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DI Rob Brennan #1
Truth Lies Bleeding
Four teenagers find the mutilated corpse of a young girl stuffed into a dumpster in an Edinburgh alleyway. Who is she? Where did she come from? Who killed her and why? Above all, where is the baby to which she has obviously recently given birth? Inspector Rob Brennan, recently back from psychiatric leave, is still shocked by the senseless shooting of his only brother. His superiors think that the case of the dumpster girl will be perfect to get him back on track. But Rob Brennan has enemies within the force, stacks of unfinished business and a nose for trouble. What he discovers about the murdered girl blows the case - and his life - wide open.
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
8 people are currently reading
350 people want to read
About the author
Tony Black
77 books115 followersTony Black is the author of more than 20 books, most recently Her Cold Eyes. He has been nominated for eight CWA Daggers and was runner up in The Guardian's Not the Booker prize for The Last Tiger.
He has written three crime series, a number of crime novellas and two collections of short stories. His acclaimed author interviews series was collected under the title, Hard Truths.
His novella, The Ringer, was adapted for the stage and the Ayr Gaiety performance can be found on YouTube.
A former Young Journalist of the Year, he still writes for the press regularly.
For more information, and the latest news visit his website at: www.tonyblack.net or his blog: www.pulppusher.blogspot.com or find him on Facebook, Twitter or Linked-In.
He has written three crime series, a number of crime novellas and two collections of short stories. His acclaimed author interviews series was collected under the title, Hard Truths.
His novella, The Ringer, was adapted for the stage and the Ayr Gaiety performance can be found on YouTube.
A former Young Journalist of the Year, he still writes for the press regularly.
For more information, and the latest news visit his website at: www.tonyblack.net or his blog: www.pulppusher.blogspot.com or find him on Facebook, Twitter or Linked-In.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
April 17, 2013
Cliched crime fiction checklist:
Hard boiled police detective with deep seeded neurosis and a conflicted love life who truly wouldn't know a clue if it smacked him in the face, also a glory hog who gets credit for the hard work done by other unnamed characters
An eager "new recruit" who may or may not be on the main character's side but ultimately proves his loyalty, a bit like a puppy
A domineering career orientated boss who doesn't understand/get along with the main character
Badly created characters who show less animation than a cardboard cutouts
A "bad guy" who is supposed to personify evil but mostly is just boring
A few "red herrings" including a suicidal pedophile for good measure
Tedious dialogue and scenes which have nothing to do with the story but add pages (does the author get paid by the word?)
A mystery that is neither believable or compelling
Does "Truth Lies Bleeding" tick all of these boxes? Oh yes.
Hard boiled police detective with deep seeded neurosis and a conflicted love life who truly wouldn't know a clue if it smacked him in the face, also a glory hog who gets credit for the hard work done by other unnamed characters
An eager "new recruit" who may or may not be on the main character's side but ultimately proves his loyalty, a bit like a puppy
A domineering career orientated boss who doesn't understand/get along with the main character
Badly created characters who show less animation than a cardboard cutouts
A "bad guy" who is supposed to personify evil but mostly is just boring
A few "red herrings" including a suicidal pedophile for good measure
Tedious dialogue and scenes which have nothing to do with the story but add pages (does the author get paid by the word?)
A mystery that is neither believable or compelling
Does "Truth Lies Bleeding" tick all of these boxes? Oh yes.
August 22, 2013
Read the full review on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
Inspector Rob Brennan is a damaged yet endearing protagonist. Despite being surrounded by cops he's very much the lone wolf, segregated by the ghosts of his past and haunted by the death of his brother.
Called upon to identify the murder victim and bring those responsible to justice, Brennan not only faces adversary from public speculation but also within the police ranks as pressure builds from his boss and enemies on the force. When the media gets hold of leaked information, fingers point in Brennan's direction, the storm brews and threatens to wash away the remaining threads of humanity he so delicately holds.
Brennan's personal life paints him as both a good and bad family man with the jury swaying consistently one way or the other. He has a wife and child and a mistress who wants more.
While a police procedural, TRUTH LIES BLEEDING reads as a noir. It's dark, moody, evocative, and almost without hope. It's emotionally deep and character driven. The plot pacing is perfect with each twist and turn engaging and vivid.
From the opening line I was hooked:
"The girl's screams were enough to give away their hiding place."
I love books that instantly engage the reader and TRUTH LIES BLEEDING does just that.
Inspector Rob Brennan is a damaged yet endearing protagonist. Despite being surrounded by cops he's very much the lone wolf, segregated by the ghosts of his past and haunted by the death of his brother.
Called upon to identify the murder victim and bring those responsible to justice, Brennan not only faces adversary from public speculation but also within the police ranks as pressure builds from his boss and enemies on the force. When the media gets hold of leaked information, fingers point in Brennan's direction, the storm brews and threatens to wash away the remaining threads of humanity he so delicately holds.
Brennan's personal life paints him as both a good and bad family man with the jury swaying consistently one way or the other. He has a wife and child and a mistress who wants more.
