Member Reviews

The Coffinmakers’s Garden sees the return of Ash Henderson, the ex-Detective Inspector who is now working as part of the Lateral Investigative Review Unit alongside Police Scotland.

When coastal erosion and a storm of mammoth proportions threatens the Scottish coast, the damage uncovers human remains close to the home of local man, Gordon Smith. With no sign of Gordon and with his home threatening to fall into the sea at any minute, Henderson is brave, or foolhardy, enough to go into Gordon’s abandoned house only to discover a truly horrific secret in the basement. What then follows is a convoluted crime mystery which looks for reasons behind the horrific discovery and seeks justice for the victims of crimes which have gone unnoticed for far too long.

This is my first time at reading crime investigation in the company of Ash Henderson and I have to say that it took me a little while to understand and warm to his character. He’s a bit of a maverick, easily rubs people up the wrong way, and yet for all his taciturn investigative skills he seems to get things done unlike the police who seem to be bumbling around in this investigation. The story moves along at a cracking pace and there’s a definite sense of chill as the story progresses. There are twists and turns aplenty and more than enough red herrings to keep you guessing and after my initial reservations I found that I was definitely gripped by the direction of the story, and grew to like Henderson more and more as this challenging investigation continued.

I am sure that fans of this author’s writing, and of the Ash Henderson series in particular, will be well pleased with this story, as, I believe, it’s been seven years in the waiting.

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The Coffinmakers Garden by Stuart Macbride
I give this book 4 stars

As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, 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.
The media are baying for blood, ex-Detective Inspector Ash Henderson has nothing to lose and is done playing nice. He’s got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way.

This can be read as a standalone (like l did) or as book 3 in a series
A dark,graphic and violent Scottish crime thriller.l loved rule breaking Ash,his dog and his partner in crime quirky Alice.A disturbing and gritty storyline that pulled me in,with an easy reading style that carries you along with just the right amount of danger and tension to make this a recommended gripping read.
With thanks to Netgalley,Stuart Macbride and Harper Collins Fiction for my chance to read and review this book

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Oh wow! button-down the hatches because this is one hell of a stormy ride as the sea batters and erodes the coastline, taking with it the gardens and homes perched on top. There hasn’t been a hole deep enough to hide the horrors of the coffin maker’s true nature as his victims remains tumble into the sea. He of course is nowhere to be found.

What a tremendous opening to what is a real-world mind blocker. This book took over me, as I carried my kindle everywhere I went not able to lose even a second of what came next in the story. The discoveries are horrific and brought to life masterfully in perfect technicolour perfection by this author. The thing that took this from a great book to unforgettable was the dark humour and banter of the investigating team. It was the icing on a cake, so it is a good job that devouring this book was calory free as I read it in one greedy binge.


The specialised team are established characters from previous books, but this was my first encounter with them. I felt very comfortable with them as they felt natural, with no stiffness about their characters like, at times, when they are new. Alongside, the case of the serial killer is also the disappearance of a neighbour’s daughter.

The pace of the story is fast. I loved the unpredictable characters in this story, from the crazy serial killer to the unorthodox investigation. A highly recommended read for the start of 2021.

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This was my first Stuart MacBride and his pitch black humour is brilliant. I still haven't gotten over "radioactive jobbie". "The Coffin Maker's Garden" opens with a bang and some of the tension throughout is almost unbearable. MacBride writes dialogue extremely well which gives vibrant personalities to his characters. Sabir the Scouser was a particular treat, with his distinctive dialect. Some bear striking resemblance to real people - I'm looking at you, Prof Dame Sue Black. MacBride displays great attention to detail and observation of what is usually mundane. I would love to see the world through his eyes for a day. A third of the way through, I bought the first two books in the series. There are wee Easter eggs scattered throughout the book too. A personal favourite was Mrs Lovett's Pies. I don't want to give spoilers but suffice it to say pantomime has never seemed so sinister. I have never been so simultaneously amused and terrified as I was in that final basement scene. Crime fiction at its absolute best.

