Dark so Deadly is a big book ,a story full of murderers and paedophiles.I loved the different police characters and the witticisms.The story moves at a fast pace and is totally gripping ,so many suspects I couldn't guess who was guilty but the ending was very surprising but very clever .

More please! This book held me from beginning to end, I wanted to see what happened next, so kept reading when I really should have been doing something else! Then when I finished it I wished I hadn't read it so quickly. DC Callum MacGregor is a wonderful character, he's not your conventional detective and the unit he's in isn't conventional either, it's a group of misfits. There are twists and turns throughout and more than one villain. I do hope DCs MacGregor and Franklin and 'Mother' will appear again and this is the first in a new series.

DC Callum MacGregor has been wrongly accused of contaminating a crime scene and transferred to the Misfit Mob, a dumping ground for the officers who have had a blot on their career. A mummified body found in a landfill soon turns into a bigger case than first envisioned. As all the other units are busy, the team gets its chance to prove they can solve the hard cases.
The story is very well written with many subplots that all came together in one main plot. This makes the story long (608 pages) but it flowed at a good pace, didn't seem that long, and kept me riveted to the end. As the well developed characters learn to work together, some become likable while others not so much. I would love to see more from the Misfit Mob, I would love to know what happens to the brothers and how they carry on. Stuart MacBride is one of my favorite authors and he never disappoints. I highly recommend "A Dark So Deadly" as a must read.

First let me say, I am a huge Stuart MacBride fan. His Logan McRae series is one of my most favourite things ever. Like right up there with wine and boots. That's saying something.

So when I first heard that he'd written a stand-alone, I wasn't sure what to expect. Would I miss the characters I've loved for so long? Would it be as brilliant as everything else I've read by him?

The answer is : of course it's as bloody brilliant! And actually, the Misfit Mob made for a nice change from the usual characters. We're still in a dark, gloomy, wet and slightly depressing area of Scotland. We still have a host of fabulously realistic characters. And of course, the humour.

The Misfit Mob is made up of officers that Police Scotland can't get rid of. If you think that knowledge creates some kind of bond between them, you'd be wrong. What it does provide, is banter and lots of chuckles.

DC Callum MacGregor's life has been going downhill for a while now, and it's not getting any better. For reasons you'll have to discover yourself, he's not exactly accepted. But things will soon become a whole lot more interesting.

This is a long book but at no point does it ever become boring. There's a fabulous backstory that will leave you itching to find out more. There's a serial killer with one of the most innovative ways to murder someone that I've ever read. There are twists and turns and I was so utterly engrossed that I stayed up way too late to finish.

So, no, I shouldn't have worried. Stuart MacBride knows exactly what he's doing and I can't wait for his next book. Whether it is another Logan McRae, another Misfit Mob maybe or something else, I'll be first in line. I'll be using elbows, people. Don't say I didn't warn you.

(Note : Since writing this review, it's been revealed a new book is coming in November and it's a Roberta Steel spin-off! I may have wet myself. Or scratched my boobs, in honour of the fabulous lady *ahem* herself. My elbows are greased! Is it November yet? How about now?)

Many thanks to Harper Collins UK and Netgalley for my advanced copy, which I chose to review.

A Dark So Deadly will be published on April 20th. That's TODAY! Go get it RIGHT NOW!

I can't get into this book at all which is a shame as I'm usually as massive MacBride fan. I've given up for now will come back to it again

A dark gritty nail biting thriller. Stuart Mac Bride really does know how to write novels. I really enjoyed this book. My only gripe is it could have been a little shorter. There is plenty of action in it right up to the end.

When I first received this book, I was slightly appalled to see that it was 600+ pages in length. Now? I wish it was even longer. Callum MacGregor, and his merry band of misfits are darkly humorous, haiku spouting, banter loving, getting their butts whupped police. I haven't enjoyed a police procedural like this in a very long time. This story was so convoluted, and twisted that I didn't see how everything was going to get settled, but it all came together for one helluva story! I can only hope that this isn't a one-off, because I really would like to spend more time with these characters. Yep, I'd recommend this book
My thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for the arc!

