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Danny McRae #1
Truth Dare Kill
1945
The war is over. But there are no medals for Danny McRae, just amnesia and blackouts; twin handicaps for a private investigator, especially with a filthy rich client on the hook for murder.
The war is over. But there are no medals for Danny McRae, just amnesia and blackouts; twin handicaps for a private investigator, especially with a filthy rich client on the hook for murder.
263 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2007
67 people are currently reading
739 people want to read
About the author
Gordon Ferris
34 books137 followersI was born on Rabbie Burns' day in the small industrial town of Kilmarnock, in the West of Scotland. My mother took it as a sign of impending literary fortune. Naturally enough, I ignored her, despite writing being the only thing I loved [after rugby and the fairer sex].
I took the long way round to becoming an author. I've been a computer programmer and an executive in the UK Ministry of Defence, and a consultancy partner in the banking division of Price Waterhouse. Maybe that's where I got my interest in guns and crooks for my post war crime novels set in Glasgow and London.
I'm enormously proud of my Brodie Quartet but I'm now expanding my reach by writing contemporary thrillers. The first product of this broadening out is MONEY TREE now published on Amazon kindle [paperback to follow].
I took the long way round to becoming an author. I've been a computer programmer and an executive in the UK Ministry of Defence, and a consultancy partner in the banking division of Price Waterhouse. Maybe that's where I got my interest in guns and crooks for my post war crime novels set in Glasgow and London.
I'm enormously proud of my Brodie Quartet but I'm now expanding my reach by writing contemporary thrillers. The first product of this broadening out is MONEY TREE now published on Amazon kindle [paperback to follow].
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
January 17, 2016
This book is set in London, soon after the end of WWII. The main character is Danny McRae, a policeman before the war, an SOE agent during the war, and now he has set himself up as a Private Investigator. Unfortunately, he suffers blackouts and undergoes periodic psychological treatment. He has a whole year gap to his memory, and every so often his blackouts throw up a small fragment of his past.
One of his first assignments as a PI is to investigate the supposed death of a man, was it accidental or deliberate. The man in question was McRae's wartime boss, and perhaps he could have filled in some missing gaps.
I was lead here by Doulas Brodie, another character from this writer's pen, both who seem to have their own troubles brought on by the war. I am guessing that this was an earlier work, as it doesn't seem quite so polished. It is still a worthwhile read though, with plenty of plot twists and turns.
One of his first assignments as a PI is to investigate the supposed death of a man, was it accidental or deliberate. The man in question was McRae's wartime boss, and perhaps he could have filled in some missing gaps.
I was lead here by Doulas Brodie, another character from this writer's pen, both who seem to have their own troubles brought on by the war. I am guessing that this was an earlier work, as it doesn't seem quite so polished. It is still a worthwhile read though, with plenty of plot twists and turns.
March 27, 2014
It was an alright read, an engaging character with the main protagonist Danny McRae. McRae being a Scot, Glaswegian to be precise who since the end of the war has relocated to the Smoke (thats London) & started work as a PI since being demobbed after a long period in hospital due to his war experiences.
The story revolves mainly around Danny's role as an ex-soe agent & his former boss & that of the local plod (thats police) not liking PI's. There's folk from Soho involved, criminals & also a glamour puss (a pretty lady...)
It's the beginning of a serial that I may take forward as the character kinda grew on me even if the main story/plot was a little secondary.
The story revolves mainly around Danny's role as an ex-soe agent & his former boss & that of the local plod (thats police) not liking PI's. There's folk from Soho involved, criminals & also a glamour puss (a pretty lady...)
It's the beginning of a serial that I may take forward as the character kinda grew on me even if the main story/plot was a little secondary.
April 29, 2011
This is another bargain book on Kindle - just £1 if you're interested!
This is the first 'Danny McRae' book, with Unquiet Heart being the second. It is 1945 and Scottish Danny McRae is a private investigator in London - an ex-policeman, he has returned from the war after being captured by the Germans and suffering severe head trauma.
When he is approached by a glamorous woman to investigate the possible death of her married lover, who just happens to have been his commanding officer in France, and the one person able to help him piece together the missing fragments of his memory, he takes on the job.
At the same time, prostitutes are being murdered in Soho, and it seems that the brutal killings are being committed at the same time as Danny has experienced blackouts due to his head wound.
This was an enjoyable enough book, although I found Danny rather difficult to like, so I'm not sure whether I will read the next one. There were some quite clever twists and turns, but I found the characters a little shallow, and the ending rather unbelievable.
