Glasgow, 1946. Rationing is still in effect, and everyone is trying to adjust to the new post-war society. Douglas Brodie, former police officer, former soldier, now journalist, is on the crime beat at the Glasgow Gazette. He soon becomes the contact person for the “Glasgow Marshals”, a group of vigilantes dispensing Old Testament-style justice. Why are they picking on Brodie as their media messenger? And who is behind them? Brodie and advocate Samantha Campbell investigate, and discover crimes that reach up to the highest levels of Glasgow society.

This is the second book in the Douglas Brodie series and I enjoyed the setting and characters very much. I did find some of the dialogue felt a bit silly, if only because there are more exclamation marks than I would consider warranted, and using repeated letters to draw out a syllable (e.g., “You bastaaaaaards!”) just looks strange in a grownup mystery novel.

The blurb on the front cover brands Ferris “the new Ian Rankin”, and I think that creates undue pressure on Ferris. Their similarities are as follows: both write about cities in Scotland, and their books are printed in the same typeface. Ferris’s protagonist is currently a journalist and the story is told in the first person, while Rankin’s protagonist is a police officer (ret’d) and the story is told in the third person. Ferris writes about the post-war period, and Rankin writes about the present day. Ferris’s debut, The Hanging Shed, is stronger, and was possibly written with a view to beginning a series; Rankin wasn’t intending to write a series with Knots and Crosses, and Rebus isn’t fully fleshed out yet. Both writers are good, in different ways, and I’d say both are worth checking out. ( )

This is my third book in the Douglas Brodie series. I read The Hanging Shed first then got a hold of the 4th one, Gallowglass before reading number 2- Bitter Water. You don't need to read them in order but it helps because there are references in each to past events. Anyway, like the others, this book is beautifully written. It just flows so smoothly and engagingly. As always, great suspense and fascinating characters. All set in Glasgow shortly after WWII. Brodie is nominally a crime reporter but he is really a detective who doesn't hesitate to get involved in shoot-outs to stop the bad guys. Really great read, highly recommended. Brodie is a classic hero-type but with feelings and real human emotions, positive and otherwise. ( )

I was expecting an edge-of-my-seat thriller with this the second book in the Douglas Brodie series. The first one blew me away, and this one is just as good, if not better. We open the book about six months after the big bang ending of The Hanging Shed. Douglas is a junior reporter on the Glasgow Gazette. He counts himself lucky to be doing the job he loves when so many of his ex-army buddies are out of work and with no prospects. But Brodie being Brodie, he finds himself in some pretty hot water with a local gang of thugs who are taking the law into their own hands. Brodie's stories in the Gazette about this gang are beginning to make a name for himself. But there is a lot of crime in Glasgow just after WWII, and pretty soon more and more bodies are popping up. Brodie and his friend Sam (Samantha) are drawn into a political and local governance conspiracy which turns out to be very dangerous for them and the people they know. The last 8 chapters of the book are filled with more action and mayhem than anyone who is not a Brodie afficiando would be surprised by, but for me it was what I expected - heart-pounding action, fast-moving plot and written so well by Ferris that it all seemed real. You could read this book as a stand-alone book, but you will get more of the Brodie experience if you read The Hanging Shed first. I love this guy and the wonderful Sam. I highly recommend this series to anyone who is fond of the thriller genre with an historical twist and also anyone who likes books that provide very colourful descriptions of the time and place that the book is set in. Scotland and Glasgow come alive in Ferris's prose, and Douglas Brodie and Samantha Campbell are my new favourite crime fighting team. ( )

A good second novel in the series; but it struggles with pacing. I like the lead characters and I will go on to #3, because I want to know what happens to them; not a feeling I had after the first book. As I noted a couple of reviews ago I have scored three books @ 3 stars, although if I were marking on a ten point scale I would have given them 5, 6 &7 to differentiate the levels of enjoyment I received. ( )

#2 in the Douglas Brodie series takes place a couple of years after the first. The years following World War II are not the golden days everyone had hoped for. Large areas of Glasgow are scheduled for regeneration but with the plans and the money comes corruption at city hall.

Many returned soldiers have been unable to find jobs and indeed have been treated badly. Not only that, they can see others profiting by crime. Cases go to court and burglars, murderers, and others are being acquitted for lack of evidence, or through sloppy policing. The result is the rise of vigilantes taking matters into their own hands, and dispensing their own form of justice.

Douglas Brodie, working for The Gazette, becomes the target for one of these groups, The Marshall's, to get their message across.

I think I enjoyed this novel every bit as much as the first in the series. The main characters are strong, the settings feel historically authentic, and the tension ramps up as the story progresses ( )