While a police procedural, TRUTH LIES BLEEDING reads as a noir. It's dark, moody, evocative, and almost without hope. It's emotionally deep and character driven. The plot pacing is perfect with each twist and turn engaging and vivid.
From the opening line I was hooked:
"The girl's screams were enough to give away their hiding place."
I love books that instantly engage the reader and TRUTH LIES BLEEDING does just that.
November 30, 2017
I quite frankly am surprised I finished this book, even though I very rarely don't finish books. I absolutely hated the main character DI Brennan. It is rare that I cannot find anything at all to feel compassionate about for a character, but this guy is it. I am not opposed to unlikeable characters if they are enjoyable reads. In fact, some of the best characters are bad guys. But this guy is just an arrogant, rude, misogynistic, miserable human being. I hung in there with the book just to see if somehow he would get a clue about what a **** he is. I'm a cynic myself, but this guy wasn't just jaded or cynical, he was downright miserable and a constantly complaining sourpuss. None of the other characters really were shown in enough depth to be real or interesting to this reader.
The plot was predictable and not particularly clever either. This is the first book I've read by this author and I'm quite hesitant to try any of the others. I certainly will not be reading any more in this series.
The plot was predictable and not particularly clever either. This is the first book I've read by this author and I'm quite hesitant to try any of the others. I certainly will not be reading any more in this series.
January 7, 2014
Really enjoyed this one - extremely dark and showing a side of Edinburgh that is kept hidden away most of the time. Some great characters not least DI Brennan himself. And almost every scene was somewhere where I knew in Edinburgh, even down to Brennan living in the same part of town as I do. Off to track down the next in the series....
July 8, 2012
Tony Black is one of the best out there. Looking forward to the next book....
September 12, 2019
Klisjébonanza fra første side. Orker ikke lese ferdig. Next.
November 3, 2014
I don’t get out much these days. Three young children and working too hard tend to get in the way. On Friday night it was a rare treat to get on the glad rags and head into Dunbar for what promised to be an outstanding party – the birthday girl, Pippa, used to work in the music biz, so there was going to be plenty to dance to.
The baby-sitter arrived at 8 o’clock and Isobel wasn’t going to get to the party till half past nine. You’d think I’d have sprinted off to get there early. Instead, I parked myself in a local hotel bar to read an hour’s worth of Tony Black’s Truth Lies Bleeding. If that’s not a testament to how good a book is, I’m not sure what is.
I don’t read too many police-procedurals these days. It’s not that I don’t really like them, more that I’ve read a lot and worry that I’m going to find myself in the land of same-old, same-old. The last one I read was by RJ Ellory, A Simple Act Of Violence, and that set the bar very high indeed.
So I opened Truth Lies Bleeding in hope more than expectation. Not even the ‘Tony Black is my favourite British Crime Writer’ quote from Irving Welsh had pumped up my enthusiasm, nor the fact that I’d read a short by Tony a while ago and found it to be of the highest order.
It opens with the discovery of a girl’s body. Her arms are missing and she’s in a dumpster. No one knows who she is and not many of the locals care. So far, so standard.
In chapter 2, Inspector Rob Brennan walks in. He’s been away for a while, off on psychiatric leave following the death of his brother. Turns out Brennan has few friends – not in the force, not in the community and not even in his family. As soon as he appeared I was fully engaged. Of course, you can’t get into a character immediately, but he was clearly someone I felt comfortable with straight away. The man’s idea of giving up smoking is to change his brand to Silk-Cut, for goodness sake.
From there the plot unravelled, thickened, sped up, intensified and had me hook, line and sinker.
There’s little about the story that I want to give away because I’d like to recommend that you find it out for yourself.
Brennan turns out to be a terrific character who has enough individuality to stand head and shoulders from the masses within police fiction. He seems to be haunted by the past, the present and the future all at the same time. The past has him by the short an curlies, the present (the case) certainly isn’t revealing itself to him in the way he might like and the future, well that could be anything, but most likely will have him directing traffic and being thrown of his home by his wife.
Of course, a great cop does not make a book by himself. We have all the tensions between him and his bosses that put his career on shaky ground. We have a group of colleagues who can’t stand the sight of him. There is the action of the case itself and then there’s the seedy, dark world of the criminals he’s after. I think that it’s the painting of the bad-guys that got Mr Irvine Welsh excited, and rightly so.
Black doesn’t mess about. There are no fluffy edges to the lives of the junky couple we get to know. Their dealer, Deil (the devil), has no redeeming features whatsoever – he’s all bad and then some. Gunter is a shadowy figure from one of Europe’s paedophile rings who is cool and efficient and full of sleaze. Edinburgh itself is painted in browns and greys with a touch of the scent of deisel fumes and there’s an unhinged psychotherapist to whom Brennan has become too close.
The case is complicated, a series of broad strokes within which Brennan struggles to see the detail. He turns to his old mentor, Wullie, for advice and he begins to see the way he needs to think.
