Cuddies Strip by Rob McInroy
August 1935. A young couple stroll down Cuddies Strip, a lovers' lane on the outskirts of their hometown. Neither is aware of the tragedy about to befall them – horrifying crimes that shook the residents of Perth, Scotland, to their very core. The murder of Daniel Kerrigan, 18, and the violent attack on his girlfriend Marjory Fenwick, 17, is a true story that is heartbreakingly retold in this fictionalised account.
Marjory’s ordeal didn’t end that night, however. This novel painstakingly explores her mistreatment by those meant to help her – the police and judicial system. Inspector Conoboy and PC Bob Kelty struggle against the ignorance of their colleagues as they race to catch the culprit before someone else falls victim – and to give Marjory the justice and peace she deserves.
Author Bio:
Rob McInroy is the author of Cuddies Strip, a novel based on true crimes in 1930s Scotland, published by Ringwood Publishing. He has won four short story competitions in the past eighteen months (Hissac, ChipLit Fest, Writing Magazine and the Bedford International Writing Competition). His short stories have been placed or shortlisted in a further sixteen competitions in the past eighteen months. In 2018 he was a winner of the Bradford Literature Festival Northern Noir Crime Novel competition with Cuddies Strip and in 2019, he won the Darling Axe Novel First Page Prize with another novel, Cloudland. He was born in Crieff, Perthshire and his writing is all based on the Perthshire area, from the 1920s to the 2010s. He has an MA (with distinction) in Creative Writing and a PhD in American Literature, both from the University of Hull. He currently lives in Yorkshire and is working on a follow-up to Cuddies Strip.
Review.
‘Cuddies Strip’ falls into my favourite niche genre - crime set between the wars and to boot it was also set in Scotland. I had high expectations for this book and it definitely did not disappoint. It was a delight to read as the story telling was sublime, the characters are all unique and well formed and the story itself was believable and more importantly felt human and real.
‘Cuddies Strip’ is based on a true crime which occurred in Perth but it is the story behind this that is told here and I seriously encourage you to read it. There is an authors note at the start of the book which explains that the crimes that take place are real with information coming from newspapers and accounts from that time. All the police characters have been invented by the author. I would have loved to have seen some of those articles as maybe an appendix at the end but that’s me just being a history geek! But I think this is given ‘Cuddies Strip’ a magical feel, why it feels so life like and realistic. That’s because it is. This crime actually took place. This blending between true crime and fiction what makes this book and it deserves to be read.
This is definitely a book of two halves - the first being the investigation of the crime and the second occurs when the case goes to trial. All the characters follow through the halves though and the characters I loved carried on developing and evolving. I really enjoyed the younger generation of characters here - Bob, Annie and Margery. The Inspector’s wife was also an intriguing character. But it was Bob who stole my heart in this tale. The size of his heart, so empathic, highly intuitive. I think I have a book crush on him! I would love to read more books with him in it.
Basically, I have been left wanting to carry on finding out about these characters and that to me is the sign of an amazing story. Easy 5⭐️ from me!
