A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride is a bit of a beast of a book at nearly 600 kindle pages but it doesn’t feel overwhelming or overweight at all. The story rips along nicely with nothing unnecessary or irrelevant within it to make it feel overly padded out. The story just takes as long as it does to fully unwind and I commend the author for sticking to his guns as an overly enthusiastic editor could have easily spoiled some nuances of the story.

Detective Constable Useless, as his supervisors refer to him, or DC Callum MacGregor, to use his given name is despatched to the Misfit Mob whilst the investigation into his conduct determines him either guilty of taking a bribe, or completely and utterly incompetent, either way culpable for the collapse of a case against an organised crime gang kingpin, Big Johnny Simpson.

The Mis-fit Mob is for Police Scotland what Slough House is for the MI-5 in Mick Herron's wonderful Slow Horses series. It's where the inept, incompetent, idiotic, idiosyncratic, inane ane generally washed-up Officers of the Law are sent as sacking them takes up too much time and paperwork. It's the back woods of all policing, burdended with all the cases which are going nowhere, often at a slow pace.

All this changes when a mummified body is found on the Oldcastle town dump and Callum links the corpse to a three-man missing persons case, rather than the case of a pilfered ancient cadaver, as was first thought. As the Major Investigations Team has a full dchedule of cases, the Mob get a once in a lifetime opportunity for some proper policing; a murder investigation! With nothing to lose, as no-one believes they will clear the case, the race is on to solve the case and find the killer before he strikes again.

This is a first for me by this author, and it won't be the last. There's a dark, slightly macabre but still comic humour to the storyline. The banter between the Mob members is classic and often laugh out loud hilarious. The Mob is led by DI Flora 'Mother' Malcolmson, whom Callum cannot refer to as Mother, as he hasn't earned the right yet! Then there's the terminally ill and irritatingly poetic DS Andy McAdams who almost entirely speaks in verse. Wheelchair bound Dot who cannot abide the generally universally disliked DC Watt, but whom McAdams always teams her with, solely for the comic value, and then finally the fiery but beautiful black 'don't mess with me' DC Franklin who has a collosus chip on her shoulder, and is generally seething with rage.

The plot is elaborate without being convoluted and twists and turns with a serpent like quality, keeping you guessing and guessing again until the brilliantly devised conclusion. An easy ⭐⭐⭐⭐+ read for me, and an author I'll follow and definitely read again.

I tried to get into this book but couldn't. NetGalley insists you leave a review to keep your feedback score up so I have had to leave a review.

Sadly I missed reading this in time due to my reading hiatus - I’ve downloaded in and am truly looking forward to reading it

The misfit mob is a bunch of police officers who are all eccentric and soon DC MacGregor joins them. They are on the trail of a serial killer.
A gripping novel that is very interesting

With thanks to netgalley , the author for giving me the chance to review this book.

I really enjoyed this book, a good crime novel. Stuart MacBride at his best.

I requested as I've previously read other Stuart MacBride books and enjoyed them. I read this book a while back now but it still sticks in my mind. A classic cop thriller, which isn't really my preferred reading these days but Stuart MacBride creates interesting characters and fast paced drama. I would recommend this to those who enjoy the crime fiction genre.

a standalone serial killer thriller - this was a good book, a bit too dragged initially and then then it picks up good pace.
Oh and this was a really long book.

Thanks to Netgalley & Harper Collins UK for the ARC. 3.5 stars

The first part of this book was a definite three stars for me, yet the latter parts rated five.
I found the earlier sections a bit depressing, dour, and not terribly exciting - but hey, what should I expect reading a Scottish crime novel? However, by the second half the pace had really built up, and there were some good twists, so the book became hard to put down.
Shame that the whole book wasn't like the second half? Yes, yes, I know, the scene has to be set, but still...

Been a fan of Stuart MacBride for a long time and can honestly say that not one of his books have left me feeling disappointed in the plot of the characters when read.z

With A Dark so Deadly, there is a lot of twists and turns and more surprises than I was expected, enough to keep you guessing and wanting to read, forever being unsure whether Logan McCrea will live up to the expectations set before him.

Great novel. Loved getting to know Callum throughout and learning his backstory. Great storyline which kept me hooked

A gripping detective novel, written in the style only Stuart MacBride can. The writing is very descriptive and, at times, laborious to read, but I persevered and enjoyed the story, but not blown away by it.

A Dark So Deadly is a suspenseful crime thriller packed with shocking twists and turns.

