Singing to the Dead by Caro Ramsay
Singing to the Dead by Caro Ramsay
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Wednesday, 27, May 2009 08:39
Published by Penguin, out May 7th, paperback, 509 pp, £6.99.
In a nutshell...
Ian Rankin meets Taggart
What's it all about?
Singing to the Dead is the follow up to Absolution with the squad at Partickhill station still reeling after the death of DCI Alan McAlpine.
It's Christmas time and half the squad at Partickhill police station are off sick and having to come to terms with a new boss, who isn't very popular.
Just as the station is at breaking point two boys are abducted and an innocent house fire turns into a murder investigation.
Adding to the chaos is the fact that rock legend Rogan O'Neil is in town and the team have to help provide security for the visit.
And when a third boy goes missing - the son of policeman Detective Inspector Collin Anderson - the team has a race against time to find the boys.
Who's it by?
Caro Ramsay was raised around the Govan area of Glasgow. Ramsay was the youngest person ever to graduate from the British School of Osteopathy in London. When she is not writing she runs her own practice in Glasgow - where she has even been known to treat the odd animal or two.
While recovering from a bad back Ramsay started writing her first novel - Absolution - which was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger award.
As an example...
"Why didn't Troy push the rat away? It was sitting on his foot, where the skin was black and breaking, pulling at his flesh, tugging so hard, Troy's leg twitched like he trying to kick it off. But the rat held on."
Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster
It may not make it as a Hollywood blockbuster but could certainly make it onto the small screen. Singing to the Dead could easily be turned into a crime drama or appear on an episode of Taggart.
What the others say
"This is the sort of book that is perfect for a plane journey, a slow weekend, or a sunny vacation." - Jennie Blake, bookgeeks
"Ramsay's standout achievement in this novel is that though there are more than a dozen major characters, she manages to dab flesh and blood on each of them. There are good people, bad people and many shades of grey." - Vinod Joseph, Epic India
So is it any good?
This is the follow up to Absolution but can stand alone as a book in its own right. All the characters are painted evocatively which means it is easy to understand their back story without having to read the original.
The plot is intriguing with many twists and turns, and I found that I was kept guessing right to the last minute. Ramsay also manages to weave the many plotlines together through the story of the mysterious Tambourine Girl depicted in Rogan O'Neil's biggest hit.
The characters are all three-dimensional and believable - there are no obvious good guys and bad guys in this book which makes it far harder to guess the ending. Having such complex characters also made it hard not to care about what happens to them as well as want to find out more about their back story.
All in all Singing to the Dead is a real page turner and I even found myself re-reading bits of the book after I had finished in order piece together the intricate narrative.
8/10
Samantha Cullen