This group of investigators (the misfits) is an eclectic group and it made for an interesting story. I love that Ash is willing to go to the dark side and skirt the rules to solve this mystery. It wouldn't work in real life but I love it in fiction.

I will definitely have to check out the rest of this series. ( )

Ash Henderson is back and so is Alice MacDonald (YAY) and I couldn't be more thrilled. I love MacBride's Logan series but I love this series as well so when I finally got my hand on the third and latest book was I overjoyed. And I wasn't disappointed. The book is FABULOUS! Loved it. Stuart MacBride is one of the best authors ever and I love how he mixes action with humor and dark moments. Seriously, the humor saves the books from being too depressive because frankly, they are pretty bleak otherwise with lots of bad things and awful deaths.

Read this series! Read the series about Logan as well! Hell, read anything Stuart MacBride writes! ( )

Il recente protagonista Ash Henderson (questa è la terza avventura e viene preannunciato un seguito...) non raggiunge i vertici di Logan Mc Rae, che l'autore pare abbia definitivamente abbandonato.
E' una personalità diversa, più cupa anche a causa delle passate vicissitudini familiari, meno ironica, anche se in questo libro l'autore ha cercato di intenerirlo un po'.
La trama è anche accettabile, con il solito finale sbrigativo dei gialli moderni, ma non aiuta una traduzione pasticciata (capita spesso con Newton Compton), con dialoghi a volte poco comprensibili e parole assurde...(forse al traduttore andrebbe spiegato che "sterzo" e "volante" non sono la stessa cosa!).
Spero che il prossimo romanzo sia migliore. ( )

Ex-Detective Inspector Ash Henderson acts in a liaison role with the Scottish Police. In the north-east coast of Scotland town of Oldcastle he deals with two serial murder investigations. There is a storm raging off the North Sea. Ex-DI Henderson is still recovering from a gunshot to his foot. He struggles with former colleagues, various friends and suspects as he limps from one clue to the next fight to the next attempt on his life. The one constant, cheerful thread through the whole story is his happy little Scottie dog, Henry. Otherwise, a great read. MacBride does not disappoint. ( )

The Coffin Maker’s Garden – A Tour de Force

When the storms are washing a way the coastline of east Scotland, it does not help, if your house is on the coastline. When are young child runs to the edge of the garden, in the temporary house his mother is renting, what was a storm turns into something else. This time Ash Henderson is no longer a police inspector, but a consultant to Police Scotland, and is dragged into the investigation.

The return of Ash Henderson is a tour de force, while touching dark themes, with sporadic sardonic humour, one cannot help but be drawn deeper into the story. What the reader will love is how dark the story is, and the dark humour that goes with it is like a shining beacon. Fans of the previous Henderson series will love that nothing has changed in the character, other than he is even rougher around the edges. Oh, and as he is no longer a police officer he is not as bound to police procedure as he should be.

Chasing someone who is adept at hiding in plain sight and is loved by his neighbours is never going to be easy to catch. But the photographs of dead bodies, tortured and hung up, reveal another side to his life that he would have preferred to have kept quiet.

While racing around Scotland for clues as to the why and where, even though they know who the perpetrator is, it is far harder to find someone when he has is skilled at hiding. Dashing around Scotland trying to find him, Henderson upsets a number of people, one of whom hires people to use him as a human punch bag.

While people try and keep him busy and away from the front of the investigation, doing the basic leg work, little do they know how close to death he will come. With one ritualistic murder left, and a garden full of trophies, it was always going to end in one place.

A brilliant thriller, and any reader will want to drink this story in, as it is highly addictive. Cannot recommend this highly enough. ( )