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My sister has been raving about this author for years, and I can definitely see the appeal. A very enjoyable read, with a great sense of humour to disperse the gritty plot.
The characters are great, I didn't realise this was #3 in the Ash Henderson series, but as I was reading I kept thinking 'Ash Henderson is a brilliant character for a series, there should be more.' LOL.
My only criticisms are sometimes during the long pieces of dialogue, it was difficult to discern which character was speaking. Sometimes, I confused the 2 storylines of the child kidnappings and the bones in the garden.
Overall, a solid read and would definitely recommend.

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When a storm takes some of Gordon Smith’s coast-lined garden into the sea, a grizzly site is revealed - a garden full of bodies. The police will have to be quick to save the evidence before a raging storm washes the crime scene away.
At the same time former Detective Inspector Ash Henderson is on the hunt for a child killer when he gets moved onto the manhunt for Smith. A series of dramatic events occur that leave Ash baying for blood, and god forgive anyone that gets in his way to stop him revealing the truth.
Stuart Macbride has this amazing ability to do hard hitting crime with wonderful satire.
With a cast of great characters and a malign enemy, along with its brilliant dialogue, the author has written a crime novel of the finest quality. Absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend it.

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thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for an electronic ARC.

Ex-DI Ash Henderson is injured, in circumstances that are unexplained. His colleague Dr Alice McDonald is struggling in other ways, also unexplained. They are called to investigate a very unusual crime scene which is disappearing in front of their eyes as storm damage erodes part of the Scottish coast. A young woman, local to the crime scene, goes missing and Ash fears that she has fallen prey to a charming, theatrical serial killer.
Meanwhile small boys are going missing and there is a race against time to find the latest one before his fate seems inevitable.
The 'misfit mob' special investigative unit is based inthe fictional town of Oldcastle, but the action ranges far and wide across the country, including to the Isle of Bute.
The stormy weather and the race against time in two story arcs helped to engender a sense of urgency, but I found some of the action confusing and I didn't know enough about the backstory of the characters to understand all of their actions and reactions, so it just didn't quite gel for me.
.

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The Coffinmaker’s Garden is my first foray into the world of Ash Henderson. It’s an extraordinary read for a thriller which combines incredibly descriptive landscapes, similarly well described characters, dark humour and a lot of gruesome violence. It’s a mix I haven’t encountered before. Ash is a tortured soul, a former DI who has suffered a tragic and unimaginable loss and has an extraordinary propensity for incurring injuries. In this story he is working with the Lateral Investigative and Review Unit or as Stuart MacBride puts it “the A-Team meets New Tricks, only with civilian experts bailing the local cops out when they cock stuff up.” This story is full of twists and turns, cracking humour and dialogue and is a fast paced read. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

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I have enjoyed reading this series nearly as much as the Logan McRae books, which feature ex DI Ash Henderson and his sidekick colleagues: forensic psychologist Dr Alice McDonald & DI “Shifty” Morrow.

Ash and Alice get called out by DI Malcomson, “Mother” when part of a cliff face is reclaimed by the sea during a storm, uncovering human bones in the garden of one of the properties which is about to collapse into the sea. Whilst checking the basement, they find polaroid photographs showing victims who have been tortured. The property owner, Gordon Smith is missing and Ash is seconded to DI Malcomson’s team to investigate. This investigation is running in parallel to a case catching a child murderer, that Alice is trying to assist with.

Very descriptive, especially of how they try to cope in stormy conditions with a crime scene on an eroding cliff. Very violent in places with Ash seeming to have no boundaries making it a bit unbelievable that he is still employed by the police but still a good read and I liked the ending, especially with the two ‘fixers’ Ash uses.

