The Quaker is watching you…
It is 1969 and Glasgow has been brought to its knees by a serial killer spreading fear throughout the city. The Quaker has taken three women from the same nightclub and brutally murdered them in the backstreets.
A detective with everything to prove.
Now, six months later, the police are left chasing a ghost, with no new leads and no hope of catching their prey. They call in DI McCormack, a talented young detective from the Highlands. But his arrival is met with anger from a group of officers on the brink of despair.
A killer who hunts in the shadows.
Soon another woman is found murdered in a run-down tenement flat. And McCormack follows a trail of secrets that will change the city – and his life – forever…
As most of you know, I like to read Scottish fiction. However, I very rarely read Scottish crime fiction (or I think that I rarely read it). This seems so silly because Scottish crime is basically a genre of its own! So in addition to reading more Scottish fiction, I’ve started being more open to reading crime fiction.
While I don’t read a lot of crime fiction, I do enjoy the occasional true crime podcast. This book was inspired by a true crime case that I was familiar with- Bible John.
I enjoyed McCormack and the way that he didn’t try to get the department to like him. They were there to do the job and he wasn’t looking for friends. However, I did enjoy the moments of friendship that did pop up as they were so unexpected.
Due to the time period where this novel took place, there were quite a few times where I felt uncomfortable with the way that the police handled things. I assume that was realistic but base most of my knowledge of vintage police procedures on episodes of The Bill and the epilogue series of Prime Suspect. The way that the police treated suspects was horrible and definitely not ok, this made me feel very uneasy but may have been historically accurate.
The plot had two interweaving storylines; the murder and a heist. As a general rule, I hate heist novels but there are exceptions to the rules. This book was one of those exceptions.
The Murder storyline was just so compelling and I was hooked and just so keen to find out who was responsible for these horrific crimes. When the novel branched away from the crime that influenced the story, my interest continued to grow as I was so intrigued. The heist was an enjoyable story too. The actual heist was relatively short but the fall out from it continued throughout. It was enjoyable trying to work out how the two plots would merge. This just kept me guessing!
I was wondering how close to real life this book would be. In real life, we still don’t know who was responsible for the hideous crimes. I genuinely expected this to end without finding out who the murderer was. I was so happy to get the reveal. While there were some hints along the way, I did not see twists coming!
I really did enjoy this book and I do plan to read the sequel as I’m excited to see what happens next for McCormack. I lived in the East End of Glasgow for a long time and enjoyed recognising a lot of the areas.
Kapowski Reads 
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