Still, an interesting enough retro-thriller.
This is the first 'Danny McRae' book, with Unquiet Heart being the second. It is 1945 and Scottish Danny McRae is a private investigator in London - an ex-policeman, he has returned from the war after being captured by the Germans and suffering severe head trauma.
When he is approached by a glamorous woman to investigate the possible death of her married lover, who just happens to have been his commanding officer in France, and the one person able to help him piece together the missing fragments of his memory, he takes on the job.
At the same time, prostitutes are being murdered in Soho, and it seems that the brutal killings are being committed at the same time as Danny has experienced blackouts due to his head wound.
This was an enjoyable enough book, although I found Danny rather difficult to like, so I'm not sure whether I will read the next one. There were some quite clever twists and turns, but I found the characters a little shallow, and the ending rather unbelievable.
Still, an interesting enough retro-thriller.
May 9, 2012
Slow in finding Gordon Ferris. Picked this book as it was set just after the second war world, London 1945. I've just read Icelight; so I was keen to see how another author tackled this period.
Danny McRae a returning SOE agent decides to set up in the Capital as a private eye but he is troubled by amnesia and severe episodes when he is unaware of time, sometimes losing whole days without any knowledge of what he's been doing.
A familiar theme of a returning memory which might be an unpleasant result as his brain may want him not to remember or are there other players who have an interest in him never finding the truth.
Good plot, well written and a good mix of suspense, thrills and surprises. We warm to our character who slowing learns how to be a good detective, comes to terms with his past and through the attention and simple trust of others learns to trust himself.
Danny McRae a returning SOE agent decides to set up in the Capital as a private eye but he is troubled by amnesia and severe episodes when he is unaware of time, sometimes losing whole days without any knowledge of what he's been doing.
A familiar theme of a returning memory which might be an unpleasant result as his brain may want him not to remember or are there other players who have an interest in him never finding the truth.
Good plot, well written and a good mix of suspense, thrills and surprises. We warm to our character who slowing learns how to be a good detective, comes to terms with his past and through the attention and simple trust of others learns to trust himself.
June 11, 2015
Got this cut price from Amazon after enjoying The Hanging Shed and its follow up Bitter Water. A different character this time but an equally enjoyable tale. Ferris tells his story in a straightforward style that makes for an easy and fast moving read. Danny McRae is a great character, physically and psychologically damaged following his experiences in the Second World War. He's trying to scrape a living working as a private detective in London and agrees to take a case on from a beautiful woman. He gets into all sorts of scrapes while investigating and at the same time trying to unravel the mystery of his own past. A great read.
March 14, 2016
This book took me a really long time to get moving and once it did I still wasn't really won over on the style.
I did eventually get into the characters and their backstories but at first it was so annoying that the main character seems to know everybody previously that he bumped into.
Also, a couple of historical inaccuracies that left me annoyed.
I did eventually get into the characters and their backstories but at first it was so annoying that the main character seems to know everybody previously that he bumped into.
Also, a couple of historical inaccuracies that left me annoyed.
May 24, 2011
I read the Kindle version which at £1 was great value. I love Ferris's writing and I love the landscape and characters he creates. No spoilers, but there was one aspect of this book that simply didn't work for me and that's why it only gets 3***.
January 19, 2019
Really enjoyable thriller. Having read two Douglas Brodie novels I’ve gone back to read the Danny McRae stories before reading their crossover adventure and am really glad that I did. I was concerned that there wouldn’t be much distinction between the two characters but they are clearly unique, as are the worlds in which they operate. This is definitely a thriller rather than a whodunnit since it is fairly clear within the first third of the book who the killer but there are plenty of truely unexpected twists before the end and it is genuinely a howaretheygonnaproveit since it all appear as dense as the London fog until the final resolution.
Can’t wait to read the next in the series.
Can’t wait to read the next in the series.
June 12, 2017
3.5 stars. A mystery set in London in the years after the finish of WWII. Danny had been a member of an SOE team during the war but ended up in Dachau for the final year. He subsequently suffered head wounds and consequently had black outs that lasted for days. After the war he became a private investigator and became involved in a straight forward case that evolved into something much larger where he was accused of the murder of 5 prostitutes. Corrupt policeman, corrupt major, his boss from the war and an incestuous family relationship all proved to test his mettle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2021
A mixture as clichés, such as the good guy’s confrontation with the loquacious killer near the conclusion, slightly mar some evocative material including an interesting WWII connection. Danny McRae, still seriously affected by a Gestapo applied head-wound from which he suffers frequent blackouts during which he might be a killer of prostitutes, is a PI in 1946 London hired by a rich young woman to find out the fate of her military lover apparently blown up by a post-war UXB. All is obviously not what it seems
July 24, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. The pace was good enough to keep my turning pages, and the plot was laid out well. I found Danny McRae a mostly likeable character and did wish there were more than just two other books about him.
