From GoodReads:
This is the 3rd in the series and it absolutely does not disappoint.
Perhaps not as dark as first 2, we still get a series of interweaving crimes in a bleak 70's Glasgow.
Our hero, Harry, is certainly not perfect - but is one of the good guys - and we see him developing further in this instalment. His interactions with his gangland boss pal are complex and great fun.
Very clever and hugely entertaining.
More please.

The strength of this book is in its Glasgow context although much of that was unlikely still to be the case in the 1970s. The lead character,McCoy,a detective, does much of his work offline. It is hard to believe any detective would be able to have so many criminal contacts and try to solve so many cases off the record. There are many strands to the story and it can be hard to keep up with them all as they result in many characters that keep reappearing. The physical abuse McCoy suffers in Belfast and at home stretches belief too. It is carefully written. It is just the story that is over the top!

We've reached July 1973 in Alan Parks' gritty Glasgow detective crime series and things don't seem to be getting any better for Harry McCoy. In fact it all seems very much business as usual for any reader familiar with the first two books (Bloody January, February's Son), but if Bobby March WIll Live Forever doesn't progress any further in its look at the development and connection between crime and drugs, or how crime impacts differently on the wealthy and lower orders of society in the city, it very much holds ground in what is turning out to be a terrific series.

Bobby March is or was a promising (fictional) local rock star who in once auditioned for the Rolling Stones. Like many others his career has been cut short by the rock 'n' roll lifestyle and when Harry McCoy is called in the morning after his last show in Glasgow, he's not that surprised to find March dead from a drug overdose in his hotel room. Most of the police and the city are more concerned about a missing child, but McCoy has been side-lined on that case and is indifferent about the predictable end of another junkie rock star casualty. He's seen it all before, and much worse.

Same goes for the other minor cases he's been given to look at, an unsolved and probably unsolvable series of bank raids, and - as a favour for his former boss Chief Inspector Murray - he's been asked to locate the wayward 15 year old daughter of the Chief's brother. She's been seen in the company of a disreputable small-time hood who, when McCoy goes to check up on him, finds that someone has already closed that line of enquiry in the traditional manner that also seems to be the eventual fate of this type of character.

70s rock stars doing drugs, kidnapped children, local criminal gang leaders getting carved up, corruption at high levels, it's pretty much par for the course for Harry McCoy, and for Alan Parks too, if we're honest. Even the showdown conclusion here feels very familiar. Which isn't to say that there is any lessening in the quality or the authenticity of the writing. Parks captures the attitudes and seedy character of Glasgow in the seventies brilliantly, getting to the roots of a significant period that highlights the kind of social divisions that crime (and politics) would come to thrive on in the subsequent years, and not just in Glasgow.

If there's not a great deal of progress, Bobby March Will Live Forever is not treading water by any means either. The sectarian problem in Glasgow has been touched on before, but here Parks pushes it briefly into a new area and new location that is handled with the same authenticity for the underlying terror that is beginning to rise to the surface. There's no fake seventies glamour here but it's not all gloomy nihilism either, and although severely tested, McCoy still just about is able to hold on to his humanity. Like the legacy of Bobby March, if there's a lesson in this third Harry McCoy book it's that we have to remember the good, believe in it and desperately cling to it in spite of everything else.

based in early 1970's Glasgow this is the latest in the harry McCoy series this one isn't as dark as the other 2 in the series but the character building continues and the action shifts between Glasgow and Belfast and several different storylines merge as the story goes along but the novel doesn't disappoint and is a page turner. liked the added part for the 3rd novel the musical aspect and more there is the growing drug trade which is in the background.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Canongate Books for an advance copy of Bobby March Will Live Forever, the third novel to feature Glasgow detective Harry McCoy.

It’s July 1973 and Glasgow is sweltering. Most of the team are searching for missing 13 year old Alice Kelly but McCoy who has been frozen out by the corrupt Acting Inspector Braeburn. Instead he is left to investigate the series of armed hold ups Braeburn has failed to solve, attend the suspicious overdose death of rockstar Bobby March and carry out an off the books search for Inspector Murray’s runaway teenage niece, Laura.

Who could resist this novel with such an intriguing title? I couldn’t and while it’s a bit of a red herring the novel in its entirety is a belter that held me engrossed from start to finish.

