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2000s: Glasgow is a city of contradictions and Maddy Shannon is caught up right in the middle
Lies of the Land
What you need to know before your trail
Maddy Shannon wakes up in her West End Glasgow flat with the hangover from hell. Her work as a Procurator fiscal is hard and unrelenting so nights out are a necessary escape. However judging by the strange man in bed beside her, she’s not the only one to have had a good time.
When the man wakes up, Maddy discovers that his boss, a successful defence lawyer, has met a gruesome end in his posh Merchant City office.
Maddy is shocked but is soon drawn into the case. Dangerous for someone who often gets too close. But when more murders follow and she herself receives a disturbing message, it’s a race against time to try and find answers
Maddy’s unorthodox meetings with Detective Inspector Alan Coulter further complicate an increasingly bloody case whose roots may go years back to one Maddy failed to win.
Travel Guide
Welcome to ‘Glasgae’
You’ll not recognise this side of Glasgow – well maybe you will as the city’s vernacular certainly informs you how snell it is outside and how gritty the reality of it all is.
Events take place some six months after the Scottish referendum to leave the UK and emotions are running high. together with references to Scottish music, popular culture and images such as a club being full of ‘middle aged men in camel coats and costa del crime tans’ and the full picture is painted.
This version of Glasgow is a city haunted by its past and haunted by its own shadow. Past legal cases fester in its prisons, grim investigations o even grimmer killings take their toll
This is a city with a major hangover waking up under the weight of its own history and past wrongdoings. A city of two sides with visits to construction sites, bad estates and city no go areas but all with the humour that only Glasgow can give.
Booktrailer Review
Clare: @thebooktrailer
Well it’s very Tartan Noir, I’ll give it that. Gritty so you are almost spitting out flecks of the stuff as you read. This is not your usual police procedural or legal based one either. It’s a book of shades of grey as nothing is black and white.There’s no good cop, bad cop,but altogether something else.
This is the second book in the Mandy Shannon series and I for one had not read the first one and whilst I do think it would have helped a bit, it just meant that I was drawn in and involved in the intial confusion of the case.I don’t think this was a bad thing at all as no one is as they seem anyway.
There’s a hit on a man from the word go, and the bodies keep piling up. With visits to some of the grimiest parts of the city as well as appearances by some of Glagow’s undesirables, this had Glasgow grit written all over it. Interesting mix of characters and relationships between them. The vernacular, like grit sprinkled on a kebab was crunchy, unexpected and gave the whole thing a unique flavour. Gave it a rough and ready appearance to some already shady characters.
Only the second book in but these are characters I’d be interested in meeting again.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Lies of the Land
Author/guide:Chris Dolan Destination: Glasgow DepartureTime: 2000s
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