Stuart Macbride is never one to shy away from grimness and this offering is no exception. The life of poor PC McGregor couldn't get much darker than this but there is a lot of great if dry humour in there too. If you can see beyond the brutal realism.
Just a bit rambling for me to say it's my favourite by this author but would still recommend it as a thrilling read v

I put this down after binge reading and literally let out a deep breath and said 'wow'! There is so much going on in this can't-put-down book that I think I was holding my breath for most of it. Callum is a likeable and well-rounded lead character (though it took me a while to stop imagining him as my good friend's young son of the same name) dealing with an array of layered plots all vying for the reader's attention: his domestic story; his childhood story as well as the main plot of the murders Callum and his team are investigating. That they are able to investigate is a miracle in itself given Callum is now part of the Misfit Mob -the Police Scotland rubbish pile for officers who have messed up in some way. The central murder plot keeps you guessing right to the end and intertwines brilliantly with Callum's own stories. MacBride writes wonderfully - and I've added some new Scottish words to my vocabulary too. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am adding this author to my approved list.

Being a long standing fan of Logan MacRae I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the new standalone novel by Stuart McBride featuring DC Callum MacGregor - but I was wrong! This latest novel from Mr McBride rockets along like a high speed train with a gripping and twisty storyline and a fantastic cast of all new characters. Our hero Callum is somewhat flawed with a tragic past and a wonderfully dry Scottish sense of humour.
Callum has been unceremoniously dumped into the "misfits" squad following major crime scene error which resulted in a criminal walking free. Very soon Callum and the merry band of misfits find themselves on the trail of a serial killer who is mummyfying his victims and in a race against time to find a mother and her teenage daughter.
Callum`s past tragedy is interwoven into the storyline along with his disintegrating relationship with his frankly heartless and ungrateful pregnant girlfriend.
The relationships between Callum and his colleagues - Mother (the Boss), Franklin (his newly assigned to the misfits partner) and various other colourful characters are beautifully written and the dialogue both hilarious and brutal.
To say any more would reveal the many twists and surprises but all in all a 5 star read and a fervent wish for a 2nd story featuring Callum MacGregor and his merry band of misfits!

“Welcome to Mother’s Misfit Mob”

Stuart McBride’s new novel, “A Dark So Deadly”, is a standalone, separate from his Logan McCrae or Ash Henderson series although set in the same fictional town of Oldcastle as the latter. DC Callum MacGregor has ended up on a squad of police officers that no-one else wants, suspected of contaminating a crime scene but without enough evidence to have him sacked. His fellow ‘Misfits’ are similarly tainted and together they have been side-lined, unlikely to see a decent case again. When a mummified body is found in a landfill site the team are tasked with ringing round museums to find out from where it has been stolen. Then the discovery of another mummy and some strange post-mortem results suggests that the bodies are not in fact centuries old but the result of more recent experiments and that the Misfit Mob has a serial killer on their hands.

The novel is full of McBride’s usual dark humour and some characteristically Scottish descriptive terms.

“The old station house in Castleview had a weird sour coconutty smell, as if it’d got blootered on Malibu the night before and vomited all over itself. Maybe the Security Monitoring and Analysis Department liked to lube themselves up with suntan lotion of a Saturday morning?”

Initially like a dysfunctional family, we see the Misfit’s pull together as the strange case develops. Callum, who because of events in his childhood has little sense of self-worth, proves to be a capable investigator, even as his personal life gets messier. The characters, fr all their issues, become real and likeable.

In the background of the investigation is a music festival and the narrative is accompanied in places by a cheesy radio DJ advertising the event. McBride has great fun capturing the inanity of such local radio personalities as he does with the band names of those appearing at the concert – new album from ‘Overture for a Riot’ anyone?

This is a long book for a police procedural but the story rattles along. There are a few missteps – I could have done with less bad poetry from what was otherwise a really interesting character; there are a few convenient coincidences – but the book is thrilling, scary in places and very, very entertaining. I hope we see more of the Misfits and that this ‘standalone’ is the start of a new series.

I thank NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advance copy.

This is the first time I have read a book by Stuart MacBride.

At over 600 pages it is something of an epic. Or should that be a marathon.

I like the humour.
I like the fictional town and fictional local radio station. They seem to be so real.
I don't like the long-winded descriptions.
However, by halfway through I am curious to know how this will end.
Intermingled with a gruesome series of murders is the story of a particularly dysfunctional group of detectives.

Eventually the end came……
There is a twist!
Sadly, only three stars from me, it just went on too long.

My thanks go to Netgalley and Harper Collins for a copy in exchange for this review.

