Cry Uncle: A J. McNee Mystery

McLean immediately ratchets up the tension in his gritty fifth J. McNee mystery (after 2014’s Mothers of the Disappeared). In the prologue, set in 2012 Dundee, Scotland, PI McNee has drawn a gun on a kneeling David Burns, an aging but still-potent gangster, whom McNee has agreed to help the police bring down. McNee is weighing whether to execute Burns to “gain some kind of justice for all the people caught in his sick pool of self-indulgence and greed.” With the reader in suspense about whether the trigger will be pulled, McLean pulls back eight months. A looming change in the structure of the police makes bringing down Burns an urgent priority for a Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement agent after a decade-long pursuit. McNee is as hard-boiled as they get, and the story of how he got Burns at his mercy will appeal to fans of Denise Mina and Ian Rankin. (Mar.)