This is not a short book, but it is well-paced and remains engaging throughout. It is almost like several books rolled into one - multiple cases crop up throughout the story, and each brings its own subplot to the overall arc. Of course, the individual cases tie together in surprising ways, but reading about each unique crime is interesting.

DC Callum MacGregor is an endearing and likeable character. Down on his luck and struggling with the repercussions of a difficult choice, things only seem to get worse as Callum's life quickly spirals downhill out of control. Yet despite the high stakes and intensity of the case, he remains (for the most part) approachable and honest. Callum is a great character with strong morals - which is ironic, considering the reason why he ended up in the Misfit Mob!

The other police officers in the Misfit Mob are as eclectic and eccentric as you can imagine. From feminist new girl Franklin to jelly baby-loving 'Mother', the senior officer leading the team, you never quite know what you are going to get with this bunch. Despite that, each has their own reasons for ending up in the Misfit Mob and their backstories are gradually uncovered throughout the book.

The cases themselves are gruesome yet intriguing. With a serial killer on the loose, mummified bodies showing up all over town, and a cast of shifty characters as suspects, there's definitely plenty to keep Callum and his colleagues busy.

A Dark So Deadly is a strong crime thriller set in rainy Scotland. Suspenseful and mysterious, it's full of surprises right to the end!

EXCERPT: The Shogun pitched and yawed through the potholes like a boat. God knew how big the rubbish tip was, but from the wide, lumpy road, it stretched all the way to the horizon. A vast sea of black plastic, gulls wheeling and screaming in the air above - flecks of evil white, caught against the heavy grey sky.

And the smell...

Even with the car windows wound up, it was something special. The rancid stench of rotting meat and vegetables mingled with the sticky-brown reek of used nappies, all underpinned by the dark peppery odour of black plastic left to broil in the sun.

MacAdams slipped the four-by-four in behind a line of police vehicles and grubby transit vans. Had to be, what, eight cars? Twelve if you counted the unmarked ones. About three-quarters of the day shift, all out there playing on the tip.

The sarcastic, half-arsed-poetry-spouting git was right: this was an awful lot of people for one dead body.

ABOUT 'A DARK SO DEADLY': Welcome to the Misfit Mob…

It’s where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can’t get rid of, but wants to: the outcasts, the troublemakers, the compromised. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy turns up at the Oldcastle tip, it’s his job to find out which museum it’s been stolen from.

But then Callum uncovers links between his ancient corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting. O Division’s Major Investigation Teams already have more cases than they can cope with, so, against everyone’s better judgement, the Misfit Mob are just going to have to manage this one on their own.

No one expects them to succeed, but right now they’re the only thing standing between the killer’s victims and a slow, lingering death. The question is, can they prove everyone wrong before he strikes again?

MY THOUGHTS: (to the tune of 'My Favourite Things')
'People dismembered with axes and chainsaws,
Someone's been strangled with wire or some string,
A stabbing, a beating, a fresh torture victim,
These are a few of my favourite things...'

And, believe me, you are going to get it all in A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride, plus a few things that have never crept their way into your worst nightmares.

The cast of characters is immense. But don't let that put you off. There's no way you'll be confusing any of this lot! Callum MacGregor has been banished to the misfits, supposedly for taking a bribe to cock up a crime scene. Detective Constable Rosalind Franklin punched a Superintendent. DC John Watt is a grumpy little git who clyped on his last team. DS Dorothy (Dotty) Hodgkin lost her leg above the knee in a high speed chase. Her wheelchair is named Keith (don't ask). DS McAdams, the sarcastic, half-arsed, poetry-spouting git, has terminal bowel cancer, and DI Malcolmson, aka 'Mother', is recovering from a massive heart attack.

None of them want to be in the misfits, none of them believe that they deserve to be there, but they do believe that the others do. The resentments fuel feuds and impede teamwork, but it enhances the plot.

MacBride is the master of black humour and sly snidery and sarcasm. While the subject matter is definitely dark, the dialogue will do more than raise a smile. Not a good book to read in public.

Dark, gripping, and wickedly twisty, A Dark So Deadly is a definite recommendation. Don't be put off by the size - 596 pages - this is a read that will have you frantically turning the pages.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.4

#ADarkSoDeadly #NetGalley

In Dante's 'Divine Comedy', Hell was divided into nine circles, each devoted to punishing a particular group of sinners. But up here, in the land of the living, it was roadworks and rush hour.'

THE AUTHOR: Aka Stuart B. MacBride

The life and times of a bearded write-ist.

