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A Dark So Deadly  By  cover art

A Dark So Deadly

By: Stuart MacBride
Narrated by: Steve Worsley
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Publisher's summary

A gripping stand-alone thriller from the Sunday Times number one best-selling author of the Logan McRae series.

Welcome to the Misfit Mob... It's where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can't get rid of but wants to: the outcasts, the troublemakers, the compromised. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy turns up at the Oldcastle tip, it's his job to find out which museum it's been stolen from.

But then Callum uncovers links between his ancient corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting. O Division's Major Investigation Teams already have more cases than they can cope with, so, against everyone's better judgment, the Misfit Mob are just going to have to manage this one on their own. No one expects them to succeed, but right now they're the only thing standing between the killer's victims and a slow, lingering death. The question is, can they prove everyone wrong before he strikes again?

©2017 Stuart MacBride (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Dark and gripping. A riveting page-turner." ( Independent on Sunday)
"MacBride is a damned fine writer." (Peter James)
"A satisfyingly compelling thriller." ( Sunday Mirror)
"Skilful storytelling...strong characterisation...both intriguing and engrossing." ( Guardian)
"MacBride's thrillers just keep getting better." ( Express)
"Exciting ...a guaranteed bestseller." ( Literary Review)
"Unmissable.... Superb storytelling." ( Sun)
"Crime fiction of the highest order." (Mark Billingham)
"A terrific writer...Logan McRae is a delight." ( The Times)

What listeners say about A Dark So Deadly

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    4 out of 5 stars

Deranged and Murder-ey

If you could sum up A Dark So Deadly in three words, what would they be?

Macabre, Clever, Hilarious

Any additional comments?

Meet the Misfit Mob: a senior officer with coronary problems, a haiku-spouting detective sergeant with terminal cancer and a literary bent, a couple more with anger management issues, a recently disabled female DC who calls her wheelchair Keith, and our hero, Callum MacGregor, wrongly accused of corruption, which is just the first and least of his problems.

MacBride packs a lot into this one, and this is the first time I've balked at a few of the plot twists, which were a little hard to swallow, but who cares? The cast is entertainingly quirky, the hero a classicly imperfect good soul in the mold of my beloved Logan MacCrea, the story is character driven, and while the horror is worthy of the latest M Night Shyamalan movie the oh-so-Scottish humor and dialogue kept me listening nonstop and laughing out loud.

True MacBride fans will also savor the nuggets from other books that pop up with a wink and a nod: the return of Alice, (yay!!) mad profiler from the Ash Henderson novels; a band called Halfhead; a records keeper named Winston Smith (check your Orwell), an oil painting of a pear tree (12 Days of Xmas). As His Beardiness Himself would say, it's all deranged and murder-ey. A bit more scrambled than usual but still tasty. Loved it.

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23 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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FIVE

Scotland, present day, police procedural, humor, unusual murder, lots of interesting characters. Not especially bloody, I will read more by this author. The narrator adds a rich reading.

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14 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Gruesome gory and awful

I hated this book - it went into minute detail of horrible gruesome human torchure and then kept doing it over and over again. I woke up from nightmares and finally quit reading and deleted it when I saw the there were 50 more chapters. Why do authors feel they need to do this to make a book interesting.

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10 people found this helpful

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OMG, Loved it!

Anyone who says it is typical or predictable...lied. Dour Scots, humour, action , twists and thoroughly enjoyable. I bought this because i was going on a long trip and wanted a long book to listen to but with somewhat low expectations . I didn't want it to end!

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9 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Couldn't Finish

What disappointed you about A Dark So Deadly?

The audio volume changes forced me to stop listening. The narrator may nearly whisper for 5 minutes, then break out is a shout that's so loud it's painful. The whispering mostly doesn't make sense; it isn't necessary. The shouting fits with something appropriately noisy in the plot. No idea if this is a narration, sound engineering or personal problem.

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7 people found this helpful

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Absolutely worth a credit!

Like many audible members, often listening to a book a day, I spend almost as much time reading reviews of recommended if you like this book. While I do not think I would like the MacBride series, sounds too brutal for my tastes, this stand alone has fabulous reviews. I gave it a try, did not find the laugh out loud humor some reviewers stated, however, I did enjoy the dark comedy. Anytime you get a great listen of twenty plus hours, truly good narration, and an exceptional mystery, it is worth a credit, even if, like me, excuse the pun, it is not your cup of tea .

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5 people found this helpful

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Twists and turns - hold on for the end!

At first I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book; I wasn't sure that I was going to care enough about the characters to invest my time in it. The main character seems, at first, to be mad at the world, depressed, and disgusted with everything. He works with people who don't like him, don't trust him, and take every opportunity to make his life as miserable as possible. And even the universe is conspiring against him. How can you relate to someone like that?

But hold on! The longer I listened, the more I started to realize that underneath that grim exterior was someone who actually believed in the worth and value of (some) of his fellow humans, in spite of his life experience, and who was determined to make the best he could out of some truly unfortunate situations. So by the middle of the book I was firmly on the side of the protagonist...even as he continued to be the butt of the universe's cruelest jokes.

I also truly enjoyed so much of this author's clever and unexpected, but fitting,metaphors. How many times his very original turns of phrase evoked that mental "Oh yeah!" reaction: That in itself was enough to keep me hooked.

So I would advise anyone who starts this book to hang in there - it will be finally and ultimately be time well spent.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Poor Narration Killed the Cat

Steve Worsley was a very poor choice for narrator of this audiobook. His lack of appropriate energy and drive was immediately felt when the book opened with a cop trying to apprehend a violent suspect while at the same time trying to fight off a swarm of young kids trying to rob him. What should have been a suspenseful and humorous scene fell completely flat due to the narrator's inability to convey action and comicality and his lack of skill in using tone and inflection to distinguish between characters. A sadly substandard performance throughout.

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5 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Sound modulation makes this un-listenable

I think this might be a pretty fun book. Unfortunately, the sound editing/modulation made this un-listenable for me. I quickly grew tired of having to adjust the volume. Partly the narrator's fault, but I place the blame on the production.

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2 people found this helpful

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Too Long, Too Depressing, Too Dark, and Uneven Vol

OMG, 21 hours; I skipped five hours (15 to 10) and missed very little
Nothing good happens and the story drags.
Dark and horrible wherever you turn
Found that due to yelling by the narrator, I was frequently changing volume.
Please don't bother with this one

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2 people found this helpful