A Dark so Deadly by Stuart MacBride author of the Logan MacRea novels is a gritty standalone novel set in a Scotland familiar to his readers. It is a lenghthy, intricately plotted novel that will appeal to Mr MacBride's fans but I found it uncomfortable and overlong.

I love a good thriller/crime story and this delivered. It grabs you immediately and you want to know what is going to happen next. Lots of twists and turns in the plot line which keeps you guessing.

I didn't enjoy the style of this book at all, and didn't persevere to the end.

A great read and one of the best I have had this year. MacBride has conjured up a new policeman in perhaps the same mould of Logan McRae in that he is the one it all seems to happen to. Problems find their way to his door and misfortune as well. This book gives you Callum MacGregor who is just that and as a result has been consigned to the so called "Misfit Mob". A band of no hopers and mistake making police men and women who are shoved aside into this unit in the hope they will be out of the way. Would have worked but for the relentlessness of MacGregor who pursues an ancient mummy case and links it to missing men. Had the main division not been busy they would not have left it with the misfits.
And so we travel with the brilliant MacBride as he takes you into the unit and you live and breathe it with them as they try to solve this and the general things that befall them. It is written in his style that makes you want to keep reading...you just have to know what happens next which I suppose is the sign of a great writer.
The book is entertaining and good and written with humour as well as style and is truly enjoyable. I personally can't wait for the next instalment of the misfit mob because if it is as good as this book it will be a veritable treat.

DC Callum MacGregor covers up the mistake of his pregnant partner and ends up assigned to the self proclaimed Misfit Mob, a police division comprised of those who have been disciplined or sidelined through illness. Usually working on the type of cases nobody else will, they end up in charge of a murder case where the victims are mummified.

A host of stories interleave throughout the book as Callum is subject to disaster after disaster in both his private and professional lives.

The main story line progresses well with twists and turns and just when you think you have guessed how the story might go, it takes a new direction!

An excellent read and page turner. Well written and although there are many dark themes in the book, there is enough humour and depth to the colourful cast of characters that it is not at all a gloomy read.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone.

This is my first Stuart Macbride novel and I can't believe I haven't read his books before now!
I particularly enjoyed how the characters were developed, at times very humorous and other times so sad. The book was fast paced and swept you along.
The plots and subplots entwined really well and I enjoyed the dark humour and wit that is often lacking in this genre.

It took me ages to read this book. I found the first half slow going but I was glad I persisted as it improved a lot in the second half. It was an unusual police procedural, not only for the group of misfit police staff investigating, but for the strange serial killer they were pursuing and the cold case of child abandonment, abduction and murder that was interweaved throughout. The unveiling of the serial killer at the end was certainly unexpected and I didn’t find it either credible or satisfactory. Unfortunately I did not really like the style of the book, hence my scoring.

Another brilliant read from Stuart MacBride.This is a stand alone novel but it is written along the same lines as the excellent Logan McRae series of books.DC Callum MacGregor is transferred to The Misfit Mob for a mistake it later transpires he didn't do ! the 'Mob' are on the trail of a serial killer but MacGregor gets himself into some bad scrapes along the way.The book is both funny and gruesome and you can't help but feel sorry for the young DC as he goes about his business in Oldcastle.The ending when it came was a surprise to me and one i certainly never saw coming,,at just over 600 pages long the book did seem to drag a little in parts but don.t let that put you off This really is another winner from Stuart MacBride an excellent 5 star read !!

I really liked the characters in this book. The dialogue was great - really funny and true to life. I felt very sorry for poor Callum who was actually doing a half decent job with flashes of inspiration but who gets sorely rounded upon by his team. I found the ending a little far fetched though and which struggled to tie up all the loose ends in the plot apart from presenting them all as an epilogue. A bit of a cop out I feel. Overall a very enjoyable read and i would recommend and I would read this author and series again.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I love everything that this author has written and this one did not disappoint and well worth the 5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for letting me have a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I really enjoyed this book.
At first I saw it was over 600 pages and thought, "Really? How can a police novel fill so many pages?!" But I started it as the blurb drew me in and oh boy am I glad I did!
I'm not going to give anything away or tell you what the story is about as the description does that but I will tell you to go read this book.
It is really well written with realistic characters who are likeable (even the grumpy ones!). It is darkly witty and atmospheric and just pulls you in to the story.
There are lots of twists and turns, good ones at that!

If you are a fan of police fiction, murder mysteries, detective stories etc then I urge you to read this.

I am now off to track down some more Stuart MacBride books!

A great read. Well written and I love the sense of humour in all his books.

