‘Close to the Bone‘ is a detective story featuring the amiable DI Logan McRae and his ‘woman in a mans world’ boss DCI Steele.
I have read author Stuart MacBride’s stories featuring these characters before and throughly enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to this book – all 511 pages of it. It is a story about witches and the occult, woven around a book and making a movie about the book. There is a murder, with a course of drugs thrown in.
I’m liking
DI Logan McRae is likable. He wants what is best for everyone and he has to appease his boss DCI Steele.
DCI Steele is always trying to prove that she is more man than the men. Her mind is in the gutter and she pulls no punches.
The sparring of these two make the book interesting. They work well together and workplace politics always plays a large part of the story.
Things that made me go hmmmm
The book is too long and there is too much happening. I think I zoned out because I couldn’t keep up with all the twists and turns. If I wanted to read about witchcraft I would have chosen a book which I knew had that as the core of the story.
This book just can’t decide which direction to take so it takes them all:
There are the tramps – who is killing them off?
The actresses – wanting the real life experiences to improve their acting skills.
The missing teenagers – the families wonder why are they missing…
The small bones – they keep turning up DI McRae’s door.
The conclusion
If you bought this book because you have enjoyed Stuart MacBride novels in the past, you would probably be disappointed. If you have no expectations because you haven’t read Stuart MacBride before, you may enjoy it.
Close to the Bone is published by HarperCollins and sells for $34.99.