Brennan is a complex man. What impressed me most were his levels of self-control when on the job. No matter how his life spins out of control he manages to apply super-human discipline to keeping things straight at work. He also has an excellent perspective on what he does. He’s one of those real cops that couldn’t do anything else.
‘There’s no winning in the force, only degrees of losing,” is the way he views things. Even a positive result must have been gained from someone’s pain; it’s just the way it is.
It’s a great book. Shaprly written. Brilliantly plotted. Page-turning and thought-provoking at the same time. Highly recommended.
The baby-sitter arrived at 8 o’clock and Isobel wasn’t going to get to the party till half past nine. You’d think I’d have sprinted off to get there early. Instead, I parked myself in a local hotel bar to read an hour’s worth of Tony Black’s Truth Lies Bleeding. If that’s not a testament to how good a book is, I’m not sure what is.
I don’t read too many police-procedurals these days. It’s not that I don’t really like them, more that I’ve read a lot and worry that I’m going to find myself in the land of same-old, same-old. The last one I read was by RJ Ellory, A Simple Act Of Violence, and that set the bar very high indeed.
So I opened Truth Lies Bleeding in hope more than expectation. Not even the ‘Tony Black is my favourite British Crime Writer’ quote from Irving Welsh had pumped up my enthusiasm, nor the fact that I’d read a short by Tony a while ago and found it to be of the highest order.
It opens with the discovery of a girl’s body. Her arms are missing and she’s in a dumpster. No one knows who she is and not many of the locals care. So far, so standard.
In chapter 2, Inspector Rob Brennan walks in. He’s been away for a while, off on psychiatric leave following the death of his brother. Turns out Brennan has few friends – not in the force, not in the community and not even in his family. As soon as he appeared I was fully engaged. Of course, you can’t get into a character immediately, but he was clearly someone I felt comfortable with straight away. The man’s idea of giving up smoking is to change his brand to Silk-Cut, for goodness sake.
From there the plot unravelled, thickened, sped up, intensified and had me hook, line and sinker.
There’s little about the story that I want to give away because I’d like to recommend that you find it out for yourself.
Brennan turns out to be a terrific character who has enough individuality to stand head and shoulders from the masses within police fiction. He seems to be haunted by the past, the present and the future all at the same time. The past has him by the short an curlies, the present (the case) certainly isn’t revealing itself to him in the way he might like and the future, well that could be anything, but most likely will have him directing traffic and being thrown of his home by his wife.
Of course, a great cop does not make a book by himself. We have all the tensions between him and his bosses that put his career on shaky ground. We have a group of colleagues who can’t stand the sight of him. There is the action of the case itself and then there’s the seedy, dark world of the criminals he’s after. I think that it’s the painting of the bad-guys that got Mr Irvine Welsh excited, and rightly so.
Black doesn’t mess about. There are no fluffy edges to the lives of the junky couple we get to know. Their dealer, Deil (the devil), has no redeeming features whatsoever – he’s all bad and then some. Gunter is a shadowy figure from one of Europe’s paedophile rings who is cool and efficient and full of sleaze. Edinburgh itself is painted in browns and greys with a touch of the scent of deisel fumes and there’s an unhinged psychotherapist to whom Brennan has become too close.
The case is complicated, a series of broad strokes within which Brennan struggles to see the detail. He turns to his old mentor, Wullie, for advice and he begins to see the way he needs to think.
Brennan is a complex man. What impressed me most were his levels of self-control when on the job. No matter how his life spins out of control he manages to apply super-human discipline to keeping things straight at work. He also has an excellent perspective on what he does. He’s one of those real cops that couldn’t do anything else.
‘There’s no winning in the force, only degrees of losing,” is the way he views things. Even a positive result must have been gained from someone’s pain; it’s just the way it is.
It’s a great book. Shaprly written. Brilliantly plotted. Page-turning and thought-provoking at the same time. Highly recommended.
June 16, 2011
Tony Black has a taken a break from journalist turned Private Eye Gus Dury in his earlier four novels to write a police procedural featuring Edinburgh cop Rob Brennan. Comparisons are obviously going to be drawn between Dury and Brennan so let's get them out of the way up front. Dury is an outsider, the sort of bloke that trouble will turn right across heavy traffic to have a go at. Brennan's a family man, albeit one that's been indulging in a bit of extra-marital with the police psychologist. One that's having trouble coming to grips with a teenage daughter, and who obviously needs to sort it out with his wife. He's also suffering badly over the unsolved murder of his brother. There's a distinct possibility that trouble for Brennan will be wielding a handbag, looking for a word in his shell-like.
Brennan has just returned to work when he's given the case to solve. The body of a young girl in a dumpster in an Edinburgh alleyway seems somehow sort of predictable. But as her identity is revealed, her family found, and the fact that she'd recently had a baby of which there is absolutely no sign revealed, Brennan finds himself with quite a complicated problem to solve. Not helped because his boss is climbing the slippery ladder of career achievement and is more than happy to grind her high heels in the head of a subordinate that she can't even pretend to like.
