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Douglas Brodie #1

by Gordon Ferris

Glasgow 1946. Brodie's back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Shug Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Donovan was dead, shot down in the war. The man who eventually returns is horribly burned, only venturing out for heroin to deaden his pain. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect, but Donovan claims he's innocent. Ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to help him. Working with advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie finds an unholy alliance of troublesome priests, corrupt coppers and Glasgow's deadliest razor gang. As time runs out for Donovan, the murder tally of innocents starts to climb. When Sam Campbell disappears, it's the last straw for Brodie ...

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Scotland, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Ebooks

325 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 25, 2010

About the author

I 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].

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Description: A read-it-in-one-sitting, action-packed, gritty, and atmospheric crime novel set on the tough streets of 1946 Glasgow

The last time Douglas Brodie came home it was 1942 and he was a dashing young warrior in a kilt. Now, the war is over, but victory's wine has soured and Brodie's back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Hugh was dead, shot down in the war. Perhaps it would have been kinder if he had been killed. The man who returns from the war is unrecognizable: mutilated, horribly burned. Hugh keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect. Hugh claims he's innocent but a mountain of evidence says otherwise. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one-time friend. Working with advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls the mean streets of the Gorbals and the green hills of western Scotland in their search for the truth. What they find is an unholy alliance of troublesome priests, corrupt cops, and Glasgow's deadliest razor gang, happy to slaughter to protect their dark and dirt

Opening quote:

'I'll take the big sordid
dirty crowded city.'
- Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

Opening: There are no windows in a hanging shed. Only a sadistic architect would provide a last glimpse of the fair green hills. The same goes for paintings and potted plants. You're unlikely to divert the condemned man from the business in hand with a nice framed 'Monarch of the Glen' or a genteel aspidistra. Besides, he'll only visit once. Wearing a hood.

Drawn in from the very first page. This book is so full up with plot that to give you anything more than the description would be betrayal. Eye-scorching 5* says it all donchafink?

'Beneath me and all around me I Feel the 'Royal Scot' hurtling through the night, steel wheels clacking remorselessly on the rails.'

Barlinnie Prison

Gorbals 1948

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.8 rounded up to 5 Stars!

This book is an awesome rollercoaster of a thriller/mystery set at the end of WW2 mainly in Glasgow.



Douglas Brodie has fought in the war and is damaged and disillusioned living alone in London when an old pal from Scotland contacts him for help...he has been accused of rape and murder and faces the death penalty.

Brodie agrees to meet him and heads back to confront his past before the war; as a child, then a policeman, then as a soldier in the 51st Highland Division.



The investigation begins when Brodie realises that things do not add up and he puts his EVERYTHING into finding the proof he needs to save his pal.

It is a dark and shocking tale with a hint of humour to keep you sane!

Think Jack Reacher meets DS Logan McRae - Brodie is a true soldier with all the strengths and weaknesses that go with living on the edge.

Glasgow and the bleakness of the crime stricken poor areas provide an interesting backdrop to the horrifying story that emerges at a rapid pace.

My only small complaint is that sometimes it doesn't feel like 1945 - the language and behaviour of Brodie and Sam seem very modern day to me.
Also as a hot-head I am surprised that he makes it to the end of the book (not really a spoiler I promise as this is the first of a series) but part of me likes that he gets stuck in there.

It is gritty and very violent but a thoroughly absorbing and enjoyable read.

I will DEFINITELY be reading more in this series - it is one of my favourites EVER in this genre.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murder
The book follows a standard plot in that someone is murdered, the main, sorry only, suspect (Hugh Donovan) seems to be doomed with a mountain of evidence against him. In steps Douglas Brodie, ex-soldier and ex-policeman to prove his friend innocent.

The backdrop of Glasgow post-WWII was very atmospheric blending itself to the gang threat and the gloom of the area. There is great writing to deliver us to the point of the start of the murder investigation and then the narrative makes some strange jumps in flow and believability. The run-in towards the end of the story feels too formulaic with several conveniences that illustrates there is not much thought going into the twist and turns as in the first half of the book. I was a bit underwhelmed at the end.

[Fictionophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

I work as a library cataloguer so see countless books everyday. So… it stands to reason that this is where I find the books I want to read next. Not this time.
I belong to a social networking site called ‘CrimeSpace‘, a place where readers and writers of crime fiction meet. I saw a book recommended by one of MY favourite authors, Shirley Wells. Anything she recommends I am willing to try. I wasn’t disappointed!

