It had seemed an age since the previous Logan McRae novel, but the wait was SO worthwhile...the familiar characters, the dark humour and the well-devised, contemporary plot...just wonderful.

It seemed like a good idea. Logan 'Lazarus' McRae was back at work after a year off sick. He'd been stabbed in the line of duty and recovery had been slow: he still had some pain. His first case was to be a simple one - just to ease him back into work - but it turned out to be anything but. Professor Wilson, a high-profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missing, apparently abducted from his home, but nothing was left behind except some bloodstains. In much the same way that Brexit is dividing people south of the border, there's going to be a war between the pro- and anti-independence factions in Scotland - and the police are not above being involved.

It's a big book - just about 450 pages if you're reading it and just shy of fourteen hours if you're listening - and Stuart MacBride allows himself full rein. You'll get to know all (the good and the bad) about the team in Professional Standards and you'll understand how they interact with each other. Personally I could swing for Tufty, who annoys the hell out of me, but I've got to admit that I laughed a lot as I read and listened. Whether or not you enjoy this book will depend on your sensitivities. If you're offended by coarse language, graphic descriptions of crime scenes, anti-English sentiments and childishness in public office, then it's probably not for you. If you're OK with all of that then the book's a cracker.

I've been a bit naive in my thinking on Scottish independence: I thought it was a part of a country deciding that it wanted to go it alone. I'd never fully appreciated the extent to which voter's feelings were based on what they were wanting to escape from (ties to the vile English) as what they wanted to achieve. MacBride illustrates this perfectly to the extent that one of my long term plans has changed. My husband is Scottish by birth and we'd always thought that if Scotland did achieve independence we might well move there in the hope that we would, at some point in the not-too-distant future, become European citizens again. I don't have the advantage of Scottish birth and I now think I would be reluctant to brave the anti-English feelings.

That didn't spoil a great plot though. Logan's 'simple' case turns rather more complicated when the hands of the man who's been abducted turn up in the post at the television studios. As if that wasn't enough, the Inspector in charge of the case is about to be outed as a former member of a terrorist cell. As Logan's from Professional Standards the decision is made that he will 'assist' the Inspector, but in reality, keep an eye on him. It's better than sacking him as that would make the police look guilty, instead he'll be in charge of the case and if it isn't settled quickly, he'll be the scapegoat. Logan's position makes him the scapegoat's scapegoat.

As well as reading the book, I listened to an audio recording (which I paid for myself) narrated by Steve Worsley. He was superb, with one of the best ranges of voices which I've encountered. I was never in doubt as to which character I was listening to and whilst some narrators come between the reader and the book, Worsley never does. In fact he makes it more accessible. I've listened to other recordings from this series and Worsley is consistently good throughout.

I'd like to thank the publishers for making the book available to the Bookbag.

The book reads well as a standalone, but you might understand more of the complex relationships within the police if you read earlier books in the series. It's no burden!

This is a first class crime novel, the twelfth in the series, and an excellent read. There are a great many very good crime writers who have the gift of storytelling, providing investigations which test the reader and outcomes which reassure, shock or horrify. Mr MacBride does all this but it is his dialogue, his character driven scenes, whether directly related or incidental to the main theme, which sets him apart.

The relationships are ever evolving, there are the deliciously devious, downright weird, or just plain arrogant officers who stand alongside Logan McRae and even the somewhat stereotypical higher ranked staff members have a little extra. The story is gruesome but even though the antagonists are identified quite early, there is no letting up on the tension, and it is a very satisfying page turner right to the end.

The independence campaigners unsatisfied following the referendum play a major role as Logan and his not altogether cohesive multi-departmental force try to get one step ahead. His superiors don't care about any infighting they want quick results and media approval whatever the cost and murder, mayhem and online antagonism all conspire against the team as they struggle to get anywhere close to the answers.

I was able to read a copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this series or wants to discover a master of his craft.

So enjoy the storylines around the antics of McRae & Steel. The dark humour, descriptive Scottish scenery with added police work all make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Already looking forward to the next instalment.