Scottish noir at it's absolute and utter best, TRUTH LIES BLEEDING is a rollercoaster of the personal and professional, dark and light, desperation and determination. The personal relationships swirling around Brennan are drawn beautifully, and the fight to solve the crime, and find this missing baby is just the right mix of frustration and desperation, intuition and good old fashioned detecting. I must admit I did start to wonder at one point what it is about women and Brennan - just about every female character in this book wanted at or rid of him.
Aside from that one observation TRUTH LIES BLEEDING was very difficult to put down. There's none of the lunacy of the Dury books, and despite Brennan being yet another complex and confronted policeman making mistakes, up against the world, put upon and misunderstood, he's a very solid example of those characteristics. Likeable and annoying, understandable and completely inexplicable, Brennan's very believable. I can't remember who said it or where it was, but I do always remember something about police characters needing that sort of conflict in their lives in order to explain their drive to succeed - solve the case. Certainly that idea rang in my head as I read this book, but at no stage is the conflict overdone or overblown. There are echoes of some other well known Scottish detectives from the same location, but Black has set Brennan in the margins of Edinburgh society, sad, grim and surrounded by a lot that seems hopeless, and then he gives him a spark of something that could just mean he's going to get his act together.
Brennan has just returned to work when he's given the case to solve. The body of a young girl in a dumpster in an Edinburgh alleyway seems somehow sort of predictable. But as her identity is revealed, her family found, and the fact that she'd recently had a baby of which there is absolutely no sign revealed, Brennan finds himself with quite a complicated problem to solve. Not helped because his boss is climbing the slippery ladder of career achievement and is more than happy to grind her high heels in the head of a subordinate that she can't even pretend to like.
Scottish noir at it's absolute and utter best, TRUTH LIES BLEEDING is a rollercoaster of the personal and professional, dark and light, desperation and determination. The personal relationships swirling around Brennan are drawn beautifully, and the fight to solve the crime, and find this missing baby is just the right mix of frustration and desperation, intuition and good old fashioned detecting. I must admit I did start to wonder at one point what it is about women and Brennan - just about every female character in this book wanted at or rid of him.
Aside from that one observation TRUTH LIES BLEEDING was very difficult to put down. There's none of the lunacy of the Dury books, and despite Brennan being yet another complex and confronted policeman making mistakes, up against the world, put upon and misunderstood, he's a very solid example of those characteristics. Likeable and annoying, understandable and completely inexplicable, Brennan's very believable. I can't remember who said it or where it was, but I do always remember something about police characters needing that sort of conflict in their lives in order to explain their drive to succeed - solve the case. Certainly that idea rang in my head as I read this book, but at no stage is the conflict overdone or overblown. There are echoes of some other well known Scottish detectives from the same location, but Black has set Brennan in the margins of Edinburgh society, sad, grim and surrounded by a lot that seems hopeless, and then he gives him a spark of something that could just mean he's going to get his act together.
January 14, 2013
Tony Black's other anti-hero Gus Dury grew on me but i'm going to have to persevere with DI Rob Brennan. He's obviously got something against women ... he hate's his boss/wife/mistress and comes out with pearls like this .."ironing shirts for a spouse was an act of love".... Oh Really ?? I know what he'd be wearing first if he was my husband. He also sneer's & belittle's his colleagues, has delusions about his nouse as a policeman, has no respect and comes across as aloof, arrogant and rather petulant.... maybe he has a small penis ?? He's so obsessed with himself he doesn't even think about the ramifications of his actions on his only daughter .... what a guy. Or rather ... what a prick.
I have, however, ordered Murder Mile, the next book in this series so we'll see if DI Rob Brennan can scrape his way up to my shoe level.
I have, however, ordered Murder Mile, the next book in this series so we'll see if DI Rob Brennan can scrape his way up to my shoe level.
May 4, 2016
Great title, great premise, but I struggled with this one. It just didn't hold my interest enough to overcome my somewhat fractured mind at the moment. I did finish it, but the conclusion left me...meh. To be honest this was like reading Stuart MacBride's Laz McRae series after a psychotic, evil editor told him to remove the humour, the horrendous lack of political correctness, the gore and pretty much anything else that makes those novels standout. I didn't like the detective in this one. His mandated angst seemed very forced--no good reason to be such a bad husband or father other than a plot device.
I've read some other reviews that say the second in the series is better. I might risk it, but from the library this time...
I've read some other reviews that say the second in the series is better. I might risk it, but from the library this time...
February 25, 2013
I really enjoyed this book it is based in Edinburgh and made you feel like you were there. It is the first time i have read a book by Tony Black and i now have a second one of his to read as i enjoyed the first one so much
June 9, 2020
This review is for the audio edition. Truth Lies Bleeding benefits from a decent plot, but it hasn't got too much else to recommend it. The main character is an angry misfit with a troubled past, a dislike of authority and relationship issues. Heard it all before? Every good story is driven by conflict, and that's one thing that's not lacking here. Every conversation is a confrontation, regardless of the characters taking part, which soon becomes tedious. The main character, Rob Brennan, doesn't seem to like anyone and is unlikable himself. His idea of an investigation involves stomping about shouting at everyone until something turns up by some stroke of luck. Two stars for having a decent plot and being well-written despite it not being for me.
