Northwind, a review by Joanna

Robert Hoon left the Scottish Police Service in disgrace – we are not told why, as I presume this would spoil the earlier Logan books. He wallowing in alcoholic misery when one of his few remaining friends begs him to track down his daughter, a student who has gone missing in London. Caroline was walking home from a night out and has not been seen since. With few clues and little help from the local police, Hoon is going to have to use his own special brand of brutal intimidation to get answers – but will it be enough?

I’ve been hearing good things about this author for the last few years, but had avoided the main series because of warnings that the first one features animal torture – but I hate reading series out of order, so didn’t want to start with book two either. Most authors learn their lesson about animal cruelty, so I figured I’d be safe enough with this one and right enough, no animals are harmed in this book – I can’t say the same for people though.

This was a well paced engrossing story which blends dark humour – frequently offensive, so approach with caution if you don’t like bad language – and violent action – some quite nasty torture is threatened but the book stops just short of showing it happening. While the plot itself isn’t all that original, the hero is obnoxious, belligerent and devious enough to stand out from the rest of the genre. The narration by Angus King was brilliant – he doesn’t hold back with Hoon’s full Scottish brogue, but he handles the other voices admirably too. I didn’t feel I missed out by not having read the Logan books, and probably will start that series at some point, but there are three more Hoon books to read first. Rounding up from 4.5 stars for helping me run 15km so I could finish it!