The April Dead

Eve
I liked the sound of this book, as I like police investigation books so I was rather disappointed. I found it rather violent for my taste, getting more so as the book continued.
I found it a little tedious and started to read it at speed, but there were rather too many characters to keep track of - none of them particularly likeable. So although I read quite a lot I did not completely finish the book. From what I read I would give the book a 3 as it did not keep my interest to read to the end.

Carolyn
I liked The April Murders. It was easy enough to read and not too complicated. I would read more of his books.
Score 7

Chris
Although crime novels are my favourite read at the moment I probably wouldn't have chosen one set in Glasgow in the 70s but I actually quite enjoyed it. I found it well written and although there were lots of different characters they were well portrayed and became believable. I managed to follow the plots and will give the book an 8.

Sonia
I enjoyed this book and found it refreshing to have a straightforward police and criminals story although it was very often hard to tell the difference between the two groups - not helped by the similarity of some of the names! It was good to have a story with a beginning a middle and an end without the endless flashbacks that seem to be de rigeur in books lately. It was well written with good characterisation and plot development. It was clearly set up for the next book but as it was one of a series that seemed reasonable. Not a book I would necessarily have chosen but I would happily read the next one. I would score this 6 out of 10

Mabe
I found this a very gripping story. Its very dark in places with some grim reading towards the final chapters. Despite this I found it a great read with so many twists and turns and a brilliant climax at the end.
I give it a very enjoyable 8.

Kirsty
I really enjoyed this book and found it really fast paced. The obly struggle I had was with McCoy and Murray and with Stewart and Stevie's names beginning with the same letter causing confusion. There were also times when the surname was used then the first name which also confused me. The storyline itself was enjoyable and gritty and I absolutely loved the bond between McCoy and Wattie . I thought it was sweet how Mccoy was like a father figure to Wattie. There was plenty going on to keep me intrigued and i found myself needing to keep reading to find out if they were going to find the bombs before it was too late. It was very well written as well as gritty, action packed and had plenty of interesting characters. I would definitely read more books in this series as it would be nice to get to know Mccoy from the beginning.

I would give it a 7/8 out of 10 with it losing marks due to using too similar names and changing from first to surnames unnecessarily xx

The average score is 6.5 out of 10

A bomb goes off in Glasgow and an American sailor goes missing from the Holy Loch military base. These incidents appear to be totally unrelated until some evidence emerges which may link the two. Furthermore there is the threat of more bombs and the discovery that other people have gone missing. And then there is Cooper who has just been released from prison and is a childhood friend of Detective Harry McCoy. Cooper is behaving strangely. Harry is determined to find out the truth but his loyalties are stretched almost to breaking point.

Despite the fact that this is the fourth book in a series featuring Harry McCoy, it works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel. I did not feel disadvantaged by having missed out on the first three and I enjoyed reading it. Harry McCoy is a good, likeable, plausible (if flawed) central character. The book is quite gritty and features a lot of violence – it definitely doesn’t come into the cosy crime genre. Given that that is the case, I am surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.
The action takes place entirely in Scotland and I was able to recognise some of the geographical locations mentioned in the book, always very gratifying.

The relationship between Cooper and McCoy did not sit comfortably with me, but this may have been less of an issue had I read the first three books in the series. I also found the plot a little hard to follow at times but that may have been through lack of concentration rather than as a result of an overly complex storyline.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy a gritty crime novel.

I found the writing style a bit hard to get used to and a bit annoying to start with. Many of the sentences were unstructured, almost like thinking out loud, and it rankled with my inner grammar snob. I remember thinking ‘is this really a Canongate book’?! Once I became used to it, I got more into the flow of the plot and dialogue, and really started to enjoy it. It is fast-paced, with interesting characters and a few twists in the tale. The main character is a Glasgow police detective called McCoy and his style of policing would be considered very maverick now. This book was based in 1974, so we get to marvel at his constant smoking and lunchtime drinks, as well as his powers of detection, unaided by dna testing and mobile technology. I hadn’t read any other of Alan Parks’ novels before, but would definitely read more now.

The more this series progresses, the better it gets. It’s still 1970s Glasgow and this story centres on a wave of bomb attacks, a spate of gangland killings and the hunt for a missing American sailor. As McCoy moves through (and alongside) all these investigations – sometimes not entirely legally – he’s the one who spots the connections that bind some of the crimes together. It’s an absorbing story with a good twist at the end. Definitely Scottish Noir!

Alan Parks divides opinion in our book group. All of us found it difficult to get into this story, and most of us had reached the halfway point before we started even to care about what was happening. But the location oozes from the page and as the pace picked up and dots were joined, the book became harder to put down.

McCoy is a Marmite character – our group either liked him or hated him. He’s chippy, uncompromising and a rule-breaker, who pushes his work boundaries to the very limit. And even though he’s easier to understand as you learn more of his back-story, he’s a hard man to admire. In this novel his character is more rounded and the story is well-paced. Book 5 (May God Forgive) is already in our library and several of us will be borrowing that so we can read the next instalment of McCoy’s story. And despite the split in opinion in our book group, our average rating came in at 4-Stars so this definitely qualifies as a good read.

The April Dead, Alan Parks

The April Dead is the fourth in the Detective Harry McCoy series. And it doesn’t disappoint. This is a gritty, entertaining, suspenseful read about the hunt for a missing sailor in 1974 Glasgow. The writing is punchy, raw and the story is a real thriller. I enjoyed this book. It’s a page turner by all accounts and it’s the kind of book you can’t put down.

The main character, Detective Harry McCoy is flawed and seems to be part of the violence of the streets while trying to solve crimes. He represents the grim he grew up in but managed to escape in most ways. I liked that the story was written in the pre-mobile phones, laptops and social media era, too. Nice one.