January 3, 2025
Four teenage girls discover the body of a young girl minus her arms and legs in a dumpster in Edinburgh. It becomes the case of DI Rob Brennan, and he has just returned from leave , his brother had been killed, the perpetrator had never been caught.
Within the force there are people climbing the ladder, and they are quite happy to trample over him to get there.
I loved this book, you could smell the damp alleyways stinking of piss…and imagine the hopeless addicts who would do anything for their next fix, living in squalor up to their necks in filth, and the beasts that live within, this is what the cops dealt with on a daily basis. While lack of resources and money make their job harder. It was a real page turner, a great read.
Within the force there are people climbing the ladder, and they are quite happy to trample over him to get there.
I loved this book, you could smell the damp alleyways stinking of piss…and imagine the hopeless addicts who would do anything for their next fix, living in squalor up to their necks in filth, and the beasts that live within, this is what the cops dealt with on a daily basis. While lack of resources and money make their job harder. It was a real page turner, a great read.
March 29, 2025
DI Rob Brennan is a major asshole with no redeeming sides and an ego the size of China. He thinks he is very clever and don't acknowledge his crew at all. He also totally ignore his wife and daughter and keep feeling sorry for himself. Often it's great to read about unlikable characters, but DI Brennan simply isn't much to root for. I'm told that
Murder Mile
is better, so I'll give it a chance.
February 26, 2017
Wasn't sure if I'd finish this one - the first few chapters didn't seem particularly encouraging. And reading a sentence that talked about "a lot that had went before" (p20) made me wonder whether the author was actually literate. The plot was fairly predictable - no really unexpected twists. But I stuck it out and got more interested in the story towards the end. It was ok, but I won't rush to read more by the same author.
March 5, 2017
A Saturday Slaughters selection. Hated it but can't totally slate it as story moved right along! Level of misogyny too high for me to read anything else he has written.
Couldn't find one character to like or at least empathise with.
Only recommended for those who like gritty crime novels by handsome Scots.
Couldn't find one character to like or at least empathise with.
Only recommended for those who like gritty crime novels by handsome Scots.
July 13, 2024
This detective story is centered in Edinburgh. A typical tale of young runaway girl's body is found....whodunit?
July 22, 2012
Wow. I wanted to give this book five stars but I recently thought about five star ratings and how they should be for books that I love, books that I want to read again the minute I finish them and books that everybody should read. And really this book was just an excellent crime thriller that I couldn't put down. I would usually give a book like this five stars but as I said I'm trying to save that rating for amazing books (that said I'm sure people will look at my five star rated books and see books they might not rate very highly themselves but I'm going off topic).
I read a lot of crime novels and have a to read list which is probably never going to be empty. I recently discovered this author and added him to my to read list and decided to start with this book, the first in a series featuring DI Rob Brennan. I must say the author has created a fantastic character in Brennan and one that I enjoyed reading about. In fact a lot of the book focused on Brennan's character, his family and his back story and this is one of the things I love most about series crime fiction rather than standalone crime novels. You get to know the characters and like them, hate them, care about them and want to keep reading about them. I think Brennan could become one of my favourite fictional detectives, my all time favourite being Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne. Brennan reminded me of Thorne once or twice. Plus it helped that he actually has a brain rather than spending the whole book without one and suddenly finding one in the last chapter.
I worked out where the story was going quite early on and there weren't any major twists in the book that would shock the reader. As I said a lot of the book was about Brennan and his relationships with his family and colleagues, getting to know the character. The villains of the book were despicable characters, the sort of people you see on the street and try to ignore. You feel no sympathy or remorse for them, just bewilderment at how they end up in such a state. There was also a bit of humour in the book and I liked the relationship between Brennan and his boss and his blase attitude towards his superiors and doing (or not doing) things by the book.
I finished the book in only a few hours which to me is always the sign of a good book. My poor Kindle gets used a lot as it is but it's hardly been switched off today since I started reading this book. I mark my enjoyment of a book by how quickly I read it and how much I wish I was reading it when I'm not. And I enjoyed this book, a lot. Enough to move the second DI Brennan book to the top of my to read list anyway and to recommend Tony Black to fans of Stuart MacBride, Mark Billingham etc.
I read a lot of crime novels and have a to read list which is probably never going to be empty. I recently discovered this author and added him to my to read list and decided to start with this book, the first in a series featuring DI Rob Brennan. I must say the author has created a fantastic character in Brennan and one that I enjoyed reading about. In fact a lot of the book focused on Brennan's character, his family and his back story and this is one of the things I love most about series crime fiction rather than standalone crime novels. You get to know the characters and like them, hate them, care about them and want to keep reading about them. I think Brennan could become one of my favourite fictional detectives, my all time favourite being Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne. Brennan reminded me of Thorne once or twice. Plus it helped that he actually has a brain rather than spending the whole book without one and suddenly finding one in the last chapter.