Stuart MacBride (that's me) was born in Dumbarton -- which is Glasgow as far as I'm concerned -- moving up to Aberdeen at the tender age of two, when fashions were questionable. Nothing much happened for years and years and years: learned to play the recorder, then forgot how when they changed from little coloured dots to proper musical notes (why the hell couldn't they have taught us the notes in the first bloody place? I could have been performing my earth-shattering rendition of 'Three Blind Mice' at the Albert Hall by now!); appeared in some bizarre World War Two musical production; did my best to avoid eating haggis and generally ran about the place a lot.

Next up was an elongated spell in Westhill -- a small suburb seven miles west of Aberdeen -- where I embarked upon a mediocre academic career, hindered by a complete inability to spell and an attention span the length of a gnat's doodad.

And so to UNIVERSITY, far too young, naive and stupid to be away from the family home, sharing a subterranean flat in one of the seedier bits of Edinburgh with a mad Irishman, and four other bizarre individuals. The highlight of walking to the art school in the mornings (yes: we were students, but we still did mornings) was trying not to tread in the fresh bloodstains outside our front door, and dodging the undercover CID officers trying to buy drugs. Lovely place.

But university and I did not see eye to eye, so off I went to work offshore. Like many all-male environments, working offshore was the intellectual equivalent of Animal House, only without the clever bits. Swearing, smoking, eating, more swearing, pornography, swearing, drinking endless plastic cups of tea... and did I mention the swearing? But it was more money than I'd seen in my life! There's something about being handed a wadge of cash as you clamber off the minibus from the heliport, having spent the last two weeks offshore and the last two hours in an orange, rubber romper suit / body bag, then blowing most of it in the pubs and clubs of Aberdeen. And being young enough to get away without a hangover.

Then came a spell of working for myself as a graphic designer, which went the way of all flesh and into the heady world of studio management for a nation-wide marketing company. Then some more freelance design work, a handful of voiceovers for local radio and video production companies and a bash at being an actor (with a small 'a'), giving it up when it became clear there was no way I was ever going to be good enough to earn a decent living.

It was about this time I fell into bad company -- a blonde from Fife who conned me into marrying her -- and started producing websites for a friend's fledgling Internet company. From there it was a roller coaster ride (in that it made a lot of people feel decidedly unwell) from web designer to web manager, lead programmer, team lead and other assorted technical bollocks with three different companies, eventually ending up as a project manager for a global IT company.

But there was always the writing (well, that's not true, the writing only started two chapters above this one). I fell victim to that most dreadful of things: peer pressure. Two friends were writing novels and I thought, 'why not? I could do that'.

Took a few years though..

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system, please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

I've long been a fan of Stuart MacBride, and this new detective, Callum McGregor, is a nice departure. Plenty of plot twists and humour, I hope there is more to come.

Wow . What an enthralling book, full of enthralling twists and turns . Can’t wait for more from this author .

This book is that rarest of things, crime fiction that is genuinely original and new. Chillingly cold in parts, deeply human in others, with episodes of black humour, this is a totally convincing detective story that hots all the right notes.

Highly recommended.

When an author abandons familiar and well loved characters, to create a whole new cast, it can be a terrible idea or really work well. I really enjoyed this book, the characters, the setting, and the premise, so much so I also bought a copy for my father.
The fictional but highly believable setting, a group of well created and strong characters, many of whom I am sure I have met in a pub somewhere in Scotland, coupled with a strong story line and actual humour made this an excellent book.

This was an enjoyable detective story. My first book by this author. It took me quite a while to read it as I didn't get completely hooked.

I enjoyed the writing style and humor in this book but thought the plot a bit too complex and somewhat disjointed. I had problems following some of the characters (just the bad guys who were a bit 'samey', and giving them aliases and nick names didn't help). The police characters were all well-drawn individuals, even though they shared exactly the same snarky sense of humour. It was interesting to see how the two newest recruits to the 'Misfit Mob' were initially treated with contempt, then tolerated and eventually accepted.

There was plenty of dark humour and it contrasted well with the casual thuggery, the gruesome murders and the sheer depressing nature of the small, fictional (thankfully!) Scottish town. My main problem was with the mummification aspect of the plot. It was unbelievable that the murderer(s) physically did what (he/she/they) did to the victims. Sorry I can't say more.

The book was a bit too long and there was quite a lot of Scottish dialect used, which interrupted the flow as I had to keep looking words up. There was also an overuse / misuse of colons which looked wrong. However, I'd be happy to read other books by the same author. 3.5 stars.

It’s a long time since I read this book, and as normal for me I have forgotten a lotof the srory. I know when I read it I was well and truly hooked. I would read more by this uthor.