Review: Blood Runs Deep

Blood Runs Deep by Doug Sinclair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

D.S. Malkie McCulloch has been on leave for several months after the death of his mother in a house fire. He feels unbearably guilty and has been warned about his behaviour by his bosses in relation to Jake Fielding and his son Liam, a local crime family. His first call back on the job is a hit and run, although his superiors suggest it is no more than that Malkie isn't convinced and based on the tyre marks on the road suspects he was deliberately targeted.

Piecing together the evidence, it seems as though a former soldier suffering with PTSD is responsible as the car involved in the incident, one of the Fielding's mini cabs, was found parked outside his cottage on the Fielding's estate. However, Liam also took out one of the mini cabs - who was responsible and why?

This was a gritty, sometimes graphic, mystery (somewhat more gritty than I normally like). Malkie is a tortured soul who makes bad choice after bad choice. His long-suffering partner DCI Steph Lang is running out of patience and his boss DI McLeish is just itching to kick him out of the force. It felt as though this was midway through a series because there was so much backstory, although I understand that this is the author's first novel.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot, some aspects I suspected quite early on, although others were unexpected, I would be interested to see where this series leads.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

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