I worked out where the story was going quite early on and there weren't any major twists in the book that would shock the reader. As I said a lot of the book was about Brennan and his relationships with his family and colleagues, getting to know the character. The villains of the book were despicable characters, the sort of people you see on the street and try to ignore. You feel no sympathy or remorse for them, just bewilderment at how they end up in such a state. There was also a bit of humour in the book and I liked the relationship between Brennan and his boss and his blase attitude towards his superiors and doing (or not doing) things by the book.
I finished the book in only a few hours which to me is always the sign of a good book. My poor Kindle gets used a lot as it is but it's hardly been switched off today since I started reading this book. I mark my enjoyment of a book by how quickly I read it and how much I wish I was reading it when I'm not. And I enjoyed this book, a lot. Enough to move the second DI Brennan book to the top of my to read list anyway and to recommend Tony Black to fans of Stuart MacBride, Mark Billingham etc.
June 14, 2012
I'd have to say I haven't read a huge amount of Police Procedurals in my time. Those I have read, I've mostly enjoyed, but my reading tends to veer more towards the noir end of the crime/noir spectrum - tales from the wrong side of the tracks, as it were. So, opening up TRUTH LIES BLEEDING, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. What I got, within the first three pages, were three young girls finding the dismembered body of another young girl in a dustbin.
A bowl of cherries, this would not be. Just how I like it.
We are soon introduced to DI Brennan - a bristling cantankerous man, intent on getting his own way on all fronts. He's suspicious of everyone, and rightly so when we learn what drives him. Back from psychiatric leave, treated with varying degrees of disdain, ridicule, kindness, and contempt, by his colleagues, he now has a female boss to contend with as well.
The relationship between DI Brennan and his female boss - Chief Superintendant Gallagher - is brilliantly portrayed by Black. The mutual antagonism fair drips off the page. With Gallagher on his back, watching his every move, Brennan also discovers there is a mole in the team - someone leaking information about the case to the local press. Brennan, being Brennan, thinks it could be anyone. And Black does a fine job of keeping us so wrapped up in Brennan's paranoia this reader - yes, me, placid as they come, me - felt the need to punch almost everyone in the face Brennan suspects of being the leak.
And then we have the scene where all this takes place - Edinburgh. Not the Edinburgh of the castle and the palace, the gardens, the parliament, or the festival - no, this is the part of Edinburgh that gets through each day on a diet of drugs and alcohol and shit on the telly. A place where life is cheap and Jeremy Kyle is king. And the denziens of this world are superbly drawn by Black. We feel their brokenness and their pain, their viciousness, and their hate.
It is to this world Brennan will seek the answers to the horrendous crime of the dismembered girl in the dustbin.
Throw into the mix a missing baby, a psychotic drug dealer, a limping assassin, and a line towards the end of the book that made me stop reading and feel physically sick, and you have a top notch read that'll keep you rivetted to your seat till the very end.
Fantastic stuff.
A bowl of cherries, this would not be. Just how I like it.
We are soon introduced to DI Brennan - a bristling cantankerous man, intent on getting his own way on all fronts. He's suspicious of everyone, and rightly so when we learn what drives him. Back from psychiatric leave, treated with varying degrees of disdain, ridicule, kindness, and contempt, by his colleagues, he now has a female boss to contend with as well.
The relationship between DI Brennan and his female boss - Chief Superintendant Gallagher - is brilliantly portrayed by Black. The mutual antagonism fair drips off the page. With Gallagher on his back, watching his every move, Brennan also discovers there is a mole in the team - someone leaking information about the case to the local press. Brennan, being Brennan, thinks it could be anyone. And Black does a fine job of keeping us so wrapped up in Brennan's paranoia this reader - yes, me, placid as they come, me - felt the need to punch almost everyone in the face Brennan suspects of being the leak.
And then we have the scene where all this takes place - Edinburgh. Not the Edinburgh of the castle and the palace, the gardens, the parliament, or the festival - no, this is the part of Edinburgh that gets through each day on a diet of drugs and alcohol and shit on the telly. A place where life is cheap and Jeremy Kyle is king. And the denziens of this world are superbly drawn by Black. We feel their brokenness and their pain, their viciousness, and their hate.
It is to this world Brennan will seek the answers to the horrendous crime of the dismembered girl in the dustbin.
Throw into the mix a missing baby, a psychotic drug dealer, a limping assassin, and a line towards the end of the book that made me stop reading and feel physically sick, and you have a top notch read that'll keep you rivetted to your seat till the very end.
Fantastic stuff.
