension hangs over each and every page. The mood is dark and sombre. It is February after all but the city is darker and cold than ever before.

Football in the city

Alongside the gritty atmosphere, there is a ring of celebrity and glitter in the form of the chief suspect of the attacker. However, the aura of celebrity here has certainly lost its shine. Although Logan suspects the footballer in question is not guilty, his colleagues seem to want to judge and jail him at any cost. Why is the world of football judged at having such a dark side?

With two such serious investigations, the mountains of paperwork and the hours spent on each case are high. The policework, involving using one of their own as bait, is tough and there are layers of incompetence amongst those threads.

Seedy Aberdeen

There seems to be a very disturbing side to Aberdeen here in this novel. Alternative sexual lifestyles are one thing but the involvement of an eight year old boy? Gruesome.

Even the hospital, the place of health and recovery is described as –

“Aberdeen Royal Infirmary was spreading like a concrete tumour”

Throughout the two cases though, the work of the police is detailed even down to the fine line of banter and gallows humour that really does put you right beside the officers as they go about their day.