Many thanks to NetGalley and to Storm Publishing for letting me see an advance reader’s copy of Last to Die by Doug Sinclair.
Book 2 in the DS Malkie McCulloch series set in the Pentland Hills of Scotland opens with what we can already see is quite a bumbling wannabe murderer. And we know it’s his first time as it says so right there on the page.
This isn’t the only thing going on in this book, though. There is Malkie’s baggage, twofold with the return of Sandra Morton to his life, threefold if you include his budding relationship with Deborah. Steph doesn’t seem to have had a great life so far either.
And, of course, there are several mysteries to solve.
My pet peeve is still apparent in Book 2. Too many characters whose names start with the same letter:
Louisa, Lillian, Lizzie, Lin, Lundy, (Mc)Leish.
Claudette, Crawford, Crosbie, Campbell.
Susan, Shaw, Steph, Sheila, Sally, Sandra.
Michael, McLeish, McCulloch, Malkie, Montrose, Megan, Maureen, Martin, McGowan, Morton. (Ten!)
Fisher, Fraser, Ferguson.
Other names are available, but is it necessary to name every single character?
The book could do with a good and thorough edit, which isn’t down to the author when there’s a publishing house behind him.
There are too many repetitions, especially when the author’s favourite words haven’t been weeded out. There’s missing information the characters are nevertheless aware of, such as the elderly woman’s age in Chapter 5 (nobody said she was seventy-something) or the gender of Sandra’s child (Sandra never said it was a female).
The book description opens on a cold park bench in the middle of winter 30 years previously, but we don’t get there until we’re well into the book, so that could be a bit misleading and I, for one, was a bit confused.
But on the whole, it was nice to catch up with Malkie and the crowd and to revisit the Pentland Hills again. I love the setting and the characters are well-rounded, miserable and over-burdened.
The story was once again great, the setting came to life, the characters are fantastic, and the books are beautifully produced.
Wonderful tartan noir.
Five stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