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Ash Henderson is back and better than ever! I think this is my favourite Ash Henderson book, it started with a bang and continued at a great pace throughout. As much as I love Stuart MacBride's books I do find there's a lot of story building in the first half before it picks up the speed later - not the case with this. There was so much action, with a satisfying ending. I wish I'd reread the previous novels again, as it's been a while since we've seen this character and the other returning ones from the Oldcastle series, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment - it just left me trying to remember their storylines.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review</i>

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As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, 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.
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 found and stopped. 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.
This is the third book in the series & it’s been about seven years since the previous one but I was thrilled that there's another Ash Henderson book & hope there are more. It's certainly not a cosy mystery but a gritty no holds barred mystery thriller. The characters leap out of the page at you & whilst I didn't love them I felt I got to know them. It's edge of the seat page turning stuff. It's a lovely mix of grit & humour & I devoured it
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

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It’s very rare I can’t finish a book but this one almost had me beat and I skimmed through loads of it. . I couldn’t take it seriously on any level and had to check the blurb about it to see why I had requested it. It’s description does not match the content. Right from the opening chapter it was simply unbelievable and yet purports to be a thriller. I think not.

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The Coffinmaker's Garden by Stuart MacBride

A massive storm batters the Scottish coast, leaving the home of Gordon Smith on the edge of collapse, its garden and cellar collapsing over the cliff – revealing bones, lots and lots of bones. Ex-DI Ash Henderson, now working for the Lateral Investigative Review Unit (LIRU) alongside Police Scotland, enters the building and manages to grab some evidence before he only just manages to escape with his life as the storm claims the building. But he has saved photos of men, women and children, decades of victims, tortured to death in this house by a man who is now on the run.

This isn’t the only crime facing the city of Oldcastle. Young children are being stolen and murdered. Another boy has just gone missing. DI ‘Mother’ Malcolmson knows that time is running out if she is to find the child alive. Ash and forensic psychologist Dr Alice McDonald, move between the two cases, slowly moving from within the confines of the law to beyond it, especially when Ash discovers that Gordon Smith’s killing spree has not been stopped by the storm. Ash will be helped by a succession of women and men to try and bring these killers down.

Stuart MacBride is back. My favourite crime writer and I can think of no better way to kick off my 2021 reading habit. I adore all of his books, whether they feature Logan McRae, Roberta Steel, Callum McGregor, Mother Malcolmson or Ash Henderson. Every book is a triumph (A Dark So Deadly is my favourite crime novel of all time, followed by Now We Are Dead) and The Coffinmaker’s Garden is no different. It’s been a while since we’ve spent time with Ash and Alice. It’s good to see them back. Ash is battered and bruised, physically and emotionally. He has suffered. But he’s like a dog gnawing on a bone. His grip is total, his resilience incredible – he keeps getting up again, supported by Alice, a verbose, kind alcoholic, his best friend ageing detective Shifty and Henry, the dog that keeps on giving. I don’t think it matters a jot if you haven’t read the previous two novels. All is made clear here and we’re off and running from page one.

The plot is every bit as deliciously complex as you could wish for. You’ll get no details of that from me. The story lines weave around one another, pulling in a host of extra characters who are all three-dimensional and all populate this curious city of Oldcastle (a sort of Aberdeen but greyer, bleaker, wetter and far more dangerous – although Logan McRae might have something to say about that), which is a character in its own right. I loved meeting Rosalind Franklin (I think only Ash could win her over, or Henry) and Helen MacNeil, a tour de force. Other characters are so intensely villainous, they’re a joy to read, even if you have can only look with one eye squinting.

This is a gory and violent book in places (although not as gory and violent as it could have been) but it is also brilliantly written and so fantastically witty. I don’t know what it is about Stuart MacBride’s writing but he always manages to set me off with a turn of phrase. It is shocking, there is no doubt of that. These are brutal crimes. I sometimes think that it might be easier for Ash if he just put himself in an olive press and had done with it, get all of the bruises and crushings out of the way in one go.

I could sing the praises of this fabulous novel all day. Nobody does it like Start MacBride. Long may he reign.

