The Missing and the Dead (Logan McRae, Book 9)

By: Stuart MacBride

Narrated by: Steve Worsley

Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

The ninth Logan McRae thriller from the No. 1 bestseller Stuart MacBride.

‘Dark and griping. A riveting page-turner’ Independent on Sunday

One mistake can cost you everything…

A little girl’s body washes up just outside the sleepy coastal town of Macduff, kicking off a major manhunt. Officially, the investigation is out of Sergeant Logan McRae’s hands, but DCI Steel’s Major Investigation Team, drafted in from Aberdeen, is getting nowhere fast.

Steel is running out of ideas and time. She wants Logan back on her team, and doesn’t care how she gets him there.

One thing is clear: there are dangerous predators lurking in the wilds of Aberdeenshire, and not everyone’s getting out of this alive…

©2014 Stuart MacBride (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"MacBride is the natural heir to the late and much lamented Reginald Hill" ( Andrew Taylor, Spectator)
"MacBride is a damned fine writer - no one does dark and gritty like him' Peter James‘Fierce, unflinching and shot through with the blackest of humour; this is crime fiction of the highest order' Mark Billingham‘Some of the grittiest crime-writing in the field' Independent‘Admirers of tough, modern crime novels will be in seventh heaven - or should that be hell?' Express‘Ferocious and funny' Val McDermid‘Hard-hitting prose with a bone-dry humour and characters you can genuinely believe in, Stuart MacBride's novels are a real treat' Simon Kernick

Even better the second time

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

With a dead-on ear for MacBride's humor and humanity, Worsley captures the author's characters beautifully. I read the e-book first because the audio wasn't available for some time, and found that I really missed the Scottish accent. He's the perfect voice for both Logan and Steele, no small trick.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Everything about Logan's steadfast devotion to the comatose shell that was Samantha is moving for me, more so because MacBride avoids being maudlin or overly sentimental.

Any additional comments?

I love this series. Sometimes when I've come off a bad streak of disappointing mysteries I go back and re-listen to one of the Logan Macrea novels - like a breath of fresh air, they are by turns tragic, horrifying, laugh-out-loud funny, always wonderfully written and driven by a truly heroic, flawed central character. Always leaves me wanting more.

4

I so enjoy the humor that pops up in this book. Now I'm off to choose another in the series.

So good!

Love this one. Never dull always something several something’s happening. Really looking forward to what’s next in this excellent series.

Very exciting to the end. Narration was spot on.

Very exciting. Narration was spot on. The introduction of Samantha talking to Logan and keeping on track was priceless.

Overly Long

Overly long with a not very interesting story. Lots of tedious detail about day-to-day policing. The big mystery turned out to be not so big.

Worst of the Best

Stuart MacBride is my current favorite author. I've read the Ash Henderson books, "A Dark So Deadly", and I'm reading the Logan McCrae books in order. All of his books are good. Some are amazing ("Flesh House", "A Dark So Deadly"). So, this book is at least good.
As someone else mentioned, he spends too much time on the boring minutiae of normal police work. Also several conversations and descriptions were repeated almost verbatim numerous times. This was so obvious that I had to keep checking to ensure I was in the correct point in the recording. I would recommend listening to an abridged version of this book, if one exists.
As always, Steve Worsley was an amazing narrator. But, Stuart MacBride was also a great narrator on the books he read.

Too much whining

I have enjoyed this series overall. This book, however, has way too much “winging” by both Logan and Steel. I almost didn’t finish it I was getting so annoyed.