Thicker Than Water

A Scottish Crime Thriller (DCI Logan Crime Thrillers, Book 2)

By: JD Kirk

Narrated by: Angus King

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

Not all monsters are make-believe.

When a badly mutilated body washes up on the shores of Loch Ness, DCI Jack Logan's dream of a quiet life in the Highlands is shattered. 

While the media speculates wildly about monster attacks, Jack and the Major Investigations Team must act fast to catch the killer before they can strike again. 

But with Nessie-hunters descending on the area in their dozens, and an old enemy rearing his ugly head, the case could well turn out to be the most challenging of Jack's career. 

And, if he isn't careful, the last. 

Death and dark humour combine in this fast-paced Tartan noir crime thriller set in the Highlands of Scotland.

‘DCI Logan is sure to become one of Scotland’s best-loved detectives.’ (Adam Croft)

©2019 JD Kirk (P)2019 JD Kirk

a very formulaic story you seen thousand times...

...about a tough cop with drinking and anger issues and Not Playing By the Rules (tm). zzzzzz.

JD Kirk does it again!

The absolute best procedural crime drama writer since PD James. I can not wait for the next installment!

Where's the rest of the series?

Now that I'm two books into the series, I am a little frustrated to see that there are no further books on Audible. Nice start, Audible, were you testing the waters or something? If there's not much interest, you won't complete the series? I hope you DO add more. So far, the characters are interesting, and Angus King's narration is pretty good. Who doesn't love a Scottish accent?? I want more. Just sayin'.

Fun!

An unbelievable story, but actually one of the things i enjoy most about some good guys vs bad guys books is the comaraderie and humor among the cops. The narrator is so good that it was a better book by audio than if I'd read it, and that's quite unusual for me. Ive looked up Angus King and filled my wish list. It so happens he narrates more books in this genre.

Lazy/Spoilers

Extremely disappointed with how such great promise ended so lazily. Also, child rape not OK, even if the victim is a boy, which is implied in this book.

Very disappointing

I really enjoyed the first book. The writing and characters felt very mature. This book feels like it’s not even written by the same author. The characters just kept nattering on and on and came across as annoying schoolchildren. The overall story was thin and forced. I honestly thought I found a new author I could read everything by, but after this book I doubt I will. Such a shame

A Good Listen

This is my first book by this author but it won’t be the last. Good characters, good plot well written. The performance was excellent as well.

another great beginning

another great beginning the characters are learning each other's skills and tributes to the job love every sentence of it

Fantastic Scottish Accent!

I'm really loving this series. The humour of the police squad helps offset the grimness of some of the story elements. i was guffawing out loud at some of the banter.

Oooh --- and the narrators Scottish accent is so spot on!!

Funny, gross and unpredictable

Couldn’t put this one down. Great story. Hilarious and clever one-liners alone make it a worthy listen. Reminds me of Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series.

This isn’t a typical book about a cop with a bad attitude as suggested in another review and the book is not a snoozer. Someone clearly left a review without listening to it. Logan is just the right combo of smart, bumbling and self-assured, and his temper rounds him out perfectly.

The swapped insults and metaphors are second to none. Wish I’d bookmarked them.

Kirk and King Step it Up!

I really enjoyed the first book in this series so have gobbled up the second pretty shortly afterwards. I was curious to see if Kirk could get over that difficult second book in the series hurdle and a little worried that he had gone a bit longer in length for this one as the stripped back nature of the first book contributed to its momentum. I really needn't have worried on either score, this one simply delivers more of everything the first one did without ever feeling more bloated.

It's not aiming to be something completely different, it's in some ways very standard fare for Scottish crime thrillers. What it is though is thoroughly well-written and thought out crime fiction with the boost of high quality narration from Angus King who portrays the lead, DCI Logan himself, with considerable aplomb.

So, if you're looking for some kind of ground-breaking fiction you won't find it here. What you will get is a very well put together mystery with relatable, if a little curmudgeonly in parts, characters presented in a high quality production.

Exceptional narrator and novel

Struggled to find a series to get into after Stuart McBride's Logan McRae and Denzil Mayrick DCI Dailey. Prefer crime novels with some comic relief in addition to 'show don't tell' clever mystery. Otherwise these type of novels can become quite depressing. This has it all in spades. Some of the dialog delivered between characters is priceless particularly when delivered in such a deadpan glaswegian accent.
Pathologist: 'hmmm.....Jack....I knew a Jack once'
DCI Logan: 'yeah....it's... quite a common name'
Highly recommended and will go through whole series for sure.

loved it

Loved the book! However, this narrator always spoils a book for me. Mispronunciation , incorrect emphasis.

DIdn't enjoy as much as Book 1 in the series

The author was new to me when I listened to Book 1 and I enjoyed the straight forward approach to the genre. Get on with the story and don't pad out with lots of back-stories, sartorial details and psychological navel-gazing. Book 2 largely avoids these annoying diversions but has strayed into including some of the other clichés of detective fiction writing such as having a gormless police constable, colleagues being sarcastic or arguing with one another to an excessive degree and superior police officers giving underlings bollockings. In this book the author had the superintendent giving the bollocking to his chief inspector in dialogue so ridiculously full of the F-word that many short sentences contained it three or more times. The whole book is peppered with the F-word to an excessive degree. Swearing has it's place but loses its force when used to such excess and smacks of laziness in the writing. The journey to the detection of the crime is engaging but the final revelations are pulled out of a hat and not convincing.
The narrator is very good

A great crime novel !!!

A brilliant story well done to all, a great build up to a cracking end !!!

Great story and great reading

This is a great story, well written and is very well performed by the reader.
Non locals hearing it will be perfectly happy. However I do have one tiny (perhaps petty) criticism. As a local to the area, it jarred when names were pronounced wrong.
Boleskin and Abriachan were not pronounced correctly. I don’t blame the man reading it as he wouldn’t know but I feel that the author should have listened to the audio version and picked up on the mistakes.

Truly awful

I really hoped this was going to get better and so I perservered. I was hoping that maybe a good story had been spoiled by an inappropriate narrator.
Unfortunately, the story line is weak and the characters silly.
No more J D Kirk for this girl

Good story & fun too

Very impressed, I'm already looking forward to the book in the series. The style reminds me of Macbride's Logan McRae series, high praise indeed.

superb as usual ffrom J D!

Great story. enjoyed it start to finish...love a book binge.....next up... more dci logan. canny wait!

Awesome

This book does the simple stuff really well. A tried and tested structure but it has enough twists to keep it fresh. DCI Logan is great and all the returning characters add to the story. Only reason I can't give it 5 stars is that there is a twist that is given away a bit too early. Otherwise a fantastic crime thriller.