Interesting character voice and setting but gets too wrapped up in trying to create atmosphere and angst without establishing any action or motivation until much later in the story. I just got fed up with McNee moaning and reminiscing about his past. There's certainly space for a noir PI to be introspective, but this just felt shoveled in rather than a natural part of the story.

Set in Dundee one of the smaller cities of scotland, McNee left the police to become a PI after his wife died in a car crash. In the first story he's employed to investigate a brother's suicide, and in the second a missing daughter. There's lots of twists and turns and some unreliable witnesses. Dundee has it's own collection of gangs all run by one aging crime lord trying to put on a professional face. Linking both stories to the same people didn't really work, especially the 2nd where it just felt like a lack of imagination.

I've read far worse, but at the same time it didn't really shine. Had odd patches of engagement, but then we'd jump back into McNee's past or else he'd be again ignoring some current social contact and it would all feel stilted and artificial again. ( )