Book Revietw: 22 Dead Little Bodies by Stuart MacBride. A novella pre-dating The Missing and The Dead.

22 Dead Little Bodies (released 9th April 2015) is a novella set before Stuart's last book The Missing and The Dead and charts Logan McCrae's dissatisfaction with the new Scottish police force and the rivalry between the Major Investigation Team and the CID whilst desperately trying to find two missing children, placate two feuding neighbours, investigate the aftermath of a road rage incident and fend off DCI Roberta Steel's unreasonable demands... all in a day's work really!


22 Dead Little Bodies is at times belly rattlingly funny and at

others tear jerkingly poignant.  As usual MacBrides characterisation of DCI Steel and DI Logan McCrae keeps the story moving along at an unholy pace, in between the reader's bouts of laughter, shock at Steel's crassness and horror at the repercussions of it.  Steels hilarious antics, great dialogue and Logan's gritty oneliners are almost farce like (in a good way), but so very very funny. 
Steel, as expected uses her own brand of pragmatism (and I use the term very loosely...some would say inaccurately) to diffuse situations which then fly completely out of control leaving McCrae to pick up the pieces.
I think MacBrides greatest strengths are his brilliant characterisation and the unusual slant he gives to everyday events.
What comes through in MacBride's writing is his love for his characters.  In an interview on The Crime Warp (http://thecrimewarp.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/author-interview-stuart-macbride.html)a while back Stuart said he'd love for Helen Mirren to be cast as Roberta Steel should the McCrae/Steel books ever be televised ( I did offer my own services but Stuart wisely declined) and I noticed that Roberta Steel enlikens herself to Dame Helen Mirren in 22 Dead Little Bodies ... so come on, shake a leg all you TV producers, we're short of a crime series set in Aberdeen don't you think?
As usual I loved this peculiar blend of comedy and darkness that typifies a McCrae and Steel story.... long may they reign in Aberdeen!

Available on kindle £1.99 or HB £6.99 (PB release date Nov 2015)

Stuart MacBride's Amazon Page
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stuart-MacBride/e/B0045AAF7E/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1429697394&sr=1-2-ented