Stuart MacBride right back on song with this latest offering in the Logan McRae series of books. Logan returns from the backwoods and to gentle him into his new role he is given a floundering King to try to support. The later turns out to be a true liability. The book brings the usual humour along with serious policing , gruesome activities alongside contemporaneous issues about devolution . An excellent read. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an Arc copy to review

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher HarperCollins UK for the ARC.
I really could not put this book down - a fast-paced page-turner if ever there was one. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
I haven't read the whole of this series but it was easy enough to pick up the characters' backgrounds.
Logan McRae returns from his year-long sick leave to his office in Professional Standards, Police Scotland. Although hoping for a gentle easing into casework he finds himself having to shadow DI King on a high-profile missing person case. The missing Professor is an outspoken academic in regard to Scottish Nationalism and the whole case is mired in police politicking because a journalist is threatening to publish a story exposing DI King's membership of a Nationalist organisation.
Hapless Logan finds himself and his team working with DI King to chase down the identity of the abductor before the Professor dies. Along the way we have grizzly mutilations and murders with a suspected serial killer.
I loved the way this story moves forward with brilliant dialogue between the main characters, whether they are bantering about the heat wave in the granite city or cursing about the lack of back-up and resources. It IS gritty dialogue but also witty and humorous. I thought Tufty the computer geek was absolutely fantastic.
I would love to see Logan McRae as a TV series.
Highly recommended.

Another darkly hilarious tale of Logan McBride and his crew of weird and wonderful police colleagues! The violent passages vie with the dark humour to entertain throughput with our hero the seemingly only sane voice in the madcap world of some ultra ultra Scottish Nationalists hell bent on gruesome assaults that turn into murder. There is a hint that McBride's turn in professional standards may be coming to an end so I very much look forward to seeing where he ends up and suspect that all the main characters still have a big part to play.Brilliant!

It’s been some time since I have caught up with Logan McRay. There’s been promotions and demotions, with him and DI Steele reversing roles. Another fantastic story line from Stuart MacBride.

Another decent instalment in this well established series with the return of several characters, a fast paced twisted plot and the expected sprinkling of Scottish humour

The ever reliable Stuart MacBride takes his endearing cast of Police Scotland characters out to solve another set of crimes. This time Inspector Logan McRae, just back from a long break, is tasked with looking into the Investigation of the disappearance of an academic. There’s suggestions of the involvement of extreme Scottish nationalists and tempers fray in a long hot summer.

Yet another great thriller by Stuart MacBride whose ragtag bunch of police officers always get there in the end. This rattles along at pace, with twists and turns, against a topical backdrop. If you’ve loved the series so far, this is another winner.

This is a real return to form for MacBride and the Logan Macrae series. I usually put in an advance order for the series but was holding off on this one as the pace, plot and dialogue of the last couple weren’t as good as the earlier ones. I’d happily pay full price for this one though, it’s got everything!
Macrae has a new role in the police force after a lengthy time off recovering from injury. It’s made him more measured, more self-reliant and more assertive, which is an intriguing direction to take the character. It does fit, though, and it gives a new dynamic to his interactions with Tufty, Rennie and Steel etc. Tufty was maybe a tad too.....bouncy? Didn’t detract from the book for me, however and Steel remains her glorious, wrinkled, acerbic self.
The plot centring around Alt-Nats gives the perfect background for the trademark violence, social commentary and twists and turns without ever becoming too farfetched. Macrae ‘s new job gives him chance to set more of the moral tone of the book than previously.

Absolutely love the Logan MacRae series and this one just continues to get better and better. Fab characters, snappy dialogue and love the dark sense of humour throughout.

Have alway's ;loved the Logan series, but have not read a few for sometime and in this one Logan has been off for a year apparently with a stab wound so that is one I missed, has now been promoted to Inspector McRae, but obviously still bearing the scars and still in a bit of discomfort.. The Story is about an over-enthusiastic Scottish Nationalism that wants Scotland to break away from the UK but it is after the Scottish Referendum, and belongs to a fascist group and decides there are a few Scottish people of clout that are anti-independence and need to be taught a lesson. Starts with abduction and sending body parts to the media, not a good idea, but is he dead or alive? a lot of blood but no actual body and Logan has been given what is thought an easy case to ease him back after his long leave and to babysit D.I King who at times seems to be losing it a bit, and his marriage is falling apart, and no one has caught him but is he drinking on the job.? D I Steel is King's sidekick but she has been demoted to Sargeant another one I missed, but the good thing about these novels you can read them independently as is always a different story but is nice to keep up with the characters. S MacBride has really got Logan and Steele off to a charm Logan used to be under her and now above her, but she is still a force to be reckoned with. A great story has me wanting more. I must thank Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for a copy and this is an honest review. Well worth a read leaves you wanting more can be a bit like a soap opera but fully intense.

