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This is a difficult review to write. Throughout most of the story, I felt it was a five-star read, then came the ending, which disappointed me — it didn’t feel right — and so I lowered my internal rating system to four stars. Then waited a while to ensure I got it right. So I’m a huge Stuart MacBride Fan. I’ve read all the Logan books. Enjoyed them all. I didn’t even mind the last standalone which was pretty wild. So I knew what to expect. I was excited so why do I feel so disappointed? I couldn't help thinking, as I got to the end, that Lucy may have made a deal with the Devil, and we all know the Devil likes to come out on top. He just might have met his match in Lucy. This is definitely going to be an interesting series. Fiona’s opinion on this one was, we’re all living through it, no one wants to read about it. What we need is something to lift us out of our current predicament. Something fun. Something that would make people laugh.
It starts with a murder and descends into multiple murders with victims over 17 months. Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh and her colleague The Dunc end up having to sort out the mess that The Bloodsmith Killer has caused. Multiple unsolved murders means the top brass are getting antsy. On top of this, Benedict Strachen was just 11 when he confessed to killing a homeless man, and he has just been released from prison. He begs for Lucy's help, claiming "they" are out to get him. is he paranoid? Or is it something bigger? The story begins with a prologue, the murder of a homeless man by two children (preteens), then shifts into typical MacBride country—a police station in Oldcastle, a fictitious city in Scotland that serves as the setting for most of the author’s darker stories—madcap with a somber overcast. So the reader knows what to expect. No Less The Devil is more than just a crime fiction novel though. It is a stunning commentary on post Covid society and MacBride has chosen to mainly provide this commentary through the eyes of The Dunc, which works beautifully in my opinion.And so to UNIVERSITY, far too young, naive and stupid to be away from the family home, sharing a subterranean flat in one of the seedier bits of Edinburgh with a mad Irishman, and four other bizarre individuals. The highlight of walking to the art school in the mornings (yes: we were students, but we still did mornings) was trying not to tread in the fresh bloodstains outside our front door, and dodging the undercover CID officers trying to buy drugs. Lovely place.
A homeless man is found brutally murdered in a dilapidated cottage in the woods outside Oldcastle. The words "Help Me" written in blood on a nearby wall link the crime to a gruesome series of murders committed a couple of years previously by a killer dubbed "the Bloodsmith" by the baying press. My questions weren't answered as we jumped from reality to fantasy to hallucination to the bizarre, to weird. I have no idea what happened or what ( or who) was real. I have read many books by this author and enjoy the ‘Logan McRae’ series but I’m afraid I struggled a little with this one. It felt like a fairly long read and my opinion seemed to change regularly throughout the novel. There were times when I thought I was getting to grips with it and enjoying it to other times when I couldn’t wait to finish. Some good characters written in the authors usual writing style but failed to grip me in the way MacBride’s novels normally do. I have read and enjoyed this author's work before and am sure I will again but this was a disappointing and strange experience. It was a little confusing at the start but seemed to find its feet encouraging me to feel hopeful for the remainder of the story. Instead everything got seriously weird and, to me at least, more than a little unrealistic. Although I didn't feel the PTSD was clearly signposted it did gradually became more apparent, unfortunately it wasn't enough to even begin to explain the sudden changes which became the main focus of the story.
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The characters constantly say “fudging” which was another thing that I found irritating. I would have expected police officers to have a more varied vocabulary. I am very familiar with Stuart MacBride’s writing and used to the mixture of interesting characters, twisty plots and zany dialogue so I was really looking forward to his latest offering, This was a novel that the more I read the more I enjoyed it. The characters grew as the story developed and became a very enjoyable read. It's been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer to catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast. MacBride goes in hard and fast with No Less the Devil. There's no fannying about. No sitting around drinking cups of tea and eating scones. It's breathtaking. Overall, this is far from being the authors best book and it’s not one for me. It’s a real shame as there is the makings of a very good plot here but it gets lost along a convoluted and meandering way.
I am now hoping for a Study Notes guide to accompany No Less The Devil so that I have a smidgeon of a chance of understanding what on earth actually happened in the endIt's fair to say DS Lucy McVeigh doesn't have a huge amount of confidence in her partner DC Duncan Fraser, commonly called the Dunk! Unfortunately they've just been assigned to the team involved in Operation Maypole, investigating a serial killer known in the Scottish press as the Bloodsmith so they will be working closely on everything. There is very little to go on however, and most of those involved feel they are getting nowhere fast. What? Wait. You haven't? Oh. In that case.... no, hold on. Do you like your books to be enthralling and engaging with relatable characters and a gripping and believable story line that builds to a crescendo of drama and excitement and falls into the "I can't put this down" category of enjoyable reads? So, as a social commentary, it worked brilliantly. But as a story, it didn’t provide me closure. Of course, MacBride could argue that in several Patricia Highsmith stories, the criminal gets away with it, and Highsmith is considered one of the world’s greatest crime writers. (Highsmith also loved cats.) So, many will love this book, and many won’t. I loved most of it, and am giving it four stars. I liked the idea for the community of ex-prisoners nestled in the Cairngorms but the plot became a bit far fetched for me and didn’t hold my interest. Now onto my biggest issue – DI Montgomery-Porter. My god, that woman is absolutely insufferable. She’s ratty, defensive, and just a good old-fashioned bitch. I really felt for DC Reekie, not only did he have to manage the problems that the case brought but having to constantly apologise for his DI’s unacceptable behaviour. I mean, I get that the constant problems that kept cropping up is infuriating but my god the woman took it out on everyone. I found myself muttering to my kindle “stop yelling at everyone.”
I have enjoyed a number of Stuart MacBride's books before; I enjoy his writing style, his dark sense of humour, twisty plots and excellent characters - The Dead of Winter is no different and I loved it. ABOUT 'NO LESS THE DEVIL': It's been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer to catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast. I’m a big fan of the Logan McRae series by Stuart MacBride and was looking forward to reading a copy of his latest standalone novel, The Dead of Winter. The book is released on 16th February. Stuart MacBride is an automatic must-read for me... always fast, hard, authentic - and different' LEE CHILD
Customer reviews
The storyline is unique and intriguing and I was instantly drawn in. To be honest, I've never before read anything quite like this. I view Dunk as the alter ego of the author. MacBride is laughing at himself. Not just comedy relief, but a statement of where he fits into this cultural environment—-fiction based on reality. Dunk is constantly complaining about writers who don’t use punctuation properly in their reports and, at one point, likens himself Dr. Watson following Holmes (Lucy)—in other words, a writer, telling a story about Lucy’s investigative prowess. Only, what do you do when society is, quite rightly, really sodding concerned about a virus that’s officially killed four million of us (though estimates say the real total is probably more than twelve million)?
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