Craig Robertson Double Bill

Today you are treated to a double-bill!
I’ve known Craig Robertson for a number of years and he is a generous and lovely man. A stalwart of the Scottish crimewriting scene, The Mirror says that “Robertson is doing for Glasgow what Rankin did for Edinburgh”. High praise indeed.
But as always, these two books are listed here as they are damn good reads (which I have bought people for Christmas… shhh), not because Craig is a mate.These are the two latest releases in Robertson’s Glasgow-based DI Rachel Narey series. I like Robertson’s writing as he always brings an original twist. As a writer of police procedurals myself, I know how hard it is to make a book stand out, and both of these distinguish themselves in a crowded field.

In The Photographer, a dawn raid by the police leads to the discovery of a chilling collection of photographs hidden under floorboards. The story has a nice balance of surprising twists with a growing sense of impending dread, with readers never sure what will come next.
As always, the book has a strong supporting cast – both series regulars and new characters for this book, and each is written as an individual with their own strengths and foibles, with readers easily becoming invested in their fates.

The next in the series Watch Him Die is another high-concept idea. The book opens in Los Angeles, with the apparently non-suspicious death of a man in his own home. However, closer inspection of the residence soon reveals something disturbing…
Back in Glasgow, Robertson’s series regular, Rachel Nary is embroilled in a missing person case – she believes she knows who is responsible, and furthermore believes that he has killed her.
These two seemingly unrelated cases, thousands of miles apart, become linked when the detectives in California discover a live internet feed broadcasting the slow and painful death of another victim…
I love this book. The marrying together of these two disparate cases is both chilling and plausible, and the blending of the familiar world of DI Nary with the radically different culture of US law enforcement is handled skilfully.
In ‘race against time’ books, it can be difficult to engender a true sense of danger for the victims. We want our heroes to succeed, and we know that the writer is also rooting for them. Here, Robertson genuinely has you wondering ‘will they or won’t they’? From the outset, there is no foregone conclusion, and it really is a ‘page-turner’.

I heartily recommend both of these books, and others by Craig Robertson. He deserves the respect that he receives from reviewers, readers and his peers. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for whatever he releases next.