The only thing I didn’t really like about the book is that Danny as a narrator seemed to be an antisemite and homophobe - though I tried to understand that these sort of attitudes may have been very much normal and common at the time the book was set, but it left a bad taste in my mouth and made me think less of the character.
The only thing I didn’t really like about the book is that Danny as a narrator seemed to be an antisemite and homophobe - though I tried to understand that these sort of attitudes may have been very much normal and common at the time the book was set, but it left a bad taste in my mouth and made me think less of the character.
January 29, 2022
Not for me
Sadly the swearing and profanity right from the beginning was enough to stop me reading more. It sounded intriguing about the woman coming to find out about her friend but went downhill from then. I’m sure others will enjoy it.
Sadly the swearing and profanity right from the beginning was enough to stop me reading more. It sounded intriguing about the woman coming to find out about her friend but went downhill from then. I’m sure others will enjoy it.
Read
February 20, 2020Book group choice
August 3, 2020
A gritty, hard hitting psychological thriller. A real case of "who is the monster and who is the man". Very much enjoyed it!
June 9, 2021
Good thriller
March 29, 2022
Thoroughly recommend
Well written, entertaining page turner. Loved the retro style. Will definitely be looking for more by this author. Loved it.
Well written, entertaining page turner. Loved the retro style. Will definitely be looking for more by this author. Loved it.
August 15, 2023
too clunky for me. DNF. I may come back and try to read it, but I am going back to the Douglas Brodie series now.
dnf
July 19, 2025operation tbr - gave it 2 chapters but just not to my taste
October 30, 2025
Excellent atmospheric conjuring of post WWII London
February 6, 2012
1945 - World War 2 is over, and TRUTH DARE KILL is another book set in a post-war period that I've read recently. Set in London, this is the story of Danny McRae, an ex-policeman who has returned from the war after being captured by the Germans, incurring a severe head injury in the process. As a result he suffers amnesia and blackouts, which has to make working as a private investigator a lot more complicated than it needs to be.
Approached by a woman who wants the possible death of her married lover investigated, McRae takes the job. Partially because he needs the money, and partially because the missing man turns out to be McRae's commanding officer in France, and one of the few people in the world that can help him discover the missing parts of his life. The complication is that not only do the blackouts and amnesia make his job difficult, there are also a series of brutal murders of prostitutes in nearby Soho and McRae has some very valid reasons to wonder if he could be involved.
TRUTH DARE KILL felt very like a book aiming to create a lone wolf, stripped down, struggling character. Danny McRae is taciturn and introverted, he's probably not meant to be an easy man to find any connection with. I'm not sure whether that was a particular ploy on the part of the author (the character is, after all, having trouble coming to grips with himself after his war-time experience), whether it's an artefact of the book's "styling", or maybe because it's the first book in a series. Alternatively it could be a combination of the whole lot. Either way, I suspect some readers will struggle with McRae. I found him quite realistic, and everything about him consistent, right down to the problems of finding something about him to connect to. He felt at sea, awash with the complication of life, the difficulties of randomly losing control of your life, making it seem feasible that he'd be disconnected from everyone and everybody (including a distant observer like - the reader).
There's a very noir feeling to the setting as well. There was something subdued, dark, shell-shocked about 1945 London that felt authentic, albeit deliberately washed out, tired, gritty, bleak.
Despite the overwhelming feeling of bleakness left behind by TRUTH DARE KILL, I did find it to be quite an interesting book, set in another post-war period that isn't like the world that I live in. I certainly engaged enough with the book to add the next in the series to my buy list.
Approached by a woman who wants the possible death of her married lover investigated, McRae takes the job. Partially because he needs the money, and partially because the missing man turns out to be McRae's commanding officer in France, and one of the few people in the world that can help him discover the missing parts of his life. The complication is that not only do the blackouts and amnesia make his job difficult, there are also a series of brutal murders of prostitutes in nearby Soho and McRae has some very valid reasons to wonder if he could be involved.