"The hanging shed" by Gordon Ferris

“The hanging shed” is the first novel I’ve read by Gordon Ferris. Set in post-war Glasgow, Scotland, the overall tone is dark, with overtones of noir.

Douglas Brodie is a battle weary WWII veteran and ex-cop who takes up journalism after the war. He lives alone in war-torn London with his bottle of whiskey. That is until he receives a telephone call from a childhood friend back home in Glasgow. Hugh Donovan is in prison awaiting the death penalty. He asks Brodie if he will come to visit him and help to prove his innocence.

Brodie’s return to Glasgow brings back painful memories of first love and betrayal. Hugh Donovan stole his girl Fiona. He has never forgiven him. But war changes people and no one is more changed than Hugh Donovan. He was shot down and was terribly burned and disfigured. The once handsome man is now nothing more than a memory. He lives in constant pain and people find it difficult to look at him. Brodie cannot forget Hugh’s betrayal but despite himself he finds that the case against Hugh is full of holes…

Brodie meets with Hugh’s lawyer and together they set about trying to appeal Hugh’s case before his date with the gallows. Samantha Donovan is a workaholic with little in the way of social life. She invites Brodie to stay at her house whilst he investigates the case and a deep friendship develops between them.

They soon discover that Hugh was set up to take the fall for someone else. But who? The story is much more grisly and multi-layered than even they could have imagined! Can they save Hugh in time? Innocent people are being killed and Brodie finds that he must again revert to his army training to hunt the villains and defend himself and Sam.

By turns reminiscent of writers such as Ian Rankin and Dick Francis, this is a story with a very strong protagonist who is admirable and flawed in equal measure. The characterization is strong and the novel aptly portrays the dark side of the human psyche. The setting of gritty post-war Glasgow combined with contrasting beautiful vistas of the Arran Islands makes for interesting fare. Brodie and Sam are a pair that I would like to meet again between the pages of a novel.

Thanks Gordon Ferris for a great read. Thanks Shirley Wells for the recommendation!

[Shirley Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very surprising book for me. I was recommended this series by Goodreads, and thought I'd give it a try, but I wasn't prepared for this book at all. I thought it would be a nice historical mystery and since that's my favourite mystery genre, I thought it would be worth a try. Well this book blew me away. Think Jack Reacher with a Scottish brogue in the late 1940's just after WWII, and that might give you a better idea, but it still won't prepare you for the awesomeness of this book. Douglas Brodie is our hero, and he is originally from Glasgow and has been recently demobbed out of the British army. More similarities to Reacher, but Brodie was more like special forces than military police. And before he signed up of the Highland regiment, he was a police officer on the mean streets of Glasgow. Now Brodie is a stringer reporter working in London and he gets a call from an old pal to come back to Glasgow to help him. His pal, who he thought was killed in the war, is actually alive but horribly burned, and he is facing the death penalty for the rape and murder of a young Glasgow boy. Brodie doesn't want to go back to his home town, but something draws him there and he meets his old friend in the prison where he is being kept awaiting execution. Brodie finds something believable in Hugh's story and teams up with a young lawyer by the name of Samantha (Sam) Campbell to try to find evidence to get an execution stay. And the the story just blows up from there until Brodie finds himself in grave personal danger, and as he plumbs the depths of the Glasgow underworld he discovers corruption, murder and scandal that includes not only some unsavoury Scottish gangs, but all the way into the police department and the judicial system. The creep list gets longer and longer, and Brodie sets out to eliminate them all one by one with the help of Sam. I couldn't put this book down, and I highly recommend it. It's a stunning thriller that just never lets up.

[Fred Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished this book and my hands are still sweating. The story's setting, Glasgow, Scotland, 1946, and excellent characters made this book memorable. I have a huge dislike for bullies and love people who won't take their crap. "Brodie and Sam (Samantha)" both Scots, one a recently returned home, WWII veteran, and the other an attorney with grit. They try to save a man, also a war hero, from hanging for something he didn't do. The Slattery brothers were the bullies, a gun running, dope selling, Irish gang, one brother with a fetish for little boys. The kind of people you love to hate. Gordon Ferris is a superb story teller. Highly recommended!

