The Dead of Winter

I absolutely love this author and his dark humour, amazing plots & characters and this book was no exception. Amazing as always.

Brilliant, fantastic , gut bustingly funny, just the way i like my Stuart McBride book's, i just could not put this down, there's so many twists, if you're going to read one new book then this is it, McBride never let's us down, fudging great.

You have to ask yourself what did Reekie do in a previous life to garner such bad karma, if I knew the man I would stay as far as possible away from him as I could! The actual story is bloody good (in every sense if the word) absolutely recommend this book

A brilliant novel, it was so good I was up all night reading it, and I recommend it highly as a page turner for that reason. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the book.

How hard can it be?

DC Edward Reekie has to collect a dying prisoner from Grampian Prison, and bring him to spend the rest of his days in somewhere less uncomfortable.

On the face of it, Glenfarach looks innocuous. But it isn't. Far too many security cameras for a tiny village. And a 9pm curfew?

Glenfarach is the destination for time-served prisoners who can't be released back into general circulation.

So drop off the prisoner and get out before the bad weather closes in....except there's a body. And someone needs to take charge.

This is turning into a very bad day indeed...

The Dead of Winter is a typical Stuart MacBride novel, with a horrible DI and a long suffering sidekick involved in a chaotic adventure full of black humour, set in the north east of Scotland.

DC Edward Reekie and DI Victoria Montgomery-Porter (aka Bigtoria) pick up a dying prisoner who is on early release to spend the rest of his time in Glenfarach. The remote village is populated by former prisoners unable to live in normal society because of the nature of their crimes.

The pair find themselves snowed in, and dealing with the murder of a former gangster. That's when things start to go badly wrong for Reekie. The plot is complex and the cast of characters interesting to say the least. And the dramatic ending brings everything to a conclusion. A good read with plenty of action.

We start with a straight forward prisoner transfer. An old lag is dying and is being released after serving his sentence to live out the rest of his life in a village setting. DC Edward Reekie is the officer tasked with this simple job, along with new boss DI Veronica Montogery-Porter, AKA Bigtoria. Their destination isn't any old village as we soon discover. Instead it is where prisoners are relocated to once their sentence is spent but who are deemed not ready/safe for release back into the world! There are strict rules and curfew and tagging and cameras.
Reekie delivers his charge and they set off back from whence they came, only to get a call to return as a body has been discovered. Weather conditions, already treacherous, have worsened and the village is cut off and no other assistance is able to get through.
And so begins a cracking and rather intriguing case for Reekie and Bigtoria to try and get to the bottom of. In a village full of the worst of the worst where should they start? You'd think with all the monitoring that goes on, it'd be open/shut? Well... think again...
I love this author. Both his Logan McRae and Ash Henderson series, and his other stand alone No Less The Devil. You could say I'm a bit of a fan! He has a dark sense of humour that really gels with me and also a writing style that fits my reading style. He also creates some of the best (worst) characters, each of them playing their parts to perfection. As well as all that he has a great imagination (hopefully) for crimes. The darker, the gorier the better for me. And he never disappoints.
If you are already a fan, you will love this book. If you have never read his books before, this might be a good time to start. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

If you love this author as much as I do I promise that you will not be disappointed. Full of humour as you would expect from this author. Gritty, brutal murders and a brilliant whodunnit. And did I mention snow so much snow. I loved the two main characters DO Victoria Elizabeth Montgomery aka Bigtoria but never say that to her face and her long suffering colleague DC Edward Reekie. This book is a stand alone but I can see and wish that this is the start of a new series.
They are delivering a prisoner to Glenfarach a small village with more cctvthan is expected. Welcome to The Village of the Damned. Let the murder, mayhem and laughs begin. I loved it!!!! Another fantastic five star read from one of my favourite authors.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