TRUTH DARE KILL felt very like a book aiming to create a lone wolf, stripped down, struggling character. Danny McRae is taciturn and introverted, he's probably not meant to be an easy man to find any connection with. I'm not sure whether that was a particular ploy on the part of the author (the character is, after all, having trouble coming to grips with himself after his war-time experience), whether it's an artefact of the book's "styling", or maybe because it's the first book in a series. Alternatively it could be a combination of the whole lot. Either way, I suspect some readers will struggle with McRae. I found him quite realistic, and everything about him consistent, right down to the problems of finding something about him to connect to. He felt at sea, awash with the complication of life, the difficulties of randomly losing control of your life, making it seem feasible that he'd be disconnected from everyone and everybody (including a distant observer like - the reader).
There's a very noir feeling to the setting as well. There was something subdued, dark, shell-shocked about 1945 London that felt authentic, albeit deliberately washed out, tired, gritty, bleak.
Despite the overwhelming feeling of bleakness left behind by TRUTH DARE KILL, I did find it to be quite an interesting book, set in another post-war period that isn't like the world that I live in. I certainly engaged enough with the book to add the next in the series to my buy list.
August 31, 2012
‘Truth Dare Kill’ by Gordon Ferris
Published by Corvus, 6 October 2011. ISBN 978-0-85789-492-2
Danny McRae having survived the war has set himself up as a private investigator. The world is trying to get back to normality, but for Danny, who has no memory of a year of his life, what is normality? He knows that he was in France on a mission and he knows that he was captured by the Germans, but for the rest…..
His first case is very reminiscence of what we know of the Golden Age, as beautiful elegant, upper-class Kate Graveney hires Danny to investigate the death of her lover – she says she is not certain whether she killed him, or if it was the bomb that ravaged the flat in which they were both staying.
Danny set’s out on this his first investigation, but Danny is still subject to black-outs that are a result of his head injury which account for his loss of a year’s memory. As he sets off on a hunt through bomb-ravaged London, he meets Valerie who seems to be on his side, something he dearly needs – someone on his side. But Valerie is elusive giving no address and just turning up out of the blue and disappearing just as abruptly.
As Danny attempts to establish whether Tony, Kate’s lover died in a bombing, his blackouts raise for him questions, as he reads about a brutal killer stalking London's red light district, and he wonders of just what he could be capable of when out of it.
Gradually, he begins to piece together the events leading up to his arrest in France and as he does so he becomes a threat to someone, someone who cannot risk him recovering his memory. With his handicap of not knowing Danny is stabbing around in the dark and the fact that an Inspector Wilson has it in for him doesn’t help.
This is an excellent mystery with a wonderful ambiance of the mysteries of the late 1940’s. It has a truly wonderful surprise ending, and is highly recommended.
------
Lizzie Hayes
Published by Corvus, 6 October 2011. ISBN 978-0-85789-492-2
Danny McRae having survived the war has set himself up as a private investigator. The world is trying to get back to normality, but for Danny, who has no memory of a year of his life, what is normality? He knows that he was in France on a mission and he knows that he was captured by the Germans, but for the rest…..
His first case is very reminiscence of what we know of the Golden Age, as beautiful elegant, upper-class Kate Graveney hires Danny to investigate the death of her lover – she says she is not certain whether she killed him, or if it was the bomb that ravaged the flat in which they were both staying.
Danny set’s out on this his first investigation, but Danny is still subject to black-outs that are a result of his head injury which account for his loss of a year’s memory. As he sets off on a hunt through bomb-ravaged London, he meets Valerie who seems to be on his side, something he dearly needs – someone on his side. But Valerie is elusive giving no address and just turning up out of the blue and disappearing just as abruptly.
As Danny attempts to establish whether Tony, Kate’s lover died in a bombing, his blackouts raise for him questions, as he reads about a brutal killer stalking London's red light district, and he wonders of just what he could be capable of when out of it.
Gradually, he begins to piece together the events leading up to his arrest in France and as he does so he becomes a threat to someone, someone who cannot risk him recovering his memory. With his handicap of not knowing Danny is stabbing around in the dark and the fact that an Inspector Wilson has it in for him doesn’t help.
This is an excellent mystery with a wonderful ambiance of the mysteries of the late 1940’s. It has a truly wonderful surprise ending, and is highly recommended.