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

First novel I've read by this author. I loved his writing style and his use of dialect that really emphasised the gritty nature of post war poverty stricken Glasgow. An intricately plotted tale that grabs your attention but sort of runs out of steam 3/4 of the way though as the hero becomes too much of a superhero for my tastes. Having said that, I would still recommend it and will certainly be trying out another of his efforts sometime soon.

[Adam Dunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books that a lot of people read and are going to say they liked. Judging from the reviews, I'm in the minority for disliking it, but I think it's that people aren't looking deep enough.

The best part of the book is the setting. The Scottish accents and words bring the area to life in the 1940's.

There's SPOILERS from here on, so be warned.

First off, the plot. Someone is abusing young boys in Scotland. Three guesses who, first two don't count.

Second, this was read as part of a gay book club, and the author equating homosexuality with pedophilia wasn't welcome.

Moving on to the writing, the author subtly sets up the character's relationships with overused cliches such as "Pals for life, Dougie? Pals for life, Shug." He continues the cliches, setting up the hero as Johnny Tough with such bon mots as "Punching his lights out wasn’t an option. Not yet." Building up to the grandest cliche, people following orders compared to the holocaust "‘I know another bunch of blokes in uniform who claim they were only following orders. The Nuremberg judges don’t seem to think that’s much of a defence." Subtle.

There are inconsistencies in the text, someone else mentioned in their review it could use a better editor. On the way to a house, the main character gets gas, using "one of my rapidly disappearing pound notes to fill the tank." On the way back from the house, he stops to get gas again, this time noting "but money wasn't my problem." These things detract from the story.

Another inconsistency, the final showdown, the main character says he doesn't want to go at night as "I’d be blundering around in the twilight". He sleeps, wakes, and says "It was only midmorning and I would have much preferred to be doing this by moonlight." Then he sits there for hours until it gets dark, saying "By twilight things had quietened down." Does he want to blunder in the twilight, does he want to do it in moonlight? Make up your mind.

He kills the first man by hiding in the bushes for 7 hours, then throwing a knife at the man in the dark. He later says "I felt no guilt about these deaths. It had been them or me." See, hiding in the bushes for 7 hours doesn't seem like self defense to me.

The end of the book turns into a sailing manual, and I didn't understand a word of it.

"Slattery was scrabbling for his gun when the ketch lurched. He’d been sloppy lashing the tiller. With no counterforce, the rudder swung back and the ketch rounded up with a jolt. It staggered through 90 degrees and threw Slattery across the deck and into the gunnels."

then

"The ketch slowed and the boom dipped, trailing its human sea anchor. I ran forward and unhitched the foresail line so that jib flapped."

then

"...grabbed the tiller. It came alive in my hand. I pushed it round until the flapping mizzen sail filled. The ketch began to slip and pitch through the waves. The thrill of it coursed through me. I lashed the tiller properly to keep on the southerly course and hauled in the mizzen boom. The sail tightened and the ketch heeled a little. I laced the line round a cleat and fumbled along the deck to find the foresail line."

Are these sentences in English? Ship-ahoy, matey, I'm done.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE HANGING SHED is a thriller. It's a searing portrayal of post-war Scotland, a haunting story of the personal after-effects of war, dislocation, friendship, loyalties, and mistakes. It's powerful, atmospheric, uplifting, sad, violent, and compassionate.

The central character, Douglas Brodie, is a former policeman, who on returning from fighting for King and Country in the Second World War, secures a job in London as a reporter. News from his native Glasgow that childhood friend Hugh Donovan is about to be hanged for the murder of a child has him returning home, conflicted. The cause of the conflict is yet more history, between him and Donovan. Although hard for Brodie to put aside, it must be, as for everything that has happened between them, Brodie has a strong sense of right and fairness.

The whole of this book simply worked for me. The sense of compassion and sadness that wove it's way into the violence and desperation. The loss and fracture of the past, made even more stark by the impact of the war. The deprivation in the United Kingdom, the deprivation and sense of loss of those returning from fighting. The way that the path back into life was so individual, the way that Brodie struggles to find his place again.

