Every Night I Dream of Hell
by Malcolm Mackay
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Pub Date Apr 11 2017 | Archive Date May 11 2017
Description
Nate Colgan would be the first to admit that his violent reputation makes him very good at his job -- and bad at everything else. After eighteen years spent working on the sidelines of Glasgow's criminal underworld, there's no question he'll accept the central position that Peter Jamieson's organization offers him, despite his better judgment.
The organization isn't as strong as it once was: its most powerful members are either dead or behind bars, including Jamieson himself, and the time is ripe for change. Chang begins with an execution -- a message for Jamieson's supporters -- which promptly sets the various factions within the organization against one another.
Colgan's position as "security consultant" means his duty is clear: identify the killer and find out who's willing to seize power, even if it means igniting a war. Meanwhile, on the other side of the law, DI Michael Fisher conduscts his own investigation into the murder.
Both men can't help but wonder: Why do these events coincide with the return of Zara Cope, the mother of Colgan's child, a disreputable woman with an uncanny ability to attract trouble and troublemakers? A dark and thrilling crime drama, Every Night I Dream of Hell takes us deep into a world of violence, fear and double-crosses.
"Don't pick up a Mackay book unless you've got spare time. They're habit-forming." -- New York Times
Advance Praise
“The [Glasgow] trilogy was a bravura performance, and one had every reason to expect that Mackay would do more with such rich material. That expectation has now been met, and rousingly so.” —Washington Post
“Contemporary noir doesn’t boast a more elegant stylist than Mackay. Even in evoking a world of scuzziness, he makes the lure of redemption sing.” —Chicago Tribune
“Mackay continues to ascend the ranks of hard-boiled British crime fiction authors. His latest novel [is] streaked with black humor and a fast-paced plot that never sacrifices the truly fleshed-out characters.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Morally complex . . . Filled with bloody intrigue, Scottish slang, and enough twists and turns to keep even the most astute reader guessing, this is hard-boiled fiction at its finest.” —Publishers Weekly
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780316271776 |
| PRICE | $26.00 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Joe H, Reviewer
EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL
Malcolm Mackay
Mulholland Books
ISBN 978-0316271776
Hardcover
Thriller
The idea of a subgenre known as “Tartan Noir” --- dark Scottish crime fiction --- might seem a bit of a stretch. I mean, the reflexive impression of Scotland for a lot of people, including me, consists of fog, hills, bagpipes and terri...er, unusual food, with two large industrial cities plunked down in the middle of it all. Crime? What crime? Lots of it, apparently. Scotland, according to the United Nations (yes, take what follows with a grain of salt, but still) is the world’s most violent developed country. Whether it deserves that ranking or otherwise, there are certainly enough violent assaults happening in Scotland to cause folks to take notice, and to, yes, create a subgenre around them. Accordingly, one can pick up a Scottish crime novel without being armed with the same suspension of disbelief that might be needed when reading other fine series in which murders occur in ski resort towns (among other places) with remarkable regularity.
All of this brings us to EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL, a new work by Malcolm Mackay, author of the rightfully acclaimed trio of books known as The Glasgow Trilogy. EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL is technically a work which stands alone from that series but nonetheless references events which took place therein. I cannot frankly imagine a situation where anyone picking up this novel would not want to immediately dive into Mackay’s past work, which is its own, fully-realized dark criminal universe. EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL is narrated primarily though not exclusively through the voice of Nate Colgan, a so-called security enforcer for Peter Jamieson’s criminal organization. Jamieson’s arrest by Glasgow DI Michael Fisher and subsequent imprisonment has set off a chain reaction occasioned by the truism that nature abhors a vacuum. There is immediate jockeying for position, primarily between two parties. Angus Lafferty, a major drug importer under Jamieson’s reign, wants to take over but his considerable reach in this regard may exceed his grasp. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Adrian Barrett, a drug dealer whose small empire in Birmingham crashed and burned, may be in Glasgow with his crew, attempting to take over Jamieson’s turf. Fuel is added to this rumor when Lee Christie, one of Lafferty’s dealers, is summarily executed. The incident is taken by Lafferty as a warning and he immediately tasks Jamieson’s people with finding Barrett and his crew and exacting revenge. Zara Cope, a very dangerous woman with ties to both Colgan and Fisher, suddenly returns to Glasgow as this is occurring. Colgan is quick to make the connection. Things come to a boil quickly in EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL, and soon overflow. One does not want to become too deeply attached to any of the characters, given that it is clear from the beginning of the story that any one or all of them may not make it to the story’s final pages. It is a dark read, complex but satisfying, and all the more real for it.
A final word: Bless Malcolm Mackay! Yes. Bless him! And bless Mulholland Books with him for including a glossary of characters at the beginning of this affair. EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL is of average length for a novel (a fact that belies the superior quality within) but it has an abundance of characters therein, all of them bumping into each other and interacting in all sorts of ways, violent and (occasionally) otherwise). The glossary of cast of characters is thus more than welcome, especially for those of us of a certain age who can easily get the names of our adult children confused, let alone strangers in a novel. Thank you. Authors and publishers of other books: please take note. It is but one reason that I highly recommend EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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