I would like to start with the atmosphere which seems authentic to me with its smoke filled rooms, heavy drinking culture, corruption and the very prevalent shrug of its acceptance and the Masonic influence, even the language and cultural references of the times. There may be the odd word that non Glaswegians don’t understand but the sense is clear so I don’t think it will be inaccessible to most readers.

I found the plot mesmerising as McCoy investigates all these different threads. He doesn’t take a particularly organised route so they often overlap and are all constantly on his mind. This sounds like a bit of a nightmare for the reader but actually creates a very moreish narrative where the reader wants to know what’s coming next in every strand. To be honest I found the Bobby March strand the least compelling, although most personal to McCoy and skim read the chapters of his backstory inserted into the current day narrative. I also like all the little plot details that add nuance, like the role of his ex-wife, Angela.

Harry McCoy is a great protagonist. He’s not perfect and he makes mistakes but he’s honest, not a given in the 1970s police force, and idealistic to a certain extent. This idealism can lead to problems but more often to disappointment and a necessary pragmatism - fight the battles you can win. In keeping with the era his best friend is a gangster and they seem to operate on a “don’t ask” basis. Their relationship is warm and caring in an offhand and frequently amusing way.

Bobby March Will Live Forever is a great read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

Bobby March Will Live Forever, the third in the series, is another cracking Glasgow detective thriller, setting McCoy against his colleague and rival, and against the backdrop of 60s / 70s rock. I’ve been looking forward to this since last year, and it doesn’t disappoint. McCoy, the antihero, seems a little more on an even keel in this book - sure, there’s boozing and fighting, but it feels less self-destructive than the last two books - in fact overall there’s a lighter, less bleak tone... at least in comparison with the earlier books - this is still a gritty take that puts you right in the heart of the violent city.

Very much looking forward to the “April” release next year.

The third entry in Parks' dark series set in 1970s Glasgow - yet despite the violence and cruel storylines (drugs, gangland killings, corruption) this feels somehow lighter than the previous two books and less bleak overall. The pairing of Harry McCoy and Stevie Cooper, one a cop, the other a gangland boss, gives both heart and a wicked humour to the story, and McCoy's wry musings on women are revealing and funny. It's good to see Parks expand his repertoire without losing the edgy brutality of his depiction of Glasgow.

This is the third in Alan Parks's stellar Scottish noir historical crime fiction series featuring the anti-hero DI Harry McCoy set in a 1970s violent and brutal Glasgow of hard men, criminal gangsters, bent and corrupt police officers, fugged and smoky pubs with the social norms and attitudes of the period. It is July 1973, the drug trade has tightened its grip on the city, and in the sweltering heat of the summer, a young 12 year old girl, Alice Kelly, has gone missing. The media is baying for blood and the police force is under intense pressure for a result. With McCoy's boss seconded elsewhere, Detective Sergeant Bernie Raeburn is in charge, Raeburn is looking for glory, detests and loathes McCoy with a passion, blocking his involvement in the hunt for Alice, intent on goading Harry into reacting so he can be pushed out of the force.

Harry is keeping his cool so far as the bent Raeburn is concerned, only just, as he works on bank heists that Raeburn failed to get any results in, and is on the scene of has been rock star Bobby March's tragic death from an overdose in a hotel room. Harry had been to his concert the night before, a shambling affair, but nostalgic with the odd moment of brilliance from one of the best guitarists of his generation. It seems a straightforward case, but there are anomalies, and according to Bobby's dad, there is a missing bag. Chief Inspector Murray wants McCoy to find his 15 year old niece, Laura, who has run away from home but to keep it below the radar as his brother is seeking political office. Stevie Cooper, McCoy's best friend and gangland boss is not in a good place, and the desperately worried Harry, for once has to come to his rescue, discovering that the ex -love of his life, Angela, is now in Stevie's employ.

In the dark and bleak storylines, Parks skilfully knits together and connects the multiple threads that come together in a explosive finale. We learn of Bobby March's career as a rock star musician and his drug fuelled history in a narrative that goes back and forth in time. McCoy finds himself facing terror, death and vicious beatings, attending a funeral in Northern Ireland, and finally driven to the end of his tether when it comes to Raeburn after an unwarranted death. This is riveting historical crime fiction, if you have yet to encounter DI Harry McCoy, I strongly urge you to read this hard hitting series set in the mean and violent streets of Glasgow that Parks brings vibrantly alive. However, I do suggest that you start at the beginning. Highly recommended and I cannot wait for the next addition. Many thanks to Canongate for an ARC.