Gripping standalone thriller from the Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae series. DC Callum MacGregor’s career was going pretty well until he covered up for a cock-up to protect his pregnant crime-scene tech girlfriend. Now Callum’s stuck on a squad with all the other misfits – the officers no one else wants but who can’t be fired.Never likely to get within reach of a decent case again. Until they accidentally get handed the biggest murder investigation Oldcastle has ever seen. When a mummified body is found in the local rubbish dump, the top-brass assume pranksters have stolen it from a museum. But as Callum and his colleagues investigate, it starts to look less like student high-jinks and more like the work of a terrifying serial killer…

The author has created a great band of characters that the reader can relate too, along with a fast paced thriller, that sweeps as along on a fast paced storyline. I hope that we see these particular characters again in further novels.

After I overcame reading the challenge of accented and colloquial dialogue (basically by deciding just to more or less settle for getting gist of it all), I got the point. This skillful writer fills in essential back story effortlessly and with wit and by repeating related jokes an atmosphere is reliably established. The coincidences of crime having been against likeable if impolitic policeman Callum can only happen in comedic mode and MacBride knows that - so girlfriend complications and straying can be go close as his boss too. The crime is utterly grim (unbelievable except as mentioned because we are in comedic dimension where OTT crime can operate (unless I'm utterly naive).) Author's accomplished. characterisations and crime and anxieties are done brilliantly - finally I guess I didn't utterly love it. but admired it... I wanted to know what would happen which is essential in this genre.. an expert at work!

MacBride is back at his best - humour, suspense and lots of gruesome death! At first I was concerned it wouldn't live up to the Logan McRae series but this one certainly does. Can't wait for more....

I'm a Stuart MacBride fan, although I haven't read any of his books for a couple of years, so I leapt at the chance to read and review this stand alone police procedural. I really liked the office of misfit police men and women. All of them thrown together for a variety of reasons - none of them positive - and overseen by the grumpy, jelly baby munching 'Mother'. The central character, Callum is a really likeable missfit. He is an expectant father, a victim of child abandonment and a really good soul. He is however, also much maligned by most of the other misfits and really just about anyone else he crosses paths with. There are a number of plots and sub-plots going on, all of them captivating, and luckily we have aspiring writer DS McAdams leading us by the hand as he narrates some of the plot via a series of rhyming couplets and haikus.

Very few people are what they first appear to be in this dark thriller. Loads of flashes of humour, a modern day Imhotep, busily going about mummifying reluctant 'gods, misconceptions, misundertandings and mistakes abound along with a motley crew of suspects as messed up as the misfit mob. I'd love to see these characters return and think the book would make an excellent TV series. Yes, I'd recommend it!.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advance copy of A Dark So Deadly in exchange for an honest review. This is the first book I've read by Stuart MacBride but it definitely won't be my last. Callum MacGregor is part of the misfit team and everything that could go wrong does go wrong while they try to figure out who is leaving decapitated body parts lying around. I absolutely loved this book and it had me hooked all the way through. This book keeps you guessing the whole way through and I didn't guess who dunnit which is always a bonus. It is filled with dark humour, banter and grisle which I loved

This read is messy, but in a good way. It is at the very least dysfunctional and unpredictable. Fair warning, an extremely high amount of babies, of the jelly variety, lose their little lives during this murderous tale.

MacBride has his characters throwing around banter like an unruly crowd throwing food during an ancient Greek theatre performance. A lot of tit for tat and sometimes they are as vicious to each other, as a honey badger on a rampage.

Poor Callum, he really isn’t having a very good time of it. His career is nearly over, his life is crumbling like a dunked biscuit and his new friend on speed dial is a 7 year old girl, who thinks she is more gangsta than Al Capone.

It takes the gang a while to figure out that they are dealing with a particularly vicious and unbalanced serial killer. A ruthless and very intelligent one.

I have to admit, the author managed to get one over on me. There was the occasional niggle, which I won’t delve into because it would give away the game. Overall I was ‘colour me surprised’ at the end.

I think the author actually excels at having no normal or semi-normal characters, they are all misfits in their own right, and it works. In their own way the whole bunch of them bounce off each other and they care what happens, despite loud protestations to the contrary.

MacBride is definitely an author I will be revisiting. I enjoyed his dark humour and droll wit. I’m fairly certain the whole banter and witty repertoire was a way to distract me from the fact the author was hiding the killer right in front of me. Yeh, that’s my theory and I’m sticking with it. (*grin*)
*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy of A Dark so Deadly.*

Thank you Netgalley. A standalone dark and comic read. Loads of witty banter from the misfits to provide laughs but it doesnt take away from the gripping dark story. definitely one to read.

This is the Stuart MacBride book I have read and I will now look to read some more. A complicated plot line (with a bit of a silly ending). An enjoyable read none the less. Better than most of the other books in this genre.