About The Book
Inside a beautiful Victorian family home in Glasgow’s West End, a mother and her young son are found brutally murdered. DI Costello is furious and knows exactly who did it, George Haggerty, the husband and father. The only problem is that Haggerty has a cast-iron alibi – the police themselves caught him speeding on the A9 at the time of the murders. But Costello can’t let it go. Determined to expose Haggerty as a ruthless killer, she’s gone solo.
DCI Colin Anderson has no time to ponder his partner of twenty years going rogue, as his own cases are piling up. But Costello’s absence becomes increasingly worrying. Has she completely disappeared following the tracks of a dangerous man?
My Review
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. I read The Sideman straight after finishing the previous book in the series, The Suffering Of Strangers. This is something I rarely do but I needed to know who had murdered the mother and her young son.
I find this series quite refreshing, I don’t think I’ve read a novel where a relative of the deceased features so heavily, appearing to trying to get answers and justice. When you are also aware that she could be responsible. An alcoholic, alone and recovering from the events that happened to her in the earlier book.
I liked getting to know Anderson more and being able to see how his personal life worked. His is more confusing than many but I’m sure I will get all my answers when I read the earlier books. I also had a lot of appreciation for the scenes that featured Mathieson and Bannon. One of them, at least, not likeable but I imagine they were realistic.
I could really visualise the setting. Remote, beautiful and slightly dangerous. Even if I couldn’t pronounce it, I wasn’t on my own, many of the recurring characters couldn’t either. It gave me a feeling that there was a slight North/ South divide, not just with the inability to pronounce correctly but also the attitudes of everybody from either community.
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