The Night Watch (DS Max Craigie #3) by Neil Lancaster
He’ll watch you.
A lawyer is found dead at sunrise on a lonely clifftop at Dunnet Head on the northernmost tip of Scotland. It was supposed to be his honeymoon, but now his wife will never see him again.
He’ll hunt you.
The case is linked to several mysterious deaths, including the murder of the lawyer’s last client – Scotland’s most notorious criminal… who had just walked free. DS Max Craigie knows this can only mean one thing: they have a vigilante serial killer on their hands.
He’ll leave you to die.
But this time the killer isn’t on the run; he’s on the investigation team. And the rules are different when the murderer is this close to home.
He knows their weaknesses, knows how to stay hidden, and he thinks he’s above the law…
My Review
Perfectly written and plotted, this is an author you can rely on to deliver a police procedural with added bite. Plus a great deal of action, plenty of murders and a lot of swearing from the boss. I don’t usually like swearing in books, but when DI Ross does it, it’s hilarious. ‘Craigie, why is it that I am in the f*”*ing office on my bastard own?’ is his opening line. Insults fly back and forth as they call each other names.
We’ve met DS Max Craigie twice before in Dead Man’s Grave and The Blood Tide, as well as the team – DI Ross Fraser ‘Ross-Boss’ and ‘fast-track Fannie’ DC Janie Calder. Then we have civilian intelligence agent Norma Kirk, Max’s old mate from their Flying Squad days – undercover cop Niall Hastings – and surveillance expert Barney (though he was in the second book). Plus a host of others.
Scott ‘The Axe’ Paterson thought he was ‘the hardest man in Edinburgh.’ But when he is acquitted of a crime everyone knew he had committed, someone decided that justice had to be done. ‘He was the worst of the worst, so he had to die.’
Then a lawyer is found dead at the foot of a cliff while on his honeymoon and he just happened to be the same lawyer who got Paterson off. Journalist Shuggie Gibson, or as Ross calls him ‘scumbag, gutter-sniping, parasitic shite’ thinks they are connected. Five years ago the same lawyer managed to get another drunken-driver Chick Wilson off a hit-and-run with a ‘not proven’ verdict. Three days later he’s found hanging from a tree in a park. Coincidence? No chance. Not in police work.
And that’s just the beginning. The story races along with no let-up as Max and Janie try to find out who is behind the vigilante killings before there is another one. And just when you think you know who is behind it, there is another twist and more suspects get thrown into the mix.
Another brilliant book from Mr Lancaster and I’m sure there will be lots more to come.
However…..we definitely do not hear enough this time from furry sidekick, running partner and cuteness-overload cockapoo Nutmeg. Come on Neil, he’s my favourite character. He needs his own show…
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Neil was born in Liverpool in the 1960s. He recently left the Metropolitan Police where he served for over twenty-five years, predominantly as a detective, leading and conducting investigations into some of the most serious criminals across the UK and beyond.
Neil acted as a surveillance and covert policing specialist, using all types of techniques to arrest and prosecute drug dealers, human traffickers, fraudsters, and murderers. During his career, he successfully prosecuted several wealthy and corrupt members of the legal profession who were involved in organised immigration crime. These prosecutions led to jail sentences, multi-million pound asset confiscations and disbarments.
Since retiring from the Metropolitan Police, Neil has relocated to the Scottish Highlands with his wife and son, where he mixes freelance investigations with writing.