This is the 12th book in the series featuring DI Logan McRae written by Stuart MacBride, and as ever they are brilliantly written. The writing (so far) has never faltered, it's quick, witty and totally grips you from the start. The humour/banter between McRae and Steel is beyond compare.

Logan is back after being injured yet again, but now working at Professional Standards with his old side kick of Rennie. His new case is to babysit DI King, who apparently is set to star in newspaper expose on his past exploits when he was a teenager.

Unfortunately the case King is working on is the kidnap of a pro Union supporter who is disliked by everyone. There is quite a lot of politics in the book which is to be expected given the subject matter, but is done in an unbiased way

This book had me laughing out loud in places, just a thoroughly enjoyable read and highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for giving me the chance to read the book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is probably one of the best police procedural/crime novels that I have ever read. It is my first Stuart MacBride book, but it definitely will not be my last.
Scotland has survived two referenda. In the first they voted against independence, believing the “Better Together” campaign. So, in the second – the EU referendum – they also voted to remain together, and were royally shafted by the English nationalists, who decided that it was OK for the English to vote to “take back control”, but not the Scots. It is not a huge leap to understand that many Scots are a wee bit miffed. However, thankfully no one has yet taken their ‘disappointment’ to the extreme level of the so-called Scottish Nationalists in this book.
Someone is targeting high profile, anti-(Scottish)-independence, pro-English rent-a-mouths, and they are not just throwing milkshakes and eggs. First target is Nicholas Wilson – a constitutional scholar, who is loathed by even his closest associates. So, when he goes missing, not a lot of tears are shed. However, the blood left in his home, and a macabre parcel later to delivered to BBC Scotland., make it clear, that this is no ordinary Missing Person situation.
DI Frank King has been assigned to lead the investigation, and Inspector Logan McCrae, from Professional Standards (back at work after being stabbed in a previous book), has been assigned to keep an eye on DI King. King is under suspicion of having Alt-Nat terrorist links. His marriage is failing, he is drinking too much and Logan has his work cut out for him if he wants to save King’s career (and his own), and solve this crime: “the scapegoat’s scapegoat had no intention of letting the original-issue scapegoat screw things up and land him in it”.
King explains: “You know how the Alt-Right is full of white supremacists, gun nuts, racists, and neo-Nazis? Well, Alt-Nats are our own home-grown version. Only without the guns and Nazis. And it’s the English they hate.”
The crime, the many unexpected twists and turns before the eventual solution, are so well designed, that you are compelled to keep reading right to the bitter end. But that is just window-dressing for the real treasures in this novel: the wonderful writing and the amazing characters.
The scenes are always so perfectly set, that you could be a fly on the wall. For example: “A small bark crackled out in the hallway, and Stalin hobbled through the study door. Wheezing and whining. Fading brown spots. Legs stiff with arthritis. A clockwork Jack Russell that was slowly winding down.”; “Bees bumbled their way between the flowering weeds that lined the drive, hoverflies buzzing amongst the thunderheads, house martins reenacting the Battle of Britain – jinking and swooping and diving, while a clatter of jackdaws looked on from the farmhouse roof.”; “A clipped voice came from a room off to one side, as if every word was being throttled to stop it screaming, emphasising the Highland burr.”; “Deep wrinkles slashed their way across her forehead, barely concealed by a sweaty brown fringe. Mid-forties, going on homicidal”. And then there are the Scottish dialect words, expressions and insults, which I loved discovering. Luckily each is used in a context that makes it easy for non-Scots to understand e.g. “Mrs Bag-For-Life raised a walking stick and took a wee hurpley step forward”, “one of the lippy auld wifies”. My favourite insult was the “Womble-funting dick-muppets”. There were so many great sentences, that I just had to read out to my husband.
Because I had not (yet) read any of the earlier books, I missed some of the character development – and was, on the whole, presented with perfectly formed unique, believable characters (such as Logan and the intimidating, foul-mouthed lesbian, Steel), and had a little catching up to do. However, my favourite of all was the ever-cheery, ever-helpful, high-as-a-kite (on caffeine) Tufty: “like a kicked dachshund. ‘Pity poor Tufty…’ Bless his little Starfleet socks, but that lad was a complete and utter weirdo”. Tufty is severely underrated by his colleagues (“asking Tufty had always been a long shot. It wasn’t as if he was renowned for his Sherlock-Holmes-style steel-trap intellect, was it? He wasn’t completely thick – the boy was great on sci-fi trivia, so if Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Battlestar Galactica came up at a pub quiz, he was your man – but actual police work? Might as well ask a drunken hedgehog to fill out your tax return”), but really is a computer whiz (“Brave Sir Tufty’s algorithmic methodology is inspired, but without more computing power, it’s like trying to push a ten-tonne blancmange uphill wearing nothing but flip-flops and an amusing hat.” ), and eventually he comes up with the goods. He also makes a habit of hacking Logan’s phone.
Nationalism is a blight on every country, and in the book, nationalism is taken to obscene lengths. Steel sums up the feelings of many Scots: “I’m all for independence. But I want a Scotland of the Enlightenment; a nation of fairness and equality; a nation that cares about the smallest, weakest person living here every bit as much as the biggest, richest one. A nation that welcomes everyone: aye, even the English … What I don’t want is some sort of apartheid s****hole full of racist, moronic, ethnic cleansing w*** spasms like you.”
I loved this book and can highly recommend it to everyone. I have already bought book number one in this series. My husband is scouring the library for the rest, as he is also hooked. Read and be enthralled. Ten out of five stars!

