The Caldat Investigation by BRM Stewart
Grant Cairns is a Glasgow-based private investigator. He is contracted to investigate a company called Caledonia Data (CalDat) which is suspected of channelling dark money to far-right groups, and also being involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Ex-DS Amanda Pitt is living a life of box sets, painkillers and gin. When a former colleague tells her about an apparently racially motivated fatal stabbing in a Glasgow hotel, where the murderer could not have known the victim and who died at the scene, she becomes intrigued. She gets Grant Cairns involved, and they find that their cases are inter-linked.
As they work, they enlist the help of computer expert Martin McGregor and his genius hacker protégé Michael. For Martin, the world of online abuse and fake news gets very personal.
And for MSP Julia Ross, a passionate believer in people’s rights – especially the LGBT agenda – and online accountability, the hate and trolling will have fatal consequences, unless Cairns, Amanda, and Martin and Michael can save her.
Author Bio
I was born in Rutherglen (near Glasgow) and brought up in Grangemouth. I went to Glasgow University and Jordanhill Teacher Training College, and taught in Edinburgh before moving north to the Highlands. I lived and worked there for many years in education in various roles, including as an OU maths tutor. In 2017 we moved to Broughty Ferry to be nearer our families.
Having retired from education, I'm focused on my writing.
My wife and I enjoy travelling. Highlights have included cycling in Alaska, swimming in the Blue Lagoon, and climbing Vesuvius. We've seen Uluru at dusk and at dawn, and swum in the Olympic pool under Sydney harbour bridge. The furthest north we've been was North Cape, the west was the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island, and of course, New Zealand took us furthest east and south. All of that background will seep into my writing in due course in some way or another.
When not writing, I try to keep fit and try to play the guitar and golf (not simultaneously). I am in Broughty Ferry Rotary and also support our District in my role as Assistant Governor in District 1010. One of the great bonuses of being a Rotarian is the ability to visit other clubs - most recently in Hong Kong and in Blenheim (South Island). I keep in contact with other writers through social media, writers' events, and the Angus Writers' Circle, whose members are a really supportive bunch.
I self-published Digital Circumstances and Digital Investigations. The next in the series, The Deaths on the Black Rock, was published by ThunderPoint on October 23rd 2018. For the follow-up, I went back to self-publishing, and The CalDat Investigation came out in February 2021.
Review.
‘The Caldat Investigation’ is a complex thriller about ‘fake news’, dirty money, bot farms and deep fake treachery. It’s fast paced, covers all the angles and hooked me right from the start. It’s also set mainly in my home town of Glasgow and it’s always lovely when you can picture all the scenes in your mind! Plus of course there is the famous Glasgow charm.
When there is what seems to be a racially motivated attack in a hotel in Glasgow, ex DI Amanda Pitt (liking the nod of the HQ of Glasgow police there) becomes intrigued as to why a washed up guy from Govan would commit this type of crime. He doesn’t have the money to stay in that hotel, he lives five mins from it and more importantly doesn’t own a phone or go places where he could have been radicalised to this extent? Amanda thinks it stinks and decides she is going to look into it. Grant Cairns a PI from Glasgow has been tasked into looking into a company called