Read: "Hard Man" by Allan Guthrie

Read: Hard Man by Allan Guthrie, 2007, 9780151012985.

Why don't I like his books more I do? He has all the elements I like in crime novels: violence, double crosses, surprises, ambiguity of characters. The Scottish setting is part of it. Scotland is dang foreign to me and the language sometimes confusing that it throws me off. Guthrie also narrates more than uses dialogue, I like to read the characters banter. I still like the first one of his I read, Kiss Her Goodbye, best.

Pearce reappears in this one. A family of losers and would-be hard men ask them to assist in protecting their daughter/sister, May. May left her abusive husband Wallace and is pregnant by another man. Pearce refuses the work but the Idiot Clan see him as their only help and try to force him into doing the job. The Idiot Clan was already beaten silly by Wallace and then Pearce does the same to them after they sneak into his apartment to test him for the job. Idiots.

Idiot Clan is convinced that Wallace will hunt down May. For a while Wallace does seem fairly innocent of their charges. He isn't. Idiot Clan is also full of lies to one another and Pearce which causes more and more trouble.

Anyway. Part of Guthrie's appeal is his "acerbic wit". Most of that went right by me too. I'll still read Savage Night which released this summer.