Bred in the Bone: A Jasmine Sharp and Catherine McLeod Novel
*Starred Review* Brookmyre’s third Jasmine Sharp/Catherine McLeod outing (following When the Devil Drives, 2013) begins with the cold-blooded assassination of Glasgow criminal legend Stevie Fullerton, quickly followed by Detective Superintendent McLeod’s speedy arrest of Glen Fallan, another of Glasgow’s top criminals. Closing the books on two major criminals at the same time would normally please her, but McLeod knows that Fallan is far too smart to have made it so easy. She also knows that Fallan has real feelings for Jasmine, so McLeod arranges to bait the young PI into investigating the murder. Each woman learns her life has been touched by the gangsters, and each is imperiled by her connection. Jasmine finds herself uncovering betrayals and blood feuds that date back 25 years, as well as insights into her mother’s youth in a poor, violent Glasgow neighborhood. McLeod finds herself in a swamp of corrupt coppers and the influence of the city’s most politically prominent family. Brookmyre’s plot turns so often, and involves so many characters, that the novel requires—and rewards—close reading. A baker’s dozen characters are well sketched, and Fallan is wonderfully complex: a stone-cold killer who is also strangely principled. Brookmyre is building a case for gritty, violent Glasgow as the world capital of crime, and this is his best book yet. --Thomas Gaughan