THE DARK HEART by Neil Lancaster

5* I nearly abandoned this brilliant book because I'm unfamiliar with the series and struggled with the Scots speak. Gah, a GREAT start to 2026.

So, maybe I'd have been better off reading the previous books in the DS Max Craigie series, as I found the Scottish terms and words (like heid for head, polis for police) irritating and tiresome. There was a deluge of characters that I'd not been expecting and I kept mistaking the female cops for Max's wife, wondering how she kept appearing. It started off really confusing.

Once the Dent brothers made their appearance, things picked up. The storyline isn't far removed from 2026 real life, with Russian, Chinese and other hostile interference making it utterly believable. And some of the twists, the UC work, the willingness of Max's team to get things done was pretty kickarse. The tale wasn't pleasant, and so it was satisfying in a way that far too few books are, that everyone who deserved their fate got their fate. Yes!!!! The tech stuff was believable with just the right amount of Spooks - the TV series - to make it all work. Can't wait to read the next, and to figure out if Max's last conversation prior to his holiday wasn't his way of doing justice for the fallen Joe, a lovely character. I suspect that the 'my boss' conversation with the bad guy meant that Max knew exactly what'd happen, and that it'd be untraceable. Oh, plus the video. Brilliant!!

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and HQ, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. 

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