December 1, 2012
DI Rob Brennan is in his mid 40's and has just returned from six months leave following the murder of his brother Andy. His relationship with his wife Joyce and daughter Sophie is collapsing, and his affair with the lovely Lorraine is in meltdown and under immense strain especially as she has just disclosed to him that she is pregnant with his child. His attitude towards his "career orientated" Chief Superintendent Aileen Galloway is at best confrontational and he is viewed with great suspicion by his other working colleagues. All in all it's a bad week for Brennan and to top it all the mutilated body of a young girl is discovered in a wheely bin, it's up to Brennan to get results and to get them fast!...roll over Rebus there's a new kid on the block!! in the crime infested streets of Edinburgh. Brennan rises to the challenge with vigour and an adrenalin fuelled impatience that leaves the reader breathless. There are few words wasted in this 300+ page book...the writing and style is tight and taut..." "It was the infamous Deacon Brodie that best summed up the city for Brennan, though. The respectable businessman persona Brodie adopted by day contrasted starkly with the burglary trade he plied by night. The deacon seemed to embody the schizophrenic air that the city choked on still. It was a mix of stoic kirks and grand cathedrals, of bold achievements and great plans; but it was also the place where innocent-looking teenage girls wound up, beaten and bloodied, in grimy piss-smelling back alleys. They just didn't put that stuff in the tour guides" .....The pace is relentless and the excitement never ending, I read and evaluate many crime books so much of which is plodding and mundane, "Truth Lies Bleeding" is fast, brutal and furious and totally renews my faith in the crime genre...with a lovely little twist in the final pages! Well done Mr Black I look forward to reading book 2 in the series and give a warm welcome to the troubled DI Brennan and the lonely streets of a gritty city...
April 6, 2024
Conta dei cliché
Poliziotto cazzuto check
Uno che quando dice si signore suona come un vaffanculo check
Uno che le sue debolezze non le mostra mai e poi mai check
Disilluso check
Matrimonio al termine check
Figlia ribelle check
Dramma familiare alle spalle check
Indagine fuori dalla norma check
Delitto mostruoso check
Invidia dei colleghi check
Capi burocrati senza scrupoli pur di far carriera check
Tossici stupidi, sinistri pedofili, cattivi cattivissimi check
Coincidenza incredibile che per ammazzare due tossici invece di una banale morte per overdose si faccia venire dall’Irlanda proprio il killer zoppicante check
Capitoli che si chiudono con frase ad effetto check
Dialoghi da duri duri e pensieri duri
Esempi: “emotivamente non gli restava più nulla a cui attingere, ma sapeva di dover resistere. Era il suo lavoro e nessun altro, ne era certo, aveva a cuore il lavoro quanto lui.”
“.. sapeva che da quel momento in avanti non avrebbe più guardato il mondo con gli stessi occhi. Aveva pagato con un altro frammento di ciò che lo rendeva umano. Venirci a patti era comunque un problema che avrebbe affrontato un altro giorno.”
“I pensieri che lo tormentavano erano imperscrutabili ed erano non meno perenni della pioggia scozzese.”
Poliziotto cazzuto check
Uno che quando dice si signore suona come un vaffanculo check
Uno che le sue debolezze non le mostra mai e poi mai check
Disilluso check
Matrimonio al termine check
Figlia ribelle check
Dramma familiare alle spalle check
Indagine fuori dalla norma check
Delitto mostruoso check
Invidia dei colleghi check
Capi burocrati senza scrupoli pur di far carriera check
Tossici stupidi, sinistri pedofili, cattivi cattivissimi check
Coincidenza incredibile che per ammazzare due tossici invece di una banale morte per overdose si faccia venire dall’Irlanda proprio il killer zoppicante check
Capitoli che si chiudono con frase ad effetto check
Dialoghi da duri duri e pensieri duri
Esempi: “emotivamente non gli restava più nulla a cui attingere, ma sapeva di dover resistere. Era il suo lavoro e nessun altro, ne era certo, aveva a cuore il lavoro quanto lui.”
“.. sapeva che da quel momento in avanti non avrebbe più guardato il mondo con gli stessi occhi. Aveva pagato con un altro frammento di ciò che lo rendeva umano. Venirci a patti era comunque un problema che avrebbe affrontato un altro giorno.”
“I pensieri che lo tormentavano erano imperscrutabili ed erano non meno perenni della pioggia scozzese.”
November 3, 2014
Giving Gus Dury a day off, Old Tone introduces us to hard boiled beaut of a Scottish Detective, Rob Brennan. Fresh from psyche leave after the shooting of his brother, Brennan is hurled into a case involving the brutal murder of a young girl. Brannan does the best he can to keep a professional head on things but the vicious nature of the crime and his brother not yet cold in his mind, the psychological torment he suffers is wonderfully illustrated. But being an Old school cop in a new school world, Brennan is like a dog with a bone and will not stop at anything until the lid has firmly been placed on this case.
Typical of Tony Black, we have the streets of Edinburgh and Scottish life on the rough side brought to us in vivid and tight sentences. What makes this one different is that it is steeped in what seemed to be accurate police procedure and I got the distinct impression that he had researched long and hard on this one. Probably going as far as to embed himself with a team of coppers for a while, I’d wager.
Typical of Tony Black, we have the streets of Edinburgh and Scottish life on the rough side brought to us in vivid and tight sentences. What makes this one different is that it is steeped in what seemed to be accurate police procedure and I got the distinct impression that he had researched long and hard on this one. Probably going as far as to embed himself with a team of coppers for a while, I’d wager.
