Helpful Score: 3
Joe Hope collects money from borrowers who don't pay their debts. But now Joe's got troubles of his own. His teenage daughter's found dead, an apparent suicide. The the police arrest him for murder. But this time, Joe's innocent--and with help from some hard men, and one hard women, he sets out to find who's framed him and deliver his own brutal brand of justice.
Another excellent book in the Hard Case Crime series.
Another excellent book in the Hard Case Crime series.
Helpful Score: 2
From Publishers Weekly
Scottish author Guthrie's second novel (after Two-Way Split) lives up to Hard Case's reputation for gritty noir thrillers that pull no punches; as with other books in the series, it can be difficult to find a single likable character. Joe Hope supplies strong-arm for the thuggish Cooper, an Edinburgh loan shark. The two have just come in from a night of breaking bones with baseball bats when Joe learns that his beloved daughter, Gemma, has committed suicide. His anger immediately turns to wife Ruth's cousin Adam, who runs a writer's retreat, to which Gemma moved years earlier. Joe resented seeing his daughter leave home and charged Adam with protecting her. But when Joe goes to exact vengeance on Adam, he finds himself arrested for murder--Ruth's murder. Joe and Adam become unlikely allies as an ugly frameup begins to emerge. Dark, possibly incestuous, secrets haunt the family's past; Adam's revelation of Gemma's diary sheds some light on them, but other secrets remain to be told before the inevitable, brutal showdown. This violent tale contains the sort of coarse language and emotional roughness that fans of this mystery line have come to expect.
Scottish author Guthrie's second novel (after Two-Way Split) lives up to Hard Case's reputation for gritty noir thrillers that pull no punches; as with other books in the series, it can be difficult to find a single likable character. Joe Hope supplies strong-arm for the thuggish Cooper, an Edinburgh loan shark. The two have just come in from a night of breaking bones with baseball bats when Joe learns that his beloved daughter, Gemma, has committed suicide. His anger immediately turns to wife Ruth's cousin Adam, who runs a writer's retreat, to which Gemma moved years earlier. Joe resented seeing his daughter leave home and charged Adam with protecting her. But when Joe goes to exact vengeance on Adam, he finds himself arrested for murder--Ruth's murder. Joe and Adam become unlikely allies as an ugly frameup begins to emerge. Dark, possibly incestuous, secrets haunt the family's past; Adam's revelation of Gemma's diary sheds some light on them, but other secrets remain to be told before the inevitable, brutal showdown. This violent tale contains the sort of coarse language and emotional roughness that fans of this mystery line have come to expect.
