Blind Eye

Logan McRae, Book 5

By: Stuart MacBride

Narrated by: Stuart MacBride

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Aberdeen's growing Polish community is under attack from a serial offender who leaves mutilated victims to be discovered on building sites - eyes gouged out and the sockets burned.

Detective Sergeant Logan McRae is assigned to the investigation, codenamed Operation Oedipus, but with the victims too scared to talk, it's going nowhere fast.

When the next victim turns out to be not a newly arrived Eastern European, but Simon McLeod, owner of the Turf n' Track bookies, Logan suddenly finds himself caught up in a world of drug wars, prostitution rings and gun-running courtesy of Aberdeen's oldest and most vicious crime lord.

©2009 HarperCollins Publishers (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Might have had possibilities

I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to have the author narrate, but that person may need to be transferred to another job. Just couldn’t listen to him. I even at one point checked to see if I had perhaps increased the speed by accident. Too bad. Really wanted to know what became of Inch. But will be returning this one.

Enjoyable, funny as always, a bit formulaic tho

This band of characters never fails to make me laugh. I really enjoy that. But I have to say that the stereotypical "angry police captain", who berates everyone working for him (DI in this case), regardless of whether the result is actually anyone's fault, really gets tiresome. It's excessive here. On the whole, I did enjoy the book, but the author needs to stray from the formula a bit i think.

Enjoyable

A solid British police procedural. It meanders a bit. I didn’t find it quite as engaging as previous titles by the author but still worth the credit.

Excellent read!

Loved the author wrote as well as read. The characters are great and very humorous. I found myself just giggling out loud at times. Had to look up the “Bacon Buddy” out of curiosity. Ready for the next one!

Best series I've read in ages!!!

This is only book 5, and I'm already freaked out about running out of this series! The characters are so funny & engaging, the plots so well done, the descriptions so clever - each book is just a fabulous ride!

Great!

My only complaint would be about the lack of background on major characters from previous novels. I know they aren’t there for the reasons they aren’t, but I always love character continuity, even if their stories came to an end.

Hard to follow Freddie Mercury.

I understand the complaints about the narration. But it’s easier to overlook great when it follows elite. As far as authors performing their own work, I haven’t heard anyone better than Stuart MacBride. But after four 12+ hour novels listening to Steve Worsley give a Mercury-esque performance, MacBride’s brilliance still doesn’t measure up. It was a shock to the system initially, but after an hour or so you fall right into it. And the frustration of no Worsley finally fades away. MacBride does an outstanding job regardless. And didn’t leave much of any drop off on everyone’s favorite DI Steel. So no worries there. As for the book, it was another enjoyable installment. On to the next one..

Blindingly Fast & Furious

Fabulous ! This would have to be THE best crime novel I've come across. Congratulations to Stuart MacBride. Wonderfully rounded, characters written with humour and a gritty understanding, even when they're being vile humans. Some writers seem to forget that even the worst villain likes him/herself a bit... MacBride remembered. D.I. Steel is a knockout character. Loved her!! The violence was brutal, the language chosen for realism and the plot was riveting.
The narration by the author was a magical PERFORMANCE and totally sold the book to me. All in all I resented being dragged away from listening and would recommend it to anyone who likes a tough, fast, real read.

Solidly entertaining

What did you love best about Blind Eye?

The humor. Dark Scottish humor, yes, but MacBride gets me to laugh in the weirdest places of his story.

What did you like best about this story?

The main character, who keeps trying to do the right thing under awful circumstances.

What does Stuart MacBride bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Usually when an author reads his/her own book it's a disaster, but MacBride is actually an excellent reader despite what you may have read in some other reviews. I have a couple of quibbles with his reading: In the beginning I wanted him to slow down just a bit, and he does make the female gay detective Steele sound like a truck driver, which I thought was over the top. But he settles into a really good stride after the first couple of chapters and does a great job with dialogue and with expressing Logan's thoughts.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

In spite of the violence in the book the writer got me to laugh a lot.

Any additional comments?

Willing to read another. That was fun!

BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT

What did you love best about Blind Eye?

I would love to say the Scottish accent. But the story line just flies along and is gripping. Book 5 it is only the 2nd book of this series I have listened to and it doesn't matter that they are not in order. Top listen!!!!