Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

The city is in a state of fear. Some 20 years ago, the Grampian police nailed a particularly vicious serial killer known as The Flesher, a monster who had claimed victims throughout the country. But one of those frequent legal appeals which so often release dangerous criminals into the community has freed him, and when a container with human body parts appears at Aberdeen harbour, it looks like the stage is once again set for carnage on a massive scale. DS Logan McRae (along with his less experienced colleague, Chief Constable Mark Faulds from Birmingham -- who was on the original team tracking down The Flesher), finds himself in charge of one of the most ambitious manhunts city has ever seen. And then members of the original team tracking down their serial killer prey (whose real name is Ken Wiseman) begin to disappear -- and more human meat is making grisly appearances. All of this is delivered with the requisite grasp of tension and characterisation that we have come to expect from Stuart MacBride. There are those who will feel he has gone too far in Flesh House in confronting the less savoury aspects of human behaviour, but fans of uncompromising crime writing will be in their element. --Barry Forshaw

Average Customer Rating:

3 great novels ....then this	Customer Rating:
I loved his first three books, gory and funny at the same time, but this was just streching credibility a little too far. An unbelievable plot from start to finish...what a shame

And then some

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A little bit more far fetched than the other three (especially the ending) and not as 'unguessable' but still riveting. Also compelling was the way DI Insch bursts into Grampian Police folklore with the unfortunate sequence of events that leads to his fantastic demise... But will he Bounce back? Strange how Logan's alternative love interest, built up in previous books, did not get much of a mention at all here (only in despatches)... Not that I'm in to the soppy stuff (or I wouldn't read Macbride!) but for continuity purposes it would have been nice if he'd seen to her at some point. Can't wait for 'Blind Eye'... Intrigued already!

fUNNY, BUT UNREMITTINGLY GRIM

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The Aberdeen Tourist Board must have collective heart failure every time a novel by Stuart Macbride is published. It's always raining, the streets are overrun with deranged serial killers, and the Grampian Police is full of lazy, backbiting incompetents who never miss an opportunity to put the boot into the long suffering hero DS Logan Macrae. Yet 'Flesh House', Macbride's latest, is a very exciting read, a real page turner, and certainly not to be read last thing at night. It's extremely gruesome and there's no let-up as the unremittingly grim events unfold. I just hope the plot and characters lighten up a bit in Macbride's next book which I eagerly await.

Readable but little more

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I've read all MacBride's novels but sadly they don't get any better. I can only agree with another reviewer that as a writer, MacBride can't take anything seriously. Because of this, I found some of the quite nasty things in this book, and the so-called gory bits actually quite funny.[e.g. black pudding....has it put me off the stuff? No way!!] My point is that this shouldn't happen in a crime novel. You really should be horrified or feel that the police are getting somewhere in catching nasty villains. What you get here is a Punch + Judy show. Mark Billingham has been a stand-up comedian but knows how far to take humour, when to stop. As a result, he is a very fine crime writer. Equally, I don't think too many people laugh at Stephen King's novels. I think Stuart MacBride is currently caught between a number of stools and needs to take stock.

Loved it/hated it but couldn't stop reading it

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First Sentence: `No, you listen to me: if my six year old son isn't back here in ten minutes I'm going to come round there and rip you a new arsehole, are we clear?' Twenty years ago, there was a serial killer knows as "The Flesher" who was purported to kill people and eat them. Now, seven years after the killer has been released from prison, human meat has been found in a local butcher shop and DS Logan McRae are trying to track down a serial killer dressed in a butcher's apron wearing a Margaret Thatcher mask. I had a love/hate relationship with this book. Be aware that murders are very graphic and gruesome, but I can deal with that. My issue is the characters. McRae is about the only remotely likeable character and, even for him, you have very little background or real sense of who he is. The characters are realistic but largely unpleasant. On the other hand, the plot, while unrelentingly grim, is thoroughly engrossing and delightfully twisty. There was less humor in this book than in ones in the past. A bit more light to offset the dark would have helped. McBride is definitely a good, skilled writer. I can't say I enjoyed the book, because of the theme, but I couldn't stop reading it.