I've always been a massive fan of Stuart MacBride but when reading the blurb for this novel I wasn't as excited as I normally am diving into Logan McRae's Aberdeen.
In Shatter the Bones Alison and Jenny McGregor, the main attraction of the latest reality show 'Britain's Next Big Star', have been kidnapped. McRae and team are doing their best to find out who did it but they keep meeting dead ends. Meanwhile Trisha Brown and her partner Shuggie Webster keep getting into all kinds of trouble.
There are several things I loved about Shatter the Bones. The characters are always brilliant, the most well rounded, well loved bunch of fictional people I've ever come across and the dialogue between them zings. I particularly enjoyed the introduction of Green, in fact I found myself infuriated with him most of the time and that proves to me just how excellent the author is at creating characters with depth and all sort of different nuances.
MacBride also keeps up a speedy pace ensuring the reader never gets bored and there's always something new to be revealed. I also enjoyed the take on reality television and the lengths people will go to for fame and fortune. With every weekend being taken over by The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and The Voice, this book illustrated the madness of it all, being plucked from obscurity and plunged into the limelight with no safety net.
What I struggled with in this particular novel is the amount of suspects and characters. At points I wasn't entirely sure who they were talking about and would have to skip back a couple of pages and check. There were also some unnecessary characters. I understand that MacBride wants to portray a realistic police service and therefore certain officers would be used for certain roles, but it got a bit much for me. I was also a bit disappointed with the ending. It wasn't the huge twist I was hoping for (and normally expect) and it all seemed a bit hurried.
So overall, three out of five stars for Shatter the Bones. I will definitely read more of MacBride's work in the future. This one just wasn't my cup of tea.

Shatter the bones is not as briskly paced as McBride's earlier works, neither are the sub plots as thrilling. But the writing is A grade as usual. He creates suspense, horror and intrigue almost effortlessly.

My only gripe is that the plot was not meaty enough. The story lags in between before it picks up again.

This book is emotionally heavier; failure, guilt, rage are all very extensively and very successfully explored. The end is satisfying, even if slightly predictable.

Great as ever but all these endings are wrapped up so quickly! I have some questions. What happened with the boy and his mother for one?

Not quite enough DI Steel for my liking, but the obnoxious SOCA officer making everyone's life a misery and plenty of Finnie looking like a disappointed frog was always appreciated. Logan deals with personal trauma and questions his future - an important entry that moves the story forward.

I love this author, the humour and the gritty tales are fantastic! Love Steel, she is such a character and the quirks of the team are delightful. Biohazard Bob has me in stitches!

Despite me loving these books I do have 2 qualms, one is that (Up to this book) even though he is a great cop, he never catches a break and gets promoted. Poor dude never catches a break. It got a bit predictable that he would fail in the end.
Secondly, I don't know why it bugs me so much but I counted 6 bad guy names in this book and yet it only explains who four of them were... possibly 5 as the endings are always a bit rushed and not fully explained.

Can anyone else fill me in?