To Die In June - Alan Parks

 

"A woman enters a Glasgow police station to report her son missing, but no record can be found of the boy. When Detective Harry McCoy, seconded from the cop shop across town, discovers the family is part of the cultish Church of Christ's Suffering, he suspects there is more to Michael's disappearance than meets the eye.

Meanwhile reports arrive of a string of poisonings of down-and-outs across the city. The dead are men who few barely notice, let alone care about - but, as McCoy is painfully aware, among this desperate community is his own father.

Even as McCoy searches for the missing boy, he must conceal from his colleagues the real reason for his presence - to investigate corruption in the station. Some folk pray for justice. Detective Harry McCoy hasn't got time to wait"

 So, here we are again in 1970s Glasgow with book 6 of Alan Parks 'Harry McCoy' series. If you've read the previous 5 you'll pretty much know what to expect from To Die In June - Glasgow is as rough as ever, Harry is as dodgy as ever (not a bent copper just not afraid of using other methods and dubious contacts to get things done).

There's a lot going on in TDIJ, a missing child that may not have ever even existed, a very dodgy church group with cultish overtones, somebody is poisoning the local down-and-out community and, to cap it all, Harry is undercover at Possil Nick, the other side of Glasgow, in the hopes of identifying some real bent cops - and he's not making friends there. McCoy has his work cut out in this very busy book but Parks manages to keep it all flowing with a mix of excellent storytelling and bursts of humour.

Judging by the titles in the series this will be the half way point in the series, which means 6 more to go which is great for us but not so great for Harry McCoy - I think Alan Parks is going to be putting him through the wringer, probably several times over, before its all over.

As with all the previous books To Die In June is highly recommended - 4.5/5*

Thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto this tour and to Cannongate Books for providing the review copy (all thoughts and opinions are my own and not influenced in any way).

Please, if you can, have a look at the posts by the other bloggers on the tour (below)