PC Callum McGregor stuffed up the crime scene in his last investigation - so he finds himself shunted off to a "Misfit Mob" in Oldcastle, a bleak (and fictional) city on the east coast of Scotland. Nothing ever happens there; it is a sheltered posting for the war-wounded, incompetent and untouchable police from across Scotland. So imagine their surprise when some grisly remains turn up and they get the job of investigating.

A Dark So Deadly is a long book - the guts of 200,000 words as Stuart MacBride manages to drop into the text in a spot of metafiction. This allows space for plot and character to develop; for red herrings to work their way through; for constant deferral of the final act. All this is very satisfying. But on the other hand, it does take an awfully long time to work out what is actually happening. Some 20% of the way in - that's 120 pages in old money - and it still isn't clear exactly where the focus is going to lie; what the crime might be that they are all investigating.

As well as the murders, PC McGregor has a backstory that requires exploration. This is sort of intriguing, but it does also interrupt the flow of the story - presumably intentionally so. And it sort of makes sense by the end, but for much of the novel, it feels a bit like two different books, chopped and spliced together in random order like Lanark.

Stuart MacBride always writes with mordant wit and clever wordplay. For example, one of the characters is called Watt. This allows a chapter to start with"So, Watt... So what?". There are references to cultural icons both Scottish and of the 1970s and 1980s in which Mr MacBride presumably grew up - e.g. repeated references to The Meaning of Life and Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex... It is all good fun.

And like previous Stuart MacBride books, crimes are gruesome and grisly. You can tell he really enjoys creating the crimes far more than he enjoys solving them. Of course, the side effect of this is that the book does depart from plausibility on occasions. Callum`s own back story, in particular, could never really have happened as described. But I guess this is unlikely to trouble a reader who is going to accept the disappearance and mummification of the city's good people.

Basically, this is a bit of fun. Well written and pacy - gripping towards the end. Recommended for holiday reading.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. It was definately a good read, kind of funny at times good one liners. Great storyline the characters where great also. Definitely a 5 star read. Would recommend to anyone. A lot of reading but worth it.

A Dark So Deadly
Stuart MacBride
Book Review: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Callum is part of the misfit department at the police station. It's the place you end up when something went wrong in your career. DC Callum MacGregor gets all the best cases. When a mummy turns up at the Old-castle tip, it's his job to find out where it came from. I mean how many museums can there be who doesn't know there missing a mummy? More than you would think! Lucky for Callum this case is about to take an interesting turn. The corpse links to 3 new missing person cases. The clock is ticking to save the victims from a slow painful death.

This is a dramatic tale full of disaster and misfit moments. Callum's life is as complex as the case. Can he pull everything together in time to save the day?

5 stars out of 5.

ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hardback £16.99 or Kindle £9.99, 608 pages
Expected publication: April 20th, 2017

I'll start with a confession, I hadn't realised this book wasn’t a Logan McRae one so when I started reading it, I can’t say I was really too enthralled about reading it. However, once I started reading it and getting used to the new characters I started to get into it and just like all the other MacBride books I was hooked! I literally couldn’t put the book down until I read it (took me 2 days!) and I have to admit that was probably the best one Stuart has written! So full of twists that you didn’t seen coming at all but kept you so hooked that you wanted to keep on reading.

I would like to thank Harper Collins and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘A Dark So Deadly’, a standalone thriller by Stuart MacBride the author of the gripping Logan McRae series, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
DC Callum MacGregor is sent to work for the Divisional Investigative Support Team, otherwise known as ‘The Misfit Mob’ where police personnel who’ve messed-up but can’t be got rid of are given the cases nobody wants. The Misfit Mob, under the leadership of DI Malcolmson (aka Mother) and DS McAdams, are sent to investigate the discovery of ancient mummies found at the Recycling Facility.
Whilst trying to discover the identity of the mummies and avoid getting into any more trouble, DI MacGregor’s past comes back to haunt him with the discovery of a head in the forest belonging to his mother who, with his father and brother, went missing twenty-six years ago when he was five years old.
I thoroughly enjoyed ‘A Dark So Deadly’ not only for their bumbling attempt to get to the truth, so different to the slick and polished characters in most novels, but for their hilariously irreverent manner of speech. There were so many unexpected twists and turns that the end came as a complete surprise. I do hope we get to read more of DI Callum MacGregor which I’m sure will be as popular as the Logan McRae series.

Wow! Where do you start to write a review on this book? The Misfit Mob are incredible! Gritty, great characters, fantastic storyline, twists, humour, a fantastically crafted book. Fans of MacBride really need to read this one! I loved the ending too. Many thanks to Net Galley for my copy. A must read. I reviewed on Goodreads.

Another well written, fast paced novel full of MacBride' s typical Scottish humour.
A very complicated plotline with lots of interesting new characters, although Mother really got on my nerves.
Published as a standalone novel but with a conclusion that would lend well to another instalment.

No good deed ever goes unpunished, and DC Callum MacGregor is paying the price for covering for his CSI tech girlfriends screw up. He’s been placed on a squad with all the other losers, the kind no one wants to deal with, but no can can fire either. All that changes when MacGregor and his team of misfits land a huge case, one involving a body so old, it’s actually mummified. Police leadership may think the “mummy” has been lifted from a museum, but MacGregor knows better, and it’s up to him and his team to prove it by solving a murder someone believed they’d gotten away with

A misfit team of cops that the police can't sack get it together to solve a serial murder case that is thought to be ancient burials. But no one takes these troublemakers serious and hand them the case. not for a moment believing they'd succeed. DC MacGregor knows better. A thrilling and well-written read with gore and humour. Recommended.

A book that will grip you and make you want to read just one more page...

Every so often you come across a book from an author you were not previously
aware of that make you think why haven’t I read any of this persons work
before? This is one of those books. It is a long time since I read a book that made
me want to set aside reading time as much as this one.
There are nice touches of humour throughout the story that keep it light and
entertaining and make you want to carry on reading. This is a great feat
especially in a book that is no lightweight both in topic and in physical weight.
Without giving too much away there is a point about half way through where
one of the characters has a bad day at the office like no other that will make you
think that no matter what today threw at you it could not be as bad as they
experienced.
The characters are well rounded and each individual forms their own
personality within the readers head so that you genuinely care for some and
detest others. By the end some of them feel like real acquaintances and I would
love to meet them again.
Overall a terrific book.
I will certainly be checking out the authors other titles.