It's about as pitch perfect a book as I've read in a long time. Perfect enough to ensure the purchase of BITTER WATER, the next in the series.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another new author for me, and I have to say that I was impressed with this book. It is set in post war Glasgow, and follows the steps of Douglas Brodie, who has been recently demobbed from the Army. Initially we catch up with him in London, where he is working as a freelance crime reporter. One morning he receives a telephone call from a childhood friend, Hugh Donovan. Hugh has been accused of abducting children and murdering them, and is now sentenced to be hung. Donovan and Brodie didn't exactly part on good terms, so will Brodie heed his one time friend's call for help?
I found the plotline quite engrossing, the characters were well formed, the tempo of the plot was well thought out, and you could almost feel the despair and grittiness of post war Glasgow. There was a certain amount of stereotyping with some of the characters, and for anyone not used to Scottish speech patterns some of the dialogue might seem a little odd.
I am definitely going to keep my eyes open for more books from this author.

[Anja · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced thriller. Thoroughly enjoyable. A real page-turner with lots of action and heroics. Douglas Brodie is a likeable and tough as nails hero in 1946 Glasgow. Highly recommended.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hanging Shed has all the ingredients of a successful crime novel - strong characters, a compelling plot, good pace, credible dialogue and action, and good contextualisation and back story. The tale very quickly grabs the reader's attention and the pages fly by. And yet there was something that didn't quite feel right. The storytelling seemed a little formulaic. Ferris structures the story into short chapters, each typically six to eight pages long, with each chapter ending on a mini-cliff hanger. This is great for pulling the reader through the story, but I found the formula repetitive after a while restricting the narrative in its scope and form. That's not to say I wasn't gripped by the plot, I absolutely was. And I found Brodie an interesting lead character that I'd like to spend more time with. However, it all seemed a little bit by numbers. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable book, if a little formulaic.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is based in Glasgow after WWII, a time when Britain was undergoing huge change. It encompassed the atmosphere of the time with believable and likeable main characters. It is an addictive crime thriller and a great start to a new series. One word of advice; Scottish speech is used quite often, so if yon no' familiar wi' it and cannae always understand it, you may get a wee bit frustrated.

[AdiTurbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love me a good Scottish thriller, with the rain and the accents and the grit. This is a good specimen in the genre, with a great premise - a former soldier-come-journalist, Brodie, gets a call from a childhood friend he hasn't seen for decades. The man is awaiting his execution for abducting and killing a child. Since he has been badly burned during WWII, he is eager to meet his death, but would like to die as an innocent man, since he claims he had nothing to do with the child's murder. Other children are also missing, and have not yet been found. When Brodie goes back to the landscapes of his youth to try and find out more, he meets with an unpleasant welcome and much opposition. As he discovers more and more about what has happened, he puts himself and those close to him in great danger. Suspenseful and powerfully written with wonderful dry and sarcastic humor here and there, even with the terrible subject matter. Fascinating settings and a strong main character.

[Robert Intriago · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book as it reminded me of the Rebus series. It takes place in Glasgow right after WW II. The main character, Brodie, is asked by a former friend awaiting the gallows to investigate his conviction and prove his innocence. He agrees and along with Samantha Campbell, an attorney, to do so. In addition to an interesting case the author does a very good job of giving you historical facts about the city and its surroundings. Brodie’s character is good as he is smart mouthed and persistent. I wish the author would have done a little bit more with the other characters.

[AngelaC · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Gorbals, Glasgow in the 1940s just after the end of the war, a place full of poverty, drink and violence in all its forms and a time when illicit drugs were beginning to carve out a place for themselves, sometimes to relieve the suffering of war veterans scarred physically and mentally.
The plot is complex and the Glasgow patter excellent, so I enjoyed most of the book. However, without wishing to give anything away, I found the ending slightly disappointing and rather contrived. For me, it did not sit well with the main character.
That said, I shall definitely be looking for another book in the "Glasgow Quartet" series by an author recommended to me by a friend.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brodie has returned from action in WW II to realize his dream of a reporter. Just his luck - an old school chum is ready for hanging from a heinous crime and needs Douglas.
Fine history mystery.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am fast becoming a fan of Gordon Ferris; here is his post war incarnation - Douglas Brodie, ex army Major, ex copper and university graduate. Happy to be lost in London drinking and demobbed depressed, reluctant to return "home" to Scotland. He is stirred back to action in part by an offer of a job on a newspaper and then a call from a long-standing "friend" he thought was dead. He's alive however and needs his help as he has been found guilty of a capital crime and faces the death sentence in matter of weeks. Hugh Donovan a childhood mate who ran off with Brodie's first love and for whom Brodie would rather place the noose round his neck rather than save him from the hangman.
The Hanging Shed stands astride the first part of the novel as a menacing shadow and Brodie begins a journey home to Glasgow to seek justice for an innocent man, a race against time.
Atmospheric and with an authentic voice; the depravity of a recovering nation, the despair of the poor and the plight of the returning soldiers is wonderfully captured. This is a bleak existence, a struggle like many other battles fought and a prevailing sense of life is cheap, especially among the lower classes that our hero wonders if those who died in the War had the better deal.
The book exposes political corruption, police incompetence and vicious gang violence and the second part of the story follows through with seeking justice the state is incapable to delivering.
The characters appear real and believable. The plot lines never obvious converge and lead into a real thriller.

