‘The Coffinmaker’s Garden’ is the third book in the Ash Henderson series by Stuart MacBride.

During a terrible storm, part of a cliff face is washed away, along with the nearby house, revealing the human remains buried in his garden. And the hunt for a serial killer commences. There are several strands to the story:
• Alice and Ash are focused on finding Gordon Smith who owned the house and is now known as the ‘Coffinmaker’
• Simultaneously, Alice is also involved with the hunt for the person behind the kidnap and murder of several young boys.
• Oh, and Ash has also agreed to help the psychotic Hele MacNeil search for her missing granddaughter.
As a result, the story moves at a cracking pace and there is plenty of action but it is dark and gritty, make no mistake. There is violence a plenty, with the characters racing from one scene to the next and the pace does not let up, particularly towards the end. All the storylines are tied up and the reader is left feeling somewhat breathless at the end – not to mention waiting for more!

While novels revolving around serial killers, tend towards the dark side, there is also plenty of dark humour to be found in ‘The Coffinmaker’s Garden’ – much of it related to the adorable Scottie dog. And those moments are genuinely laugh out loud.

As soon as I received my own copy of this title it was most definitely going to be my next read. It had to jump my to-be-read queue. It was once again so good that my 10th generation kindle couldn't cope and crashed severely that I had to have a new one. It was only 3 months old!!

I digress ...

Once again a great plot. 2 cases ongoing dfor the sort-of dynamic duo Ash and Alice. Both with their own demons to bring along and both of which are constantly reminded of.

They begin the story working together but finish of working separately on the 2 cases. Once again Mrs Kerrigan's lynch mob are afoot but have gone into business themselves and have no hesitation dealing out their punishments ... erm ... business. These 2 are so polite and then bash your brains out. Comical to say the least, or is it?

Once again the writing depicts Stuart's own character. If you ever get to meet him, you'll know what I mean. If you are new to Ash or indeed Stuart's books, I highly recommend them. As far as I am aware, and I've read a few crime thrillers by now, that Stuart's 2 detective series may be gruesome but the police force characters have their funny comments. Finding as many bodies as they do, they have to in order to get by mentally I guess.

This book is book 3 in the Ash Henderson (so far) trilogy and it's good to see Ash back since 2014 as Stuart has concentrated more on Logan Macrae series (about 13 or 14 on last count).

Whichever series you try, you'll want to carry on and on.

Can't wait to read Stuart's next book as always. I'd grab a copy if I were you ASAP!! Or else ....

I am a sucker for anything Stuart Macbride writes, and once again he does not disappoint.

Ash Henderson is a character we have seen before in two novels. We were introduced to him when he was trying to find the person who abducted his daughter Rebecca, and later his other daughter Katie.
Ash is gritty and dark, he has no problem bending the rules to seek justice, and this once again shows in The Coffinmaker's Garden.

While you can read this as a Stand Alone, I do recommend reading the other two novels with Ash in them, as well as A Dark So Deadly, where you get introduced to the Misfit squad.

The Coffinmaker's Garden is a thrilling read, full of characters with tons of personality. It is not a novel for the faint of heart, since there is a lot of violence, but there is also an undertone of dark humour to lighten what is a very dark read.

5 Stars, as always.

The Coffin Maker's Garden by Stuart MacBride sees the welcome return of Ash Henderson and his motley crew 7 long years since their previous outing in A Song For The Dying.
The book begins in the coastal village of Clachmara ,which due to coastal erosion is slowly falling into the North Sea. A massive storm is blowing and a fishing boat is in trouble with the Coastguard helicopter in attendance.. Single parent Margaret Compton is horrified to realise that her young son Alfie is missing, a lad with a fascination for helicopters. Rushing into the storm she finds him watching the rescue attempt on the cliffs next to an abandoned house, Part of the cliff falls into the sea ,just after Margaret has snatched Alfie to safety and a cache of human bones is exposed..
Ash and his trusty sidekick Alice MacDonald are called to the scene and it very soon becomes apparent that the owner of the house, Gordon Smith, has some questions to answer.
From there on it's classic MacBride with snarky,laugh out loud dialogue, black humour, plenty of explicit violence, a cast of characters that are larger than life and not least a thrilling and twisty story-line . The only problem I had was that it's so long since the last Ash Henderson book that I couldn't remember some of the past events that are alluded to in parts of this one, not a major thing but I'd have liked a brief reminder for example what had happened between Shifty and oddball gangland enforcers Joseph and Francis to make him hate them so much..
That small niggle aside it's a great read, hopefully there's more of Ash Henderson to come ,and sooner than in another 7 years this time.

I used to really like Stuart MacBride, the first Logan McRae books were very good, but then they just got to be predictably violent. So I thought I would give Ash Henderson a try out, I've not read the first two so I'm missing some of the back story but I didn't feel that was too important. 

The story starts out with the predictably bad Scottish weather and a house falling into the sea, but not before it reveals that their are bodies buried in the garden. It's down to Ash to find out where Gordon Smith is and also to find where the granddaughter of his next door neighbour is.

There is also the second story of children being murdered and Alice is the profiler trying to help find out who that is.

It all becomes very violent and very unbelievable towards the end.

My copy, while being a pre release copy, used lots of text language but the SEND and other messages were sometimes in mixed capitals and lower case and all squashed together and very small and that made it difficult to read. There were also a couple of sections at about 34% and 40% where the narrative repeated itself and was all jumbled up and made no sense at all.

One of my biggest bug bears with Stuart MacBride is, that although this was a British English copy, most of the words like colour were spelt the British way, he insists on using the word "careening". The proper British English spelling is "careering" as in the car careered off the road. Careen in British English is to be rolled on your side and have your bottom scrubbed, that is if you are a boat.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher from my ARC in return for an honest review.

Another fantastic police procedural from MacBride.

I was delighted to be reacquainted with Ash, Alice and the gang. They are all very well-written characters - relatable, realistic in their actions and flawed. This time around, they are trying to track down a killer who is kidnapping and strangling young boys, as well as hunting a historic serial killer.

The action is fast-paced and thrilling, with plenty of twists and turns as well as MacBride's trademark dark humour.

If you're a fan of MacBride's previous works, then you'll love this. Highly recommended.

Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC.

Stuart Mcbride is an excellent author, The CoffinMakers Garden follows Ash Henderson and mother on an another excellent storyline. It was a very strong storyline following Scotland’s finest, through twists of murder and mystery.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I’m a big fan of Stuart MacBride and this was a good story but not as good as the Logan Macrae books. Still with a read though - dark and doesn’t take itself too seriously!

#TheCoffinmakersGarden #NetGalley
A wonderful thriller.
Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the North Sea. But the crumbling headland has revealed what he’s got buried in his garden: human remains.A house full of secrets…With the storm still raging, it’s too dangerous to retrieve the bodies and waves are devouring the evidence. Which means no one knows how many people Smith’s already killed and how many more he’ll kill if he can’t be stopped.An investigator with nothing to lose…The media are baying for blood, the top brass are after a scapegoat, and ex-Detective Inspector Ash Henderson is done playing nice. He’s got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way.
I loved this author's books and this is no exception. It's ending is like a Hollywood movie. Characters are well written.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Harper Fiction for giving me an advance copy.