STUART MACBRIDE - BIRTHDAYS FOR THE DEAD (DC ASH HENDERSON #1)

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Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret

Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. A year later the first card arrived: homemade, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front – Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last.

The tabloids call him ‘The Birthday Boy’. He’s been snatching girls for twelve years, always in the run-up to their thirteenth birthday, sending the families his home-made cards showing their daughters being slowly tortured to death.

But Ash hasn’t told anyone about Rebecca’s birthday cards – they all think she’s just run away from home – because if anyone finds out, he’ll be taken off the investigation. And he’s sacrificed too much to give up before his daughter’s killer gets what he deserves.

 

SHORT THOUGHTS

 

Firstly let me say that I have read all of Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae crime novels and love them to bits.  As this is the first Ash Henderson novel, it could be seen as unfair to compare to the well established McRae series, however its only human to...

Overall I liked this story although I found it a bit confusing with all the "if x happened then this is number 13, although there was this one which makes it x number"..Perhaps thats just from reading late at night. Maybe a bit over thought out in my opinion.

Ash Henderson is a very dark character - troubled, corrupt, violent and makes for a great character, however the true star of this book is Dr Alice McDonald!  "Delightfully Quirky" (in her own words), she is an absolute delight and I hope we see more of her in the future novels.

A promising start.




 


 


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