I’m delighted to welcome back Colin Garrow to the blog with a historical crime novel set in Edinburgh #blogtour #histfic #bookreview #mystery

Here’s the blurb

Edinburgh, Christmas Eve, 1936. A gruesome double murder. A white-faced killer. A mysterious stranger…

Still haunted by his recent past, Professor Finlay MacBeth is called in to assist the police following an horrific double murder. Traces of greasepaint and white cotton lead MacBeth and Inspector Callaghan to the Christmas Circus, but while they search for clues, someone else is watching them.

Meanwhile, bent cop Kilmartin still has MacBeth in his sights…In this thriller series set in Edinburgh, Overkill is book #2 in the Finlay MacBeth series.

Purchase Link

Amazon: https://geni.us/q05E

Draf2Digital: https://books2read.com/u/mlBxwW

My Review

Overkill is another success for Colin Garrow. This time we travel to 1936 and a very cold Christmas in Edinburgh. There could certainly be better times for a violent killer to strike than when snow lies thickly on the ground and no one has a decent pair of wellingtons to be found for love nor money.

I love that Colin’s novels are straight to the plot, and also, all plot. There is no time for extraneous activities, and this ensures his books, and I include Overkill in this, are quick reads while being very intriguing. I also appreciated the appearance of some Scottish words and found that they didn’t distract from the story but rather added to it.

I powered through Overkill and very much enjoyed the interplay between the main characters (even though the murders are particularly violent). This isn’t so much a ‘guess the culprit’ but rather a cat and mouse game where we hope the police will get to the killer before he strikes again.

Meet the author

Colin Garrow grew up in a former mining town in Northumberland. He has worked in a plethora of professions including taxi driver, antiques dealer, drama facilitator, theatre director and fish processor, and has occasionally masqueraded as a pirate. 

He has published more than thirty books, and his short stories have appeared in several literary mags, most recently in Witcraft, and Flash Fiction North. Colin lives in a humble cottage in Northeast Scotland where he writes novels, stories, poems and the occasional song.

He also plays several musical instruments and makes rather nice vegan cakes.

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Check out my reviews for Colin’s other books

Terminal Black

Crucial Black

The Watson Letters

Blood on the Tyne