When the opening chapter made me feel like I was in some type of modern crime scene with a Discworld’ish feel to it I knew I was going to enjoy the entire book.
Thoroughly enjoyed this read. Loved the characters, loved the plot with its constant twists and connections. Very fun book.
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Misfit Mob in Oldcastle, Scotland. The dumping ground for those police officers who just don’t fit in. If you’re dying of cancer or have just punched a superior officer for sexual harassment, it’s the place where you end up, assigned to boring cases where you can’t do any harm. All DC Callum McGregor did was cover up a mistake made by his pregnant fiancée – which would have resulted in her losing her job – but that’s enough to end up in the Misfit Mob.

But things are about to get interesting. A mummified body has been discovered but it hasn’t been stolen from a museum – it has had recent dental work. As Callum and his colleagues work towards finding the serial killer known as Imhotep (or Paddington – long story) – and finding a way not to get on each other’s nerves – they find themselves in a race against time to save the killer’s most recent victim…



It’s been a while since I’ve read something by Stuart MacBride, which is odd given that he wrote two of my favourite modern crime books since I started the blog – Birthdays For The Dead and Shatter The Bones. But for whatever reason, I’ve missed out on the most recent Ash Henderson and Logan MacRae novels, so it was rather thoughtful of Stuart to write a non-series novel. Well, it’s non-series but set in the same location as Birthdays For The Dead – the Birthday Boy gets a name-check, but there’s no spoilers here.

So, what do we have here? Basically, it’s business as usual from the author. In other words, an outstanding read. Dark humour laced throughout an intriguing plot with strong, well-defined, characters that you find yourself desperate to know what happens to. Some characters that seem objectionable at first, but you suddenly find yourself caring about what happens to them. And a plot that basically keeps you looking the wrong way, despite a plot that makes perfect sense once you know what has been going on. The more you think about it, the more you spot little things that should have nudged you in the right direction but didn’t.

I’m not going to say any more, for fear of spoilers, apart from don’t be put off by the hefty page count - this is (rarely for me) a book where the longer page count was appreciated as it gives the reader a chance to get under the skin of the protagonist. Of course, the only problem is that I want to know what happens next for Callum and the rest of the Mob. One of the most enjoyable reads for a long while, so, needless to say, I think this is well worth your time and is, of course, Highly Recommended.

A Dark So Deadly is out in the UK on Thursday 20th April. Many thanks to HarperCollins for the review copy via NetGalley.

I couldn't get into this book. The writing style with the overblown prose...stretching, yawning, turning off the computer...way too many details. I just don't care for the writing style. Finished reading by chapter 5

Given the way the last Logan book finished, I've been eagerly awaiting the next book. Then this arrived, thanks to Netgalley, and it's not a Logan book. it appears to be a standalone book, not part of any other series. My initial disappointment lasted all of a dozen pages. If there was ever any doubt, MacBride has firmly cemented his role as one of the holy trinity of Scottish Noir writers, Brookmyre and Rankin being the others, who must be read before every thing else.
We are back in Oldcastle, the setting familiar from other books, the characters however are all new. DC Callum MacGregor is our new man, after compromising a crime scene, he's transferred to what is in reality an oddball squad. He's greeted with some suspicion, the assumption being that he's deliberately messed up to ensure a notorious gangster is paying him. In reality he's trying to protect his pregnant girlfriend, who was the one who originally messed up. Given it would lead to her dismissal, he takes the blame, so she can keep her maternity pay.
The rest of the misfit squad are a proper mix. DC Watt, is the original ginger whinger. Suspecting the rest of his squad are on the take, he reports them to professional standards, and gets shifted to the misfits for his sins. DS Dot Hodgkin, is a wheelchair bound lesbian, who in less skilful hands (yes I'm looking at you Ben Elton), would have ended up as a parody. As it is she fits in beautifully. DC Franklin is the newest member, big, black, beautiful and with a habit of beating anyone who sexually harasses her. And then there's my favourite, DS Andy McAdams. He's dying of cancer and refuses to take medical retirement. Having been gifted a creative writing course he's discovered a love of poetry, and whenever possible will speak in rhyme or even haiku. Overseeing it all is DI Flora Malcolmson, known as Mother. Of all the characters she is probably the least well drawn, the majority of the attention been given to her underlings.
It's difficult to talk about the plot without giving too much away in the form of spoilers, so I'll be brief. Through a series of accidents the team come across a serial killer, and surprisingly are left to investigate it. This being MacBride, he is no normal serial killer. We get to see inside the killers head, with flashbacks to the killers childhood, and occasionally to what he's up to at the moment. All the while never giving away his identity. MacBride does seem to have a thing for strange forms of murder, and that is carried on here. At the same time he has the incredible ability to be incredibly dark, and then flip over to a form of dark, and sometimes quite light humour. Interestingly Oldcastle has a Brookmyre Street, and a local band called Halfhead. Well it amused me.
There's a few big subplots going on at the same time. In no particular order, there's the family that Callum is trying to get out from a violent domestic situation. There's the ongoing attempt to find and arrest Ainsley Dugdale, who has a particularly nasty way of evading arrest, there's the ongoing rivalry with DCI "Poncy" Powell, in more ways than one. And finally there’s Callum himself. Abandoned by his family as a child, while being stalked by a paedophile, he's still trying to find his twin brother.
While it's a complex book, it never gets over complicated, and despite the huge cast of characters they are on the whole so well drawn, that they are all easily told apart.
I was convinced I'd miss Logan, and thought it was a mistake not making this a Logan book. I've never been so wrong.

