Potter’s Field

Glasgow prosecutor Maddalena “Maddy” Shannon, the heroine of this deftly unsettling crime novel from Dolan (Ascension Day), is unnerved by the discovery in Kelvingrove Park of two teenage boys, their faces beaten and slashed beyond recognition, each shot in the head. Working with Det. Insp. Alan Coulter, Shannon works to put names to the victims; both were dressed in trendy tracksuits but carried no identification. As the case widens—the unsolved murders in New York of seven young men or boys with “knife-wounds across their mouths” may be linked—Shannon becomes less sure of the direction Coulter and his team are heading. After discovering another body, Coulter is convinced the murders are tied to an ex-IRA heavy, who may have connections to the American victims, though Shannon is afraid the evidence is circumstantial at best, and she, perhaps unwisely, sets off on her own course of investigation. Visceral prose, a dark subject, and black humor make this a welcome addition to the Tartan Noir collective. (July)