Murder in the Gallowgate by, Larry Sellers
Detective Lola Harris is a tough woman, with a good heart. Harris returns from a miserable solo holiday — an effort to get over her useless ex — only to find herself in charge of a high-stakes investigation in gritty Glasgow. She drinks too much coffee, and likes a Bacardi and Coke.
She rushes to a crime scene in the historic Gallowgate neighborhood. An awful smell in the basement is thick, even through everyone’s forensic mask.
There’s an old wooden chair and rope hanging from its arms, both stained red. The earth below is saturated with blood. Six candleholders, their lights burned out, lend the scene an air of a completed ritual. Though there is no sign of a body.
They find a smashed-up phone in the corner of the room. The phone puts the investigators on the trail of a local politician. Who just so happened to have vanished without a trace and a controversial artist who died thirty years ago on a remote Hebridean island.
Lola will have to work with the most obnoxious detective in Glasgow if she’s going to stop the killer from striking again.
Whereas Detective Sergeant Aidan Pierce, who seems hell-bent on sabotaging her case, and her career with it. He thinks he’s the next big thing and has convinced himself that Lola got ‘his’ promotion.
This story is a truly compelling crime novel. It’s filled with twists and surprises. And has a strong. Lovable flawed female detective as its main character.
It has a disturbing gothic opening to the final twist.