Another stoatin slice of ‘Tartan Noir’ !

A new protagonist for this outing from Stuart McBride; this time it’s the put upon Detective Constable Callum MacGregor who’s based in Oldcastle in North Eastern Scotland.

Billed as a stand alone novel, I really do hope that sales and reviews convince Mr McBride to continue with some further exploits of DC MacGregor – especially with the dour Scottish humour that runs throughout the book:-

“His hair had abandoned its post, retreating to a defensive position around both ears”

“Living with Franklin must be like trying to cross a minefield on a pogo stick every day. Blindfold. While sadists threw burning squirrels at you”

There is a slight factual inconsistency with regard to the processing of DNA samples – but this is after all, a work of fiction.

Can thoroughly recommend this, and hope for many more of the same from the author.

This is my first book by this author so I really didn't know what I was letting myself in for. Especially when I realised the page count was just over 600 pages. What I actually got was 600 odd pages of deliciously interesting characters trying to solve some very bizarre cases. Yes, I am going to draw a parallel with the brilliant C4 series No Offence. Welcome to the Misfit Mob indeed.
The humour skates very close to the edge. It is very dark and oh so clever. At times I was laughing out loud, others I was groaning, and pretty much everything in between too.
So, the Misfit Mob is made up from... well... misfits obviously! We have one injured on duty and now wheelchair bound, another who is dying of cancer, and our hero of the piece, Callum who didn't actually do the thing he did, but he lied to protect someone else. Then we gain a new member whose special ability centres around anger issues. All under the "control" of Mother! It sounds a recipe for disaster and it kind of is, but it also works really well, as demonstrated by the group's evolution throughout the book.
Unlike most of this genre book, we get the warts and all version of the investigation here. If there are 10 places to investigate, we get all 10, not just a couple of interesting, plot developing ones and a summary of the other 8, we get them all, in glorious technicolour. I am not sure I liked that tbh as it did slow the book down for me somewhat and anyone who knows me knows that I do like my reads to get on with themselves. I am sure that they were all included for a reason but I am struggling with what would justify them. Don't even get me started on the flashbacks. I know they lend themselves to character background, but in all honesty, I am not sure they gave enough to warrant their volume.
I have already likened this book to a C4 series. I tend to record and binge-watch my series, whether that is the right way to do things I don't know, but that's what I do. Point is, I liken the reading of this book to binge watching a 6 x 1 hour miniseries. And like quite a fair few of these that I have watched recently, episodes 1-5 build up really nicely and then, sadly, the final episode leaves me wondering why I bothered in the first place. Either being rushed or by throwing in something so wrong that it knocks the rest of the series sideways. This is also how I felt about the ending. Maybe it's because it's a long book that I felt strongly about that. Maybe I felt that I had invested quite a bit of my time in the 600 odd pages that I deserved a better ending. Maybe it's just me, maybe it works for everyone else but, I'm sorry, not for me.
All that said, I did enjoy the story, the characters, and the style of writing. Oh and the banter and dark humour! For a long book containing quite a bit that I think could have been cut, I did whizz through it so it definitely held my attention and concentration in spite of itself. It also had me wanting to find out who and why. Even though it ending as it did, I did finish with a mostly satisfied feeling.

