Bitter Water by Gordon Ferris - Set in post WWII Glasgow (and Kilmarnock, briefly) Douglas Brodie, journalist, ex cop, ex soldier is caught in the middle of an investigation concerning vigilante attacks in the city. Very decent crime story but the author's description(s) of Glasgow at this time takes it a notch above most other Scottish crime books I've read (8.5)
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The Missing by Andrew O'Hagan - Local author who was born in the same year as myself and who's family also moved from Glasgow to Ayrshire around the same time. This book led to a TV documentary of the same name which was screened on BBC2 last year. The early part of the book has nothing at all to do with the TV documentary and instead focuses on the author's own childhood and family roots including an interesting bit on an attack by Sinn Fein/IRA on a prison van in Glasgow in 1921. The author tells how some of his ancestors were members of the Republican movement at that time but neither glorifies or condemns it. The part focusing on his own childhood held special interest for me as I remember most of the things he writes about while also learning a few more things which I hadn't previously read about. The second part of the book ties in more with the TV documentary and is the reason I got the book in the first place. Looking at the thousands of people who go missing in the UK every year it is for the most part poignant and sad. The last 40 odd pages of the book examines the Fred West case and in particular the victims and their families. Unexpectedly there is a slight local interest in this case as well with the author's research taking him back to the Bourteerhill area of Irvine. Very well written and sensitive. (9)