Bloody January (A Harry McCoy Thriller)

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They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads, and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages. With no idea whom to trust, he is forced to use all means at his disposal to find out the truth, tapping his sources on both sides of the law. A fatal car accident that was anything but accidental has jarred loose a stash of methamphetamines and cash that’s become the center of a battle between the Sons of Freedom, Bakken County’s traditional drug sellers, and MS-13, the Salvadorian upstarts who are muscling in on their territory.

The Memorial Society and Helsinki Watch reported in May 1991 that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of civil liberties and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths. Harry McCoy, the main character, is an anti-hero who follows his own path no matter what the consequences will be.A young man shoots a young woman dead in a busy Glasgow street, he makes no attempt to conceal what he's done, on the contrary, with a smile on his face he turns the gun on himself and commits suicide. The old one, though, is still in focus: indeed, short of a Tardis, says John Niven, this book is the best way of getting back to Seventies Glasgow. On 14 February 1992, the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office instituted a lawsuit targeted at the individuals involved in the massacre. I can’t say that it’s definitely true to life but it feels real and for fiction that’s important enough.

Law enforcement now is certainly a world away from the police we meet in this novel who ‘fell’ into the police force in their teens as they couldn’t get other jobs. Bloody January, Alan Parks’s excellent first novel, propels him into the top class of Scottish noir authors. It is set in a 1970s Glasgow of hard men, crime gangsters and corrupt cops, with all the plethora of the cruelty and brutality of the time. A crime story seemed to be the best way to explore the different levels of society, from homeless people living on the streets to the landed Gentry in their huge houses in the country … So I ended up writing a ‘Tartan Noir’.Bloody January is a startlingly excellent addition to the Scottish crime scene, even more so as a debut. McCoy is a deeply flawed individual, with a penchant for drugs, prostitutes, drink and a close relationship with Stevie Cooper, a brutal crime boss with his fingers in many pies from drugs and gambling to prostitution. One to be read with the lights on and the doors locked, this book is a must-have for lovers of McIlvanney and all things noir. Set at the beginning of 1973, this is the first Harry McCoy novel and what an excellent start to a series it is! The book is peppered with cultural and political references familiar to those of us born nearer that era- ahem- as well painting a grimly real backdrop for readers less familiar with the period.

The trials and tribulations of Detective Harry McCoy and the various characters in the Glasgow underworld that he has to deal with. Arriving too late to stop the killing, he’s plunged into a case with implications that reach far beyond a single murder. As Harry endures beating after beating, his heart and personal morality will not allow him to give up on trying to get some form of justice for the rising tide of the dead. We always used to catch the bus back to Elderslie from just by the St Enoch’s Hotel, and we’d see all those poor people there, huddling by the hot air vents and drinking god knows what.The sweeping emergency decree, signed by President Mikhail Gorbachef after an emergency meeting of the Presidium of the Soviet Parliament, followed a weekend of anti-Armenian riots in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, and open armed combat elsewhere. It was the first time I saw a police landrover with mesh on the windscreen, a daily need there and the shape of things to come for the rest of us. A Glasgow detective goes up against a wealthy family whose corruption runs deep in this gritty noir series debut set in 1970s Scotland.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. His quest for justice (and a little measure of revenge), despite the personal cost to himself, makes for an irresistible read. SHORTLISTED FOR THE GRAND PRIX DE LITTÉRATURE POLICIÈRE When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. In a helter-skelter tale - winding from moneyed elite to hipster music groupies to the brutal gangs of the urban wasteland - Bloody January brings to life the dark underbelly of 1970s Glasgow and introduces a dark and electrifying new voice in Scottish noir.This is a city down on its uppers, with only occasional glimmers of the city that Glasgow was to become, and Parks’ colourful and inventive use of the Glaswegian vernacular brings a heightened level of enjoyment to the book too. January 1973 first brought a promotion to Detective Harry McCoy of Glasgow police, but then things wrecked havoc. Because of the actions of Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the actions of the Soviet Army and were able to organize a protest. A blistering plot, unforgettable characters and writing so sharp it's like it's been written with a knife . His debut novel Bloody January was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, February’s Son was nominated for an Edgar Award, Bobby March Will Live Forever was picked as a Times Best Book of the Year, won a Prix Mystère de la Critique Award and won an Edgar Award.