DI Logan McRae is a slightly grumpy, but dedicated detective at the police of Scotland. Back on the job after a year away from the force and still recovering from a stab wound to the abdomen, Logan is looking for a simple case to solve while easing back into work. His new boss, Julie Bevan, is busy crocheting, collecting well wishes on greetings cards for staff members and organizing pot luck dinners. Professor and anti-independence campaigner Nicholas Wilson has vanished, leaving behind a pool of blood at his house, and his ageing dog and no traces of the kidnapper. The only leads point to an anonymous online mob, with which Professor Wilson engaged in fierce debates, making the hunt for the killer exceedingly difficult. Once the media gets wind of Wilson’s disappearance, as well as the political past of DI King of the police of Scotland, the pressure mounts.

The thriller unfolds against the backdrop of political turmoil and presents an intriguing and suspenseful plot. Appearances by Logan’s flamboyant and extravagant friends in the film business and Tufty, a shy, but over-caffeinated hacker employed by the police force make for quite a few humorous moments. The characters are well developed, although, as others have rightly pointed out, the language used by characters was a bit coarse at times.
This is the 12th book in the DI Logan McRae series, but the first book of the series that I have read. I would read other books in this series.

Book 12 in the excellent Logan McRae series is in my opinion Stuart MacBride back to writing at his very best,having read every book in the series this is up there with the best.Having read some unfavourable reviews i really cannot understand why,yes there is some Scottish language in,but what do you expect from a book and an author based in Scotland ? and the story is based on Scottish nationalist's who do exist !! Once again Logan teams up with the ever funny Steel,Tufty and Rennie after returning to work after his year off in a case which tests the team to their limits.All That's Dead is a superbly written story and once again MacBride is back on top of his game with a 5 star stunner !

Ooh I love Stuart MacBride books, Logan is back, this book speeds along as if you are in a f1 car, I think tufty is on speed, brilliant to be back in all of their company, even steel, kept me on the edge of my bed all night, get this as soon as you can, you won't regret it.

The latest Logan Macrae novel is always something I look forward to.

Stuart MacBride has created a wonderful cast of characters, realistic and very very funny.
They also happen to be very good at their jobs, if a little unconventional at times.

Logan is looking to ease back to work after long term sickness but that's never likely to happen....

This story revolves around the extremes of the Scottish Independence debate.
Extreme unionist, Professor Wilson goes missing and a manhunt ensues. More high profile Unionists are abducted along the way as the team try to track down the guilty parties.

All the usual elements are present and correct here. A brilliant story well told, humour, character development and roller coaster page turning excitement.

Stuart MacBride is one of my favourite authors and I'm already looking forward to the next instalment.

An eye opening view of Police Scotland. This is the first of this series that I've read. The story is a good one, but the characters are mental.

I think I enjoyed it.