Another very good, gritty cop story. Despite the uncomfortable storyline it was a really good, if slightly unsettling read.

I have read each and every first DS, and now DI Logan books, and they just get better and better. I just love his love and hate relationship with DS Steele, and the two of them made me giggle more than once. The subject of this investigation, namely child trafficking was a bit harrowing, but it was well written, and dealt with properly. The book was a thrilling ride, from the first page up to the very last. Please, don't let us wait to long for the next book!

It's always a treat when a new Stuart MacBride comes along - like Book Christmas and Book Birthday rolled into one. Having read them since the start, it's always like catching up with old friends(?) and never disappoints. As with many series fans, I love Steel, but a new Logan McRae novel is always a joy.

Another brilliant read by Stuart MacBride. You almost want to sign up for the police. I said almost!! Good banter between the characters. Although there is gruesome bits in the plots, the way the police characters lighten the mood with funny banter is a coping method to what they witness in their careers. I love how Stuart puts Aberdeen on the map. (He mentions Dufftown and Ben Rinnes which are on my doorstep!) and uses local lingo. All his books are a must. I can't wait to read what Logan Macrae gets up to next. I love the nicknames used in the stories too (Tufty, Ginger McHotpants, DingDong, Baked Tattie Ted, Captain Tracksuit McStinky to name a few!!).
Most of the books in this series are about Macrae and his partner Steel but The Blood Road doesn't have them working together too much which isn't a shame really, it actually helps in my opinion. Very well done again Stuart. Roll on the next one.

love this series so much. Actually I’ve loved all this authors books but there’s a special love involved in one featuring Logan and Steele for many many reasons…

There’s just no substitute anywhere in crime fiction for this pair, whether featured together or apart, in the case of The Blood Road luckily we get plenty of togetherness..Much to Logan’s dismay..

The story as ever is a dark and hugely emotive one, this time featuring missing children and the continuing saga of Bell. I like Logan in his “professional standards” form but soon he’s hot on the trail of a killer, Steele “helping ” in her usual indomitable fashion. The dialogue is fast, pacy, darkly humorous and extraordinarily engaging, you just get swept along with them all in a kind of hypnotic reading trance, often involving inappropriate giggling.

I adore the background noise Stuart MacBride embeds into his narrative making the setting pop, all the characters good, bad and inbetween are beautifully drawn and wonderfully complex, you genuinely feel they are real people and if you were to pop up to their necks of the woods you might run into them.

This particular tale made me both laugh and cry, nobody messes with the emotional core of the reader quite like this author and he does it seemingly effortlessly.

The Blood Road really is stand out crime fiction at its very very best. Head and shoulders above the rest.

Highly recommended. No messing.

If you haven’t tried this series, you should, you really, really, should. Stuart MacBride is so on form with the latest in his Logan McRae series that you’d almost think he is enjoying himself.

It is perfectly easy to dip into The Blood Road from a standing start without having read the others, but why deprive yourself? Get the whole set and begin with Cold Granite.

What the blurb doesn’t tell you is that at the heart of this book is a really wicked and horrible set of crimes involving young children. Yet this is extremely well handled by MacBride who uses the crimes as a central point but without lingering too much on the substance, so whilst this is a chilling read, it is still readable.

Our accident prone D.I. McRae is now working for Professional Standards. If you’ve ever wondered why Police Scotland might need a Professional Standards team, you won’t after reading this. Never has there been such a shambles of a Police operation. Too many crimes, not enough officers, labs backed up, pathologists stretched to breaking point and that’s before you deal with sickness and leave and an Aberdeen Press that’s not so much hostile as starving for a headline story wherever they can get it.

It’s no wonder Logan’s boss, DCI Hardie, is so often to be found with his head in his hands.

Logan is investigating the somewhat embarrassing case of the fatal car crash of DI Bell. Embarrassing because this is the same D.I.Bell whose funeral he had attended 2 years previously. So who was buried in that grave; where has D.I.Bell been and what has brought him back to Aberdeen, only to be placed back on the pathologists table?

Logan has to go back into Bell’s cases to find the answers he is looking for, at the same time trying to bring in D.S. Lorna Chalmers for a chat about her current erratic behaviour. D.S. Steel is avoiding him, but that’s no surprise, none of his colleagues are keen on being seen, far less quizzed, by Professional Standards.

Logan has lost none of his irascible charm. Much battered and bruised over the years, he’s now taking his anti-psychotic meds regularly and only really talks to his cat, Cthulhu, when he needs the company. Saddled with the irredeemably bouncy Rennie and working again with the fabulous DC ‘Tufty’ Quirrell, a character I adore, he also spends a great deal of time battling and bantering with DS Roberta Steel with whom he has, to say the least, a complex relationship.

