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, 12:30, 1 September 2022
{{infobox1
|title=The Night Watch (D S Max Craigie)
|sort=Night Watch (D S Max Craigie)
|author=Neil Lancaster
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=#
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=461
|publisher=HQ Digital
|date=September 2022
|isbn=978-0008518479
|website=https://neillancastercrime.co.uk/about-me
|cover=B09SGWCXQ8
|aznuk=B09SGWCXQ8
|aznus=B09SGWCXQ8
}}
Fergus Grigor went out for a run. The lawyer was on his honeymoon but his body was found dashed to pieces below the cliffs at Dunnett Head. Was it suicide, or did he - for some reason - climb over the stone wall and fall to his death? Or was he pushed? On balance, it looked like an accident but then his 'accident' was linked to the deaths of others associated with him. Scott Paterson was released after a 'not-proven' verdict meant that Scotland's most notorious criminal wasn't facing life imprisonment. Paterson was Grigor's last client.
The Major Investigation Team, headed up by DCI Donnie Watson and supported by DI Marnie Gray, is on the case but DS Max Craigie, part of a team whose job is to track down corruption in the police force, believes that there's a link and that there's a problem within the police. Whoever is carrying out these killings is very forensically aware and knows exactly how the police work. Even Shuggie Gibson, a freelance investigative journalist turned blogger knows far more about the cases than he should.
Craigie, DC Janie Calder and his boss, DI Ross along with Norma, the civilian analyst know that they'll get no support from the wider police force but the Chief Constable, Chris Macdonald, knows that a vigilante within the police force who has turned into a serial killer is a problem which is going to need sorting out quickly. It's going to be all over the tabloids - and not just in Scotland. He'll provide what help he can, but the law can be limiting in cases like these. That's not something which DS Max Craigie is going to take too seriously.
It's a cracker of a story. I was sure that I had it worked out on several occasions and was actually beginning to feel quite smug about how things were going - and then my chosen candidate would turn up dead. This is a tale with more twists than a corkscrew. In the end - even when just about everybody else had been ruled out, I still didn't manage to work it out. Then there's the shame of finding that all the clues were there. It's definitely a book to read once for the switchback ride - and then to go through again to find out how the author did it. You get it all: great locations, super plot and characters who stay in your mind. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
For more Scottish crime, try [[The Relentless Tide (DCI Daley) by Denzil Meyrick]]
[[Neil Lancaster's DS Max Craigie novels in chronological order]]
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