Other reviews
Logan McRae series
In the Cold Dark Ground
A Dark So Deadly
Now We Are Dead
The Blood Road
All That’s Dead

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Stuart Macbride has done it again with a dark and disturbing thriller.
Ex-Detective Inspector Ash Henderson has a serial killer on the loose in his Scottish home town and means to catch him and fast.
Gordon Smith's house is crumbling into the harsh Scottish coast line and with it human remains.
No one knows how many bodies he has buried in his back garden and with a storm raging threatening to destroy all evidence Ash Henderson needs to work fast to catch his killer before he kills again.

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This was totally far fetched, unbelievable and unrealistic BUT for some reason I couldn't stop reading it!

After reading the premise I was expecting a serious crime thriller but that's not what was delivered, I'm unsure of how to describe it, at times it was laughable/tongue in cheek at others I'm completely unsure of what was going on.

I'm giving 2* purely for the fact that I couldnt put it down.

Thanks to netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.

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Stuart MacBride's writing had me on the edge of my seat. His characters are so well defined. His descriptions had me dangling from the edge of the cliff with Ash. Huge tracts of land crumbling into the sea - I could hear it. I even began reading with a Scottish accent. Excellent.

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Bit of a change from Logan although the black humour, love/hate of the NE of Scotland, crude language and some pretty gruesome murders are familiar. This time we have an Ex Detective Ash Henderson and forensic psychologist Alice McDonald being brought in to investigate bones of murder victims, long dead, that appear as the chief suspect's house is falling into the North Sea. This may, or may not, tie in with a series of current child murders, young boys. Ash is definitively a bit of a mis-fit, unconventional and happy to use his fists whilst Alice is, let's face it, an alcoholic. So it is with some surprise that they seem apparently so valued by the police - who themselves are weird at best. The sense of place is wonderful - think dark sides of Aberdeen or Dundee, with bells and blood. I swung between thoroughly enjoying the characters and humour, dark though it was and finding the violence too over the top, gratuitous at times - chopping off fingers for instance. Hence a schizophrenic review. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review

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I should be saying, this is another great book from Stuart MacBride but I've never read any of his books before. That's going to change as this was so good! So much blood, guts & death to keep any police force busy for five years. Many twists & turns to keep you page turning until everything is solved & put away. Recommended read.

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A book of totally unbelievable, caricatures with an unrealistic plot. The main character, a mature retired Police Officer with dubious double standards with links to both the law and the unlawful when it suited him appears to have been more based on an all-American hero figure who could take any amount of physical punishment to within a fraction of his life and still get up and beat the baddies.
Too far fetched and it came over to me as just another book churned out by an obviously successful author to add to a long list.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC and the chance to leave an unbiased review.

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Long time since I have read a Stuart MacBride and did not realize he had a new series and this one is the 3rd, but as with all his books can be read as a standalone but the description of the characters are somewhat limited. Ash Henderson is ex DI disabled and Dr Alice Macdonald and she has a drink problem so a motley pair, and they consult with Police Scotland. This particular night the wind howling rain lashing and being on the North Sea coast the coastline is eroding away and a little lad who likes helicopters hears one and put his wellies on and goes out to investigate, to the horror of his mother, as she has to go and find him, and knowing the coastline is falling away and the flimsy fence work in place is very worried. She does indeed fine him and manages to get him to safety just as part of a Mr Graham Smiths house falls into the North Sea, but to her h0rror their are bodies mainly bones but how many? Investigations start and they realise this has been going on for over 5 decades Smith is sadistic manipulative and has the most pleasure in torturing his victims rather than the kill.. Can Ash & Alice work on this? not much evidence as it's all in the sea.
Good writing very complex sadistic bleak and somewhere some humour that is Stuart MacBride's books but I must confess it's hard to let go of Logan McRae.
Must thank Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for an ARC copy review extremely enjoyable a must for who love thrillers.

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