Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
Two disturbing cases reunite Glasgow Detectives Anderson and Costello. We have rape, domestic abuse and an abduction of a baby in this complexly plotted thriller. Though part of an engaging police procedural series, this thought-provoking crime novel stands alone, and it does so upon its own merits.
Anderson has been elevated to work on a cold case, a rape dating from the 1990s, while Costello works on the abduction of a six-week old child who was left in the car’s baby-seat, and surreally replaced with another infant when the said car is recovered. Though what appears as a random crime, becomes something more.
Running concurrently, Anderson who upon reviewing the sexual assault of a young mother, soon finds himself having to delve into his own past, and the past of others. Costello has to track down a dangerous perpetrator, one who hides in the shadows of yesterday. He has to look to a former girlfriend, one who too wears scars.
Patterns emerge in both cases, as our two detectives find themselves on separate trails that maybe connected, or are they?
This is a slim book, but packed with grit, blood and the rocky debris of past deeds and consequence. It portrays a world hidden from view, and as novel it becomes a fast, fast read. Minor characters come and go, but they remain memorable such as the backroom duo Wyngate and Mulholland; though the toll on the professional as well as personal lives, the relationships of Policemen and Policewomen is high, unbearably so.
Though this is a dark book – at times bleak, thankfully it contains moments of humour which helps propel this dark narrative over the jagged edges that the author reveals.
This is Ramsey’s 9th novel in the series, so we have a confident hand accompanying the reader into the darkest streets of an evocatively realised Glasgow. One can see why The Suffering of Strangers was one of the first titles from Canongate’s new crime-fiction imprint Black Thorn.
Highly recommended, but a warning – better bring a torch as Ramsay has a dark, dark imagination.
