Uno dei migliori romanzi che vedono protagonista il sergente scozzese Logan McRae, con numerosi colpi di scena proprio fino all'ultima riga.
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MacBride is getting better with each book, and this one was a corker. He's beginning to transcend the mere crime novel. ( )

In the Cold Dark Ground by Stuart MacBride is the tenth book in his Logan McRae police procedural series. These books are built around his strong, often eccentric characters and the stories are developed around circumstances that McRae finds himself in.

In this outing we find McRae dealing with a number of issues, first and foremost is that he has finally reached a decision about his comatose girlfriend. He is also investigating a brutal murder case and a new Superintendent of Serious Organized Crime has decided this case has some interest for her task force and she seems to have a personal vendetta against McRae. McRae has a strange history with organized crime and it isn’t helping that crime boss Wee Hamish Mowat has died leaving McRae in charge of his estate. If this wasn’t enough to deal with Professional Standards are lurking about, conducting an investigation into DCI Steel.

The story is skilfully developed, full of action and personal complications that has the reader gasping with horror one minute and then gasping with laughter the next. While In the Cold Dark Ground isn’t the best that this series has to offer, it does advance the time-line and gives the author a number of directions in which to take the next book. ( )

Writing a long term series has to create some issues for authors that probably some of we fans rarely consider. All we want is the next book. IN THE COLD DARK GROUND is the 10th in the Logan McRae series from Stuart MacBride, and I'm really sorry about this but I want the 11th pretty well now. As in straight away.

It goes without saying that I've always been a huge fan of this series, and aside from the wonderful, strong, often slightly eccentric characters, the reason for that is the constant changes in circumstance that McRae, DCI Steel and those around them find themselves dealing with. Lives change in these books, not always in a good way, and IN THE COLD DARK GROUND everyone seems to end up dealing with some really hefty crap.

Whilst you'd think that the personal would be more than enough for McRae to be going on with, along comes the pain-in-the-neck upper echelon type in the form of a new Superintendent of the Serious Organised Crime Task Force who muscles her way into his investigation of a missing person who turned up dead in very odd circumstances. Mind you, that's nothing compared to how close Professional Standards are getting to DCI Steel - close enough to find McRae doing a turn as a tightrope walker between a couple of particularly tricky snakepits. Mind you, nothing from the professional side of life compares to the bucket loads of grief that come to McRae when Wee Hamish Mowat dies leaving rival gangs eyeing his territory, and McRae in charge of his estate.

Needless to say, IN THE COLD DARK GROUND is exactly the sort of slightly manic action, pressure, personal complications, don't blink or you'll miss something roller-coaster that is a Logan McRae novel. There's always just enough to tweak the heart strings, more than enough to make a reader laugh, and the slightest feeling that everybody's gone a bit mad. As you'd probably do when the weather's always wet, cold and dank, the police house remains a dump, your colleagues are still a bunch of numpty's and what was already a really sucky personal life has just got a whole lot bloody worse.

As much as I'd love to say that if you're a new reader to this series than just get on with it, it's one that you really have to read in order. The personal / professional crossover is pretty complicated and there's so much history to McRae, Steel and the rest of the mad bunch that you're really going to have to know who is what, and how they all ended up in the middle of nowhere dodging Professional Standards, staring at some very odd home movies.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-cold-dark-groundstuart-macbride ( )

Another fantastic volume in the DS Logan McRae series!

Stuart MacBride leaves nothing out in this gritty missing person mystery, and while the mystery itself is engaging, the personal story of Logan is what drives this one. He has to deal with the death of crime boss Wee Hamish Mowat, who has tagged Logan to take over his crime family. He has to deal with Reuben the Beast, who has been waiting to take over Mowat’s crime syndicate, potentially setting off a turf war in Aberdeen with Malk the Knife and the Campbells. He has to deal with the decision to take long-time girlfriend Samantha off of life-support and allow her to pass on. Logan also has to deal with a new superintendent, professional standards poking around, and, of course, he has to deal with DCI Roberta Steel, who has been a thorn in his side for all ten volumes of this series.

As I write this out, it sounds like a really bad soap opera plot, but trust me, you WANT to read this!

There were some real surprises in this book, some that I never would have guessed in a million years. Logan is a good man who just can’t seem to win, and yet, he’s always able to scrap his way out of trouble, solve the crime/mystery, and live to see another day. Except this time, the book ends on a multi-point cliffhanger… Did he or didn’t he? And what happens to Steel? (I did NOT see that one coming!)

Stuart MacBride is one of the few authors that’s willing to do anything to keep his characters fresh, from promotions (and demotions), writing events in their lives that are so very heart-wrenching, and allowing plot points that actually hurt the characters both physically and emotionally. DS Logan has gone through so much over the years, one has to wonder how much more he can take.

One question that needs answered RIGHT NOW: When is the next book in this series being released?! ( )