January 20, 2014
At first I found the authors style of writing quite a challenge as it was a lot more clipped and staccato than other texts I had read. However once the story got going that wasn't an issue. I felt that the main character of Rob Brennan wasn't as well developed as that of the supporting characters, maybe because he was one of the few good guys. The characters of Devlin, Barry and Vee were very well written and for the most part their actions were realistic. The book is very dark and although the murder of the young girl is gruesome the book isn't gory in any way.
As I said, once the story got going I was keen to find out exactly what had happened but the story is such that I can't really say I enjoyed it. It was engaging and at, times, thought provoking. Many of the characters actions were those of very selfish and self centred people and by the end I was glad to be rid of them, though I didn't feel that I really knew the central character any better than I had at the start. I am not sure I would read the next book in this series unless the main character was more fully.
As I said, once the story got going I was keen to find out exactly what had happened but the story is such that I can't really say I enjoyed it. It was engaging and at, times, thought provoking. Many of the characters actions were those of very selfish and self centred people and by the end I was glad to be rid of them, though I didn't feel that I really knew the central character any better than I had at the start. I am not sure I would read the next book in this series unless the main character was more fully.
October 26, 2014
As a result of reading this book, I have read every available book written by this author. I love crime novels and suspense. This man is a genius. I love his gritty style and his way of weaving a story filled with suspense to the bitter end. The characters are just so real and you cannot read his books without becoming fully immersed. What I liked about this and his other works is that his characters are flawed and real. I love that they are not fictionalised. I came to love them in spite of themselves. For those considering reading this book, I say "Do it".You will not be disappointed...and then read everything you can get your hands on written by Tony Black.
I must note that I don't often write reviews or offer ratings even though I have read literally thousands of books. I'm trying to make an effort because as a writer myself I know how much it means to be supported and so here I am posting up reviews for those books that I find to be worth rating. I'll try to offer a bit more in future.
I must note that I don't often write reviews or offer ratings even though I have read literally thousands of books. I'm trying to make an effort because as a writer myself I know how much it means to be supported and so here I am posting up reviews for those books that I find to be worth rating. I'll try to offer a bit more in future.
November 3, 2014
Scottish crime writer Tony Black takes a break from his terrific series about chaotic, drunken amateur sleuth Gus Dury to write this police procedural. His new hero is Inspector Rob Brennan, recently back on duty after the murder of his brother, a killing about which he feels guilty. He is thrown into a tragic, brutal killing of a schoolgirl and recent mother, found dismembered in an Edinburgh bin.
Brennan is very different to Dury. He is a man with a complicated personal life but, while he is rather cynical, he is in control of himself, disciplined in the face of station politics and power games from his boss, striving to make some sense of a world he thinks is random, brutal and senseless.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which ripped along but always maintained a level of deep characterisation that many crime stories lack. A gritty, emotionally charged read.
Brennan is very different to Dury. He is a man with a complicated personal life but, while he is rather cynical, he is in control of himself, disciplined in the face of station politics and power games from his boss, striving to make some sense of a world he thinks is random, brutal and senseless.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which ripped along but always maintained a level of deep characterisation that many crime stories lack. A gritty, emotionally charged read.
June 23, 2012
DI Rob Brennan has just returned to work following his brother's killing. He is thrown into a case of a murdered teenage girl found in an alleyway with her limbs removed. This is the first book in the Rob Brennan series and the character develops nicely as the book progresses but like all fictional detectives he clearly has some personal baggage! This doesn't dictate the story though and it moves along at a good pace. Very readable especially if you like Scottish detectives! Will be hunting out the second in the series
February 23, 2013
Thoroughly enjoyed this book - great story line, some twists and turns - some predictability, but a good read. To me, DI Rob Brennan is a likable character - a bit gruff, has flaws, and leads a difficult life and tormented life.
I will continue to read Tony Black's DI Rob Brennan Series as long as he writes it.
Two thumbs up for this book!
I will continue to read Tony Black's DI Rob Brennan Series as long as he writes it.
Two thumbs up for this book!
November 20, 2012
Well, what can I say,
this novel just proves what I knew already,
Tony Black is a genius.
I am looking forward to much more from DI Brenan and co and it just so happens I have the next instalment "Murder Mile" right here on my desk
this novel just proves what I knew already,
Tony Black is a genius.
I am looking forward to much more from DI Brenan and co and it just so happens I have the next instalment "Murder Mile" right here on my desk
March 12, 2013
Just all a bit too stereotypical. Screwed up cop fighting with his ambitious boss and colleagues. Sigh, read it all before. The plot was also a bit too grimy for my liking, with nothing else about the book there to make it stand out from a very big crowd.
December 26, 2013
Enjoyable piece of tartan noir. The Edinburgh setting inevitably invites comparison with Rankin:- The city is not brought to life as effectively as in Ian Rankin's novels but the gutsy and determined D.I. Rob Brennan is an interesting character who I would like to meet again.
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