Blog Tour w/Review: The Blood Acre

This book started with a bang (quite literally) and didn’t let up. It was gritty and pulled no punches.

It was obvious from the start that the author had a background in law enforcement (either that or as a criminal) because the descriptions of both the crimes and the investigations were realistic and interesting. Nothing felt made up or forced. From the tension between partners to the multi-faceted crimes, everything was full of enough detail to paint vivid pictures.

I thought The Creepers were especially colorful. While they reminded me of street gangs in general, there was also something uniquely Scottish about them.

The setting was interesting for me to read about because I find it fascinating to compare crime and law enforcement between countries.

The only thing that I had a love/hate relationship with was the style of writing. I appreciated that the author wrote in a way that I could get a sense of the Scottish brogue/burr. I do love when I can get a sense of how someone actually “sounds.” However, the extensive use of it made for very slow reading which took me out of the story a few times.

Ultimately, however, the atmosphere created by the writing won out, and I enjoyed this book.

AUTHOR BIO

Robert James Mitchell was brought up in Stirling. Mitchell was initially detailed beat duties out of the former Blackhill Police Office and then Baird Street Police Office in the former ‘D’ Division, or the North, as it was known to all the men who served in the division. In January, 2007, while recovering from an appendicitis, Mitchell decided to write the first draft of ‘Parallel Lines: The Glasgow Supremacy‘, drawing heavily on his own experiences and featuring the characters of Detective Sergeant Gus Thoroughgood and DC Kenny Hardie.