I’ve only just discovered this author and hisi wonderful thrillers. The raw violence and danger mixed in with wonderful humour and gritty characters have me hooke deform the start . The Dead of Winter starts with DI Victoria Elizabeth Montgomery – Porter (or if she’s out of ear shot, Bigtoria,) and DC Edward Reekie . The two officers are collecting ageing con Mark Bishop, who is being given early release as he has terminal cancer. ‘Marty’ is going to live out his remaining months in the remote Scottish village of Glenfarach,. Only this is not quite what it seems. Glenfarach may look like the quittensentially pretty Scottish village with all the beauty of the Scottish Higlands, daintily covered in snow but nothing is what is seems. Look closer and you will see the street lights are rather larger than you’d expect, to say nothing of the myriad CCTV literally everywhere. If you are really observant you might even see the rather bulky ankles of the villagers. Glenfarach is the home to all the criminals that have served out their prison sentences but for one reason or another they cannot be released to the public. As Constable Reekie drives his surly DI and sick passenger the weather changes and by the time they arrive at their destination it’s obvious they won’t be going anywhere soon. Snowed in with paedophiles, sex offenders, mob killers and other serious offenders is bad enough , and then there’s a murder.
Stuart Macbride’s wonderful writing style with its fascinating story lines cleverly combined with laugh out loud humour keeps you enthralled from the first page. The gore, the fear, the nail biting tension all provide a wonderful read that leaves you just wanting more. A wonderful book but a truly unique writer.

Another brilliant entertaining novel from Stuart MacBride. Sadly it doesn't feature Logan MacRae (I do miss him) but Edward Reekie is an excellent substitute. The story is mad, chaotic and thrilling. Plenty of twists and surprises and all accompanied by the usual sardonic humour we expect from Stuart MacBride. Highly recommended.

The Dead of Winter by Stuart Macbride..... All I can say is I hope you put aside a whole day to read this book as you wont be able to put it down!!!!

DC Edward Reekie must transport a prisoner from HMP Grampian to Glenfarach in the Cairngorms. What could go wrong!!!! Everything it seems from severe weather to bent coppers and a couple of murders just to mix it up a bit.

I really enjoyed this book. From the first paragraph it had me hooked. It was fast paced and gripping. It had me guessing all the way through and just when you thought you knew what was happening there was another plot twist!!!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Uk for the ARC Copy of the Book. This review is my own opinion.

I think this might just be my favourite book of the year. Stuart MacBride is back with a bang, this is one of his best yet. Strong characters which you’ll either love or hate, a great storyline which doesn’t shy away from hard to swallow topics. There is gore, a whole lot of gore. Also a lot of dark dark humour. Everything you need for the perfect book from Stuart MacBride

Chilling mystery with DC Reekie and his crazy DI escorting a released prisoner to a closed village used by the authorities to keep violent criminals away from the general populace.. A gruesome murder, a major snowstorm trapping them in the village as they attempt to investigate. More deaths, a missing social worker plus the first victims body burnt to a crisp in a case of arson all contribute to the tale told firmly tongue in cheek with lashings of dark humour. Brilliant funny book best read wearing your warmest overcoat.

Absolutely loved this book, so many twists and turns right until the very end and wow what a finish. All I can say is read it 📚
As always my thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam Press for the amazing early read

Barely a chapter into this book and I was hooked with a brilliantly concived twist that I wasn't expecting and, the writing just got better from there on in.
The Dead of Winter is a beautifully crafted contemporary and very dark take on the 'locked room' mystery - I mean who would want to be snowed in with a bunch of convicted sexual deviants? - In this case, the room is the isolated facilty that houses pervertts and deviants in the Scottish highlands - those that are too hated to be returned to civilised society. After delivering the facilty's latest recruit, DC Reekie and his boss, the objectionable BigToria get thrown into a full blown murder enquiry and with the blizzard from hell clsing in (and closing off all access) they are on their own with the inmates and a very skeeleton police crew.
I always find MacBride's prose to be almost poetic in parts and his weather descriptions imbued the weather with its own unique character.
DC Reekie is an inspired characterand with most of the narrative being form his viewpoint, I was totally gripped - his humerous antipathy towards his boss, his caustic observations combined with his vulnerability makes him a fascinating character.
This is dark and humerous and all consuming. 5***** from me.

A cracker of a story as MacBride ventures into a combination of new (characters) and old (bloodthirsty) territory to give us an icy Scottish thriller. There is a whole heap of snow in the Cairngorms which plays its part in the landscape of the novel which is scary from page one..
Constable Edward Reekie is a kind-hearted young man with a nightmare DI boss whose nickname is Bigtoria. She never takes any notice of him or his helpful suggestions when they are faced with tracking down the culprit in a horrific murder. There are too many suspects as the snowed-in village where the murder takes place is a unique village for dangerous former prisoners who cannot be released into Society.
‘Dead of Winter’ is a pinnacle of MacBride’s pairing of his black humour and ‘Grand Guignol’- a modern fairy horror story.
Many thanks to the publishers for the ARC.