So, all in all, a reasonably good solid read for me. I'm now trying to work out how I can get the rest of his books into my TBR cos on the whole I enjoyed the ride.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

4.5 stars
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. 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.
Based in the fictional Scottish city of Oldcastle which I feel was Aberdeen, this is both an engrossing and depressing novel. Absorbing because it’s very good read with a very good story and despairing because it’s populated by so many desperate people living equally hopeless lives in a bleak environment. Of course Callum isn’t expected to be able to solve the case, which of course had me routing for him. I kept expecting McRae to pop up to help out but Callum & co managed just fine. This is a long book – over 600 pages so to keep the high all the way through was quite an achievement & the author managed it so well & I kept reading wanting to know where all the twists & turns lead. The characters are well drawn & are interesting & have plenty of depth. I recommend this gritty book & hope there are more Misfit Mob books

Oh lordy. How do I even begin to write this review? As I sit here I have a big smile on my face just thinking about this book. Now don't get me wrong. This is a very serious subject. People are being abducted and murdered all over Oldcastle, a place which has already seen more than its fair share of death and tragedy. And they are being done for in a very, very gruesome, if somewhat inventive way. And with part of the team, the 'Misfit Mob' being diverted to look into dismembered body parts, it is left to the ultimate misfit, DC Callum MacGregor, to find out the source of the mummified remains found at the tip.

Now the fun begins even before the mummified remains are found and what happens in the opening sequence involving Callum pretty well sums up how things are going to go for the poor chap throughout the rest of the novel. Talk about beaten up. He is manhandled in his privates, bitten and beaten amongst many indignities meted against him. On top of this he suffers relationship woes and is under investigation for cocking up a crime scene. So being dumped with the mummy is just another day in paradise. Or... not.

Now you can't help but like Callum. He is the ultimate put upon Detective. If something can go wrong then it will go wrong and yet he doesn't give up. He bears the brunt of jibes and mistrust from his colleagues and still he perseveres. He has a very troubled past, as all good fictional Detectives should have, one which is brought to a head (pun absolutely intended and when you read it you'll understand why) during the investigation, and he is a very dangerous man to be around, if only because he is like a homing beacon to every available nutter with every mode of attack possible. He is almost a completed parody of a fictional Detective... But then wait a moment...

A Dark So Deadly is exactly that. Or at least that is how it read to me. A parody of everything that makes up the crime genre fiction, especially the kind of book that Mr MacBride is synonymous with writing. Callum is like an over exaggerated and yet amazingly concise version of Logan McRae. You have your over the top Matriarch with a sweetie obsession in Mother. The book also includes a dying Detective. McAdams, who is currently writing his magnum opus, his wonderous work of fiction that will define and catalogue his life. He even spends half of his time talking in descriptive narrative and haiku. He discusses practically everything in terms of a literary technique. When he hands over his manuscript as his final gift to Callum there is even a joke about how long it is, some one hundred and ninety-four thousand, five hunderd and twenty-eight words. Quite fitting given that this book itself is some 608 pages long. Now while the McRae books have been getting progressively longer, I'm pretty sure this is the longest one yet.

Do not let that put you off. It doesn't feel long. It feels right. Everything about this book does. It is like a well written, sometimes exciting, often humorous in-joke. Even down to the authors love of Smokies. Again, when you read the book you'll understand.

If you are looking for a hard edged, hard hitting Detective novel a la the darker Ash Henderson novels, then this so isn't it. Don't get me wrong, the subject matter at times is pretty grim, but none of it is handled in a very gratuitous or dark way. There a moments of absolute tension, but they seem to be softened by an almost comedic edge, at least in the scenes involving Callum. And there are totally the kinds of scenes one would expect from Mr MacBride, when the victim is waiting to accept their fate, when they are beyond hope and lapsing into despair. When the tone turns serious and you remember that there is a very nasty killer out there somewhere, one who may just have the upper hand on the police. To me that made it the perfect blend - when the story got too dark you are treated to a lighter interlude, even the relationship between Callum and his 'partner' Franklin. And when the tongue in cheek threatens to take over you are treated to a moment in the darkness, to the mental torment of the killer's latest victim-in-waiting.

So. Did I miss Logan and Ash in the end? Well, maybe just a little. They, to me, are iconic characters and I'm always going to be ready to read more. But I was more than happy to take this little detour back to Oldcastle and I wouldn't mind seeing a little more from the Misfit Mob. They may be a little thin on the ground right now but I can't help thinking there will always be a new screw up somewhere in Mr MacBride's arsenal just waiting on that transfer to Oldcastle.

Roll on the 25th as I will be stalking Mr MacBride attending the Liverpool launch of the book and bagging myself a signed copy. Oh yes... No maniacal laughing over here. Not at all.

A very tongue in cheek and yes I'm still smiling 5 stars.