------
Lizzie Hayes
December 7, 2019
a new author for me.. good solid writing but tiresome premise
May 2, 2015
Danny McRae is war damaged - literally and figuratively. An undercover officer helping the Resistance in France, he's caught and tortured by the Gestapo, a severe beating damaging his brain rendering him useless to the Fatherland, thence transported to Dachau and its inhuman conditions. Rescued when the camp is liberated, he takes a year to recover, in the process losing his memories of the last year and the circumstances leading up to his capture. With the help of surgery, electroconvulsive therapy and a sympathetic psychiatrist, Danny slowly finds his feet and decides to put his ex policeman's training to good use as a private detective. A new client's case and his own search to unravel the missing year of his life slowly intertwine. And his dictum that there is no such thing as coincidence begins to come true.
Gordon Ferris writes Danny McRae with a sure hand. One can almost feel his rage and confusion and pain at what has happened and what is deliberately being done to him. His musings on war and post war London lend a sub text to the detection as he goes about sorting through the debris of his life and London.
Definitely an author I want to read more of.
Gordon Ferris writes Danny McRae with a sure hand. One can almost feel his rage and confusion and pain at what has happened and what is deliberately being done to him. His musings on war and post war London lend a sub text to the detection as he goes about sorting through the debris of his life and London.
Definitely an author I want to read more of.
January 28, 2015
Yeah quite enjoyed that, particularly the setting - not often you get stories set right at the end of the war, a country recently euphoric from victory but at the same time completely crippled and living day to day with the fallout of 6 years of conflict. I read this book as an exploration of the psychological effect of war on the individual - an individual struggling to come to terms with the horrors he has been through (using his amnesia as a device to drip feed fragments of his story both to us and to himself at the same time), returning to a homeland that shuns him in an effort to forget and move on. While at times the distinction between good and bad guys is (deliberately) in doubt, the end ending never really is (and I'm usually crap at guessing endings), but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book. Not quite as gritty and edgy as The Hanging Shed, but enjoyable all the same.
June 3, 2011
I downloaded this book to my Kindle as it was being offered very cheaply. It is the first book in a series about a private investigator just after the end of the Second World War. I found it a readable and diverting mystery, and quite hard to stop reading and although not really my cup of tea I found I enjoyed it . I liked the setting of London January 1946 – still showing the considerable scars of the blitz. The landscape is bleak and menacing. Danny McCrae is a convincing character with a complicated war past – which due to a severe head injury he is unable to remember a year of. Now Danny finds conspiracy everywhere he turns and has to unravel the mystery of his time in France in 1944 – but there are people who don’t want Danny to find out the truth and will do anything to stop him.
January 12, 2016
A very serviceable thriller, beginning, as did Ferris' other series about Brodie, with a Scot in London just after the end of WW2. This one is a PI, but after a Philip Marlowe start (tatty office and fragrant dame) this launches off in a different direction connected to our heroes time in the SOE. Whilst it retained my attention, it teetered on the edge of plausibility a bit too much to be really satisfying. I note that I have book 2, which I will read fairly soon, but I am not sure there is really a series in this material.
I saw on the cover a quote from The Daily Mail that Ferris is "the new Ian Rankin" - that is about as accurate as the paper's news reporting!
I saw on the cover a quote from The Daily Mail that Ferris is "the new Ian Rankin" - that is about as accurate as the paper's news reporting!
January 16, 2015
I've really enjoyed Gordon Ferris' Douglas Brodie-series, set right after WW1.
His series about Private Detective Danny McRae share a lot of the feeling from the DB-series, but the pacing is different and the story is set right after WW2, where McRae has to try and find himself (and a lost, presumed dead, officer who sent him to France in WW2.) At the same time a serial killer is on the loose, and suspicions arise to who it is.
This reads a lot like a homage to classic detective stories, and there is a LOT of Phillip Marlowe in this book. So if you enjoy those kinds of books, go get this!
His series about Private Detective Danny McRae share a lot of the feeling from the DB-series, but the pacing is different and the story is set right after WW2, where McRae has to try and find himself (and a lost, presumed dead, officer who sent him to France in WW2.) At the same time a serial killer is on the loose, and suspicions arise to who it is.
This reads a lot like a homage to classic detective stories, and there is a LOT of Phillip Marlowe in this book. So if you enjoy those kinds of books, go get this!
October 25, 2015
A patron at work put me onto this author as we were chatting about crime novels and I had mentioned that I didn't much like James Patterson. Very pleased he did too, this guy is a much better writer. (still think Philip Kerr is better though). Book is set just after WWII, the private detective is sort of new to his field (he's been police and in the war as an agent in France with the resistance), so you would think he'd be a little less bungling, but the story is compelling and the characterisation doesn't lose out to the plot. If I have any criticism, it would have been nice to have a twist, too easy to figure out who dunnit.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews