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TRUTH LIES BLEEDING
by Tony Black
Preface, February 2011
320 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 1848091893


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Four teenagers find the dismembered body of a young girl dumped in an Edinburgh alleyway. Chief Superintendent Galloway decides to hand the case over to Rob Brennan, despite the fact that he's only recently returned to the force and isn't on the best of terms with colleagues already investigating the murder. It's in at the deep end for Brennan, who initially relishes the chance to get stuck back into some real police work, having feared he'd be desk-bound because of his breakdown.

The dumpster victim is identified as Carly Donald, the daughter of a Scottish minister in line for a major promotion. Brennan must tread carefully as he investigates the family tragedy, the more so when it's confirmed that Carly gave birth not long before she was murdered and that her baby is missing. The fate of the missing child drives the remainder of the plot, as Brennan and his team race to find the minister's granddaughter before it's too late.

Rob Brennan appears at first glance to be a Scottish copper in the old mould: hard-drinking, hard-living, his marriage on the rocks, his career on the line. Brennan has enemies within the police force, not to mention personal demons, unfinished business and a talent for finding trouble. But he also has more layers than we first suspect, and it's refreshing to see him struggle to save his marriage and his relationship with his teenage daughter while battling with the worst of Edinburgh's underbelly.

This is a novel of contrasts and Black does a great job is swinging us from the junkie hellhole where Baby Donald is temporarily housed, to the chintzy middle-class home of her young mother. Better still when it's revealed that the minister's home housed a monster – with the minister's blessing.

Black's greatest skill is in creating complexities within what appear to be caricatures. The pious, fearsome minister is just such a creation.

The crime at the heart of the novel is such that a 'happy ending' must be scooped from the jaws of the denouement or risk leaving readers and heroes too traumatised to want another Brennan book. Black manages the resolution well, paving the way for more.

§ Sarah Hilary is an award-winning short story author, currently working on a debut crime novel.

Reviewed by Sarah Hilary, September 2011

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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