Dead cold
Deadly Cold is a detective novel by Stuart MacBride published by HarperCollins UK in 2016 ; the original English title is In the Cold Dark Ground . The novel was translated by Andreas Jäger and published as a German first edition by Goldmann Verlag in 2017 . It is the tenth novel in the Logan MacRae series and currently the last in the series to be published in German.
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Logan McRae is still a Detective Seargeant with the Scottish Police in Banff on the Scottish North Sea coast . After the student Emily Benton was slain, Logan and the dog handler Syd Fraser discovered the naked body of a man in the woods. It is believed to be businessman Martin Milne, who has been missing for three days. However, identification proves difficult because the man's body is naked and the head is in an opaque garbage bag. The murder investigation is not Logan's job anyway, this is done by a team of investigators under the direction of his former superior and good friend DCI Steel. But Steel doesn't lead the investigation for long either, as a DSI Niamh Harper from the Organized Crime Division is taking on the case, as the modus operandi of a corpse with a garbage bag over its head is the same as in many other executions by the Edinburgh gang boss Malcolm "Malk the Knife" McLennan can be attributed. However, it is Logan who provides the crucial clue as to the identity of the corpse long before the forensic doctor removes the garbage bag during an autopsy.
In addition to his official duties, Logan also has a few private problems. The Aberdeen gang boss Hamish Alexander Selkirk Mowat is dying. Logan, who had a friendly relationship with “Wee” Hamish Mowat, but from his point of view as a police officer, was impeccable, will take over the “business” after his death. And he should grant Mowat one last wish and kill his right hand Reuben. Logan, who really only wants to be a good police officer, can neither imagine becoming a gang boss nor killing someone in cold blood and willfully. In addition, his girlfriend Samantha has been in a coma since the end of the last novel and is only kept alive artificially. Since she has no relatives, it is up to Logan to decide whether to turn off life support.
To make matters worse, Chief Superintendent Napier from Logan's Internal Inspectorate appears. DCI Steel suspects that Napier is keen to shoot one last major case shortly before his retirement, so he will deal more intensely with Logan. But the focus of Napier's interest is Steel, who is said to have slipped incriminating evidence on a rapist. So Napier approaches Log so that he should decide for or against working with the supervisory authority in the case of his good friend.
When "Wee" Hamish Mowat dies, events roll over. After Logan with a heavy heart turns off the life support measures for his girlfriend Samantha, he is kidnapped by Reuben's henchmen to witness the execution of a renegade drug dealer . They then force him to attend the funeral of "Wee" Hamish Mowat, where he meets Malcolm McLennan in person for the first time. The friendly interaction between Logan and McLennan in turn calls DSI Harper on the scene, who is attending the funeral of the most influential gang boss in Northern Scotland out of professional interests. While Logan forges a murder plot against Reuben with John Urquhart, an Aberdeen construction company and former confidante of "Wee" Hamish Mowat, Harper is identified as Logan's half-sister. Logan's father is obviously not dead, but separated from his wife and started a new life in Dumfries . After Samantha's funeral, Logan meets with Reuben and Urquhart at the "Wee" Hamish Mowat pig farm in Gairnhill Wood, west of Aberdeen. Logan tries to shoot Reuben, but only injures his leg. After the murderer of Pete Shepherd - the naked corpse with the garbage bag over his head - is convicted, Logan and DSI Harper are ambushed on the highway by Reuben and his henchmen. Logan manages to overpower them and shoots Reuben in the head. He survived, but was later kidnapped from the hospital by John Urquhart and fed to the pigs. Logan also decides to work with Supervision and, in the face of overwhelming evidence, sees no choice but to assist with the transfer of DCI Steel. Towards the end of the book, Logan “Wee” rejects Hamish Mowat's offer and decides to remain a righteous cop. Mowat's company is then taken over by John Urquhart.
Reviews
"With" Dead Cold ", Stuart MacBride succeeded in not thrashing the straw over hundreds of pages, but in telling a complex criminal case and a complicated private story - a parallel flight that only few contemporary authors manage so harmoniously."
General
For this book, too, MacBride “sold” a supporting role in his story. After Isla Anderson helped raise money for a good cause, he dedicated her to the role of one of Logan's colleagues.
literature
- Stuart MacBride: Deadly Cold, ISBN 978-3-442-48566-6
Web links
- Deadly cold on the publisher's website: www.randomhouse.de
- In the cold dark ground , review on independent.co.uk
- In the cold dark ground , review on pressandjournal.co.uk