It is in the midst of this chaos, banter and tumult that McRae excels. Determined to the point of thrawnness, he will never back down on getting his criminal. It is to Stuart MacBride’s credit that he can keep McRae fresh and relevant and produce a novel that while it has a deep and chilling subject matter, also has dialogue that zings.

MacBride tells this story with brio and insight at the same time as leaving the reader gasping for breath as we wait to see who will survive the outcome of Police Scotland’s latest Aberdeenshire outing.

These are all such good stories. I end where I started. Buy them, read them.

Verdict: Logan McRae is in a class of his own. Top notch crime fiction.

Starting a series at book eleven is probably not the best way to become acquainted with the characters, but despite this being my first Logan McRae book I found the characters delightfully quirky and wholly authentic.

'The Blood Road', as the name suggests has a dark theme, not revealed in the blurb I read. 'The concept of a child auction' is truly horrific and readers should be prepared to be appalled by some of the events in this story. The scenes with the children are sensitively written but its not for everyone.

The plot is very detailed and includes the remarkable and the mundane, while this adds to the story's authenticity, it did make specific areas drag for me. The dialogue is what makes this a five-star book; it's believable, informative, and sometimes amusing. The plot has subtle twists and a suspenseful, adrenaline-inducing ending.

I received a copy of this book from Harper Collins - Harper Fiction via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I gave up on this longstanding series a few years, why, I can't remember, and I will certainly be making up for lost time and reading the books I missed, given how enjoyable was the eleventh book in this series.

It felt a bit like coming home and I was able to catch up quite easily with some of the established characters.

As always the plot was credible and the action fast paced demonstrating a wide knowledge of police procedure.

Stuart MacBride is an exceptionally talented author and is well up there in terms of writing the best police procedurals around.

This is the 11th in what is a favourite series of mine featuring DI Logan McRae, set in Aberdeen. At this stage, we are all familiar with the style, type of content, the comic humour juxtaposed with the bleak, the multiple threads in the tale, the familiar characters in all their glory as we wonder just how many scars the author will inflict on the battered Logan this time. Logan is now working for Professional Standards, with the idiot Rennie, making him a man to be avoided, and no-one is avoiding him more than DS Lorna Chalmers. For no obvious reason, she is on the scene at the fatal car crash of the stabbed DI 'Ding Dong' Bell. A Bell that had committed suicide over 2 years ago, whose burnt corpse they had buried to the shock of Police Scotland. There are ongoing child abductions, with demonstrations that condemn the inability of the Police to find 3 year old Ellie Morton, with rampant rumours of a underground Livestock Mart, where stolen children are auctioned to the highest bidder.

Logan wonders what sparked Bell to return to Aberdeen as he delves into Bell's life, and his cases, in particular Bell's frustration at being unable to find the abducted child, Aiden MacAuly, and the killer of his father, Kenneth . The griefstricken mother, Sally, has never got over his loss, writing a book to keep Aiden in the public eye, hiring private investigators to find her precious son. Then there is the question of who is buried in Bell's grave since the ex-cop had started a new life as Carlos Guerrero y Prieto in Spain with a new family. The prime suspect in Aiden's case, Fred Marshall, has not been seen for over 2 years. DS Chalmers is showing signs of being severely beaten, but she is unwilling to spill the beans as to who is responsible. She is asking for time to sort herself out, but her her unco-operative behaviour forces Logan to threaten her with suspension. To his horror, she is discovered hanging in her garage, having apparently committed suicide.

With the police under severe and mounting pressure, DCI Hardie is showing the kind of strains that suggest he is beginning to teeter on the edge of madness and the intense media scrutiny is not helping. Logan thought that as an Inspector that people ran after you, so why is he constantly running after them? His request for more minions eventually results in his worst nightmare as he is assigned the mad wrinkly that is DS Roberta Steel. As another child is abducted, and tortured bodies are unearthed, McRae finds himself in desperate danger as he gets closer to the unspeakable horrors that connect the disparate threads in the narrative. Is he going to be able to find and save the children and live to tell the tale?

It is always a joy to renew my acquaintance with Logan and the iconic lesbian Steel, their conflicted and sniping relationship, their close bond cemented by the fact they are a modern madcap family with 2 children. MacBride has created a much loved ingenious series that thrives on intertwining the darkest of themes with comic absurdities, the slapstick, and highly memorable characterisation. It was lovely to see the role reversal of Logan being Steel's boss for a change, with Steel struggling to adjust to her change in fortunes. For long term fans of the series, you know what you are going to get and you will love McRae in his latest outing. For others, I suggest that they begin reading this outstanding series as soon as feasibly possible. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.