[Marguerite Kaye]

Apparently this is what's now called 'Scottish Noir'. It's not for me. I bought this because of the rave reviews and the fact that it was set in Glasgow in the post-WWII years. It is soaked in 'Glasgow-ness' - in fact, it is drunk on its own ambiance, utterly and completely obsessed with it. At one point early on, there's about three pages of 'banter' thrown in as the main man arrives at St Enoch station - just for the sake of the dialect, as far as I could see. To be honest, this is when it started to irk me and I never really got over that. It's great that Glasgow was a character, but it was too much of a caricature for me.

Once more I seem to be out on a limb in not enjoying this one. I got only about a third of the way through, then brought it up on my kindle and felt that, I really, really am not interested in this feeling. I might have liked it more if I'd persisted, but I knew then that I was already too prejudiced to be able to see beyond what I didn't like. So I stopped, and I'm putting this in the 'not for me' category. I suspect that the comparison with Tana French's portrayal of Dublin that I've just finished (and loved) didn't help - if only Ferris had managed to do the same for Glasgow, instead of turning it into a parody of the 'mean city' it's worked so hard to leave behind.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ferris really nails the atmosphere in this gritty mystery thriller set in Scotland just after the Second World War. Brodie left the police force to join up and like many others came back haunted by what he'd seen. After seeking solace in the bottle he found work as a journalist in London and finally brought some order to his life. A phone call from Scotland changed all that and soon he is on his way North to see a man he thought was dead.

The Hanging Shed tranports the reader to 1940s Scotland and the very grimmest of times. Evil and corruption linger in the air like the fog that hangs in the streets. Brodie is tasked with saving an old friend, whose last act of friendship was to betray him, from the gallows. Brodie faces peril at every turn as he blunders through a web of deceipt spun around the abuse and murder of a child that has sentenced his old friend to hang.

The tale drew me in from the start and is everything a good story should be. The tension never lets up and the setting is so well handled that I was immediately there without description ever getting in the way. Brodie may be a bit of a cliche - damaged goods, drinker, hard man - but it doesn't matter. Like everything else in The Hanging Shed, Brodie just works. An excellent novel.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book as the blurb in the product description sounded like something I would enjoy not realising it is the first book in a series. I bought the second book Bitter Water before I finished this one - an indication of how much I enjoyed it - and will be eagerly anticipating the third installment set for publication in Spring 2013.

Gordon Ferris has written a gritty crime thriller set in 1946 Scotland where ex army man Douglas Brodie is asked by childhood friend Hugh Donovan to help solve the crime for which he is wrongly imprisoned and due to hang.

This book had an echo of Lee Child's Jack Reacher series and I wonder whether Gordon Ferris has read a lot of Lee Child's work as there are similarities - ex army man with little in his life to hold him to a particular place or give him hope sets out to solve a crime and undertakes a few morally questionable actions along the way. However, there are also differences between the two characters and the story Gordon Ferris has crafted is entertaining in its own right and although the eventual solution to the story didn't come as a surprise it was still gripping and enjoyable to read.

[Chris Longmuir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gordon Ferris has written a gritty thriller set in post-war Glasgow. His description of the deprivation of the area, the rats, and the razor-wielding gangs of the Gorbals have the ring of authenticity. This was a time whenTB, rickets, polio, and malnutrition were all part of daily life, and families were often living ten to a room in crumbling tenements, which have now all gone.

His story describes how the main character, Brodie, freshly demobbed from the army and an expoliceman, and now a reporter, is sent a plea to help a former schoolmate who is in prison awaiting execution for the murder of several children. Brodie has no particular love for his old schoolmate and is reluctant to help him, however he is drawn into an investigation.

The story ranges between Glasgow, Arran, and Ireland, and along the way the reader meets gang members and ruthless killers, until the hair raising end.

This was an exciting, thrilling book to read and well qualifies for the description of pageturner. I would highly recommend it, and I'll be looking out for mor of Gordon Ferris's books.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because it was set just after the end of the Second World War so there was no modern technology such as mobile phones. This meant that if someone was in danger they couldn't just phone someone for help or let anyone know where they were.
It begins with a condemned man calling a friend, Brodie, for help after he is found guilty of murdering a child in Glasgow. Brodie helps his friend's lawyer with his appeal but is drawn into the seedy Glasgow underworld. witnesses disappear and then the lawyer is kidnapped and he has to try to find her.
This was a gritty book, and I would read more by the author. It flowed well and I read it in about 3 sittings.
The only occasional problem I had was with some of the colloquial language, I didn't know what some of the Glaswegian slang meant!

[Alistair Dunlop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story but disappointed by the historical inaccuracies found in it. The Gorbals tenements were not red sandstone but grey. I went to school in the Gorbals from 1946 to 1958. The Clydebank Blitz was 1941, not 1940.(Correct date given in later pages) Why get a bus and two trams from St Enoch's Station to Barlinnie when a short walk to Union Street would let you get a No 8 tram direct to Riddrie. Same applies when going from Crown Street to Gorbals Cross. It's another short walk. The Firth of Clyde is at its coldest in April, not its warmest and Brodie would have died long before the fishermen found him I think. There were no car ferries on the Clyde until the min '50s. You could get a car on a steamer but with great difficulty and there was no car deck down below. I enjoyed the story but please, more acurate descriptions. My son, born in 1970, thought it was a very good read!

[John Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wife had read this soon after its release as a Kindle edition thoroughly enjoyed it and suggested that I might like to read it too. As I was tied up with other reading at the time, I have only just got around to ordering the hardback copy from the library.

I am not a prolific reader and it is unusual for me to finish a book as quickly as this or in as few reading sessions. If I had seen a 'flier' for this book, I would probably not have bothered because there were things about it that would have put me off, but on my wife's recommendation alone, I started reading.

Its the first novel by this author that I have read but I shall be looking for others. I thought that it was very well written and the story had me hooked from the beginning. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brodie returns to Scotland in 1946 after the War to find a friend of his youth awaits death by hanging in a Glasgow prison. Joining with the friend's advocate to try and beat the four-week deadline to prove the wrong man has been convicted, Brodie, fresh from the horrors of the Nazi camps, uncovers an evil, alike in degree if less in scope, in his own country.

THE HANGING SHED is a superb novel. The characters, the dialogue, the Scottish people, the travesty so often made of justice in the legal system, all these are delivered with a pace that keeps the reader pulled in.

This book did not disappoint.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isnt really 'modern' crime - its set post 1940's in the rough parts of Glasgow. An ex-detective returns to Glasgow with his life at a low ebb after the war. He is returning because his old friend is on death row for the murder of the child of his - and the ex-detective's - old girlfriend.

Our main character has to prove his friend's innocence.

The book is fast and slick with plenty of action and nothing turns out as you expect - this is the first of a new series and I will read more of them.

[Rachel Bridgeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Lovereading for this review copy.
This is a superb book, by turns suspenseful, tragic, weary and world worn but above all original in an increasingly overcrowded crime marketplace. Whereas other writers produce pastiches of tried and established characters, in Douglas Brodie there's a nuanced characterisation that breathes new life into the 'ex-cop with issues' trope and the post World War 2 setting in Scotland gives the story a haunting background that reflects Brodie's inner dialogue. Highly recommended, will definitely read more by this author.

[Gavin Stephenson-Jackman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one really tugs at the old heart strings when you first read that the wee one was sexually abused before being deprived of his life. Then to see the trail of innocent lives that are lost due to ineptitude, collusion, and sheer refusal to do the right thing. That the trail of blood is due to the childhood abuse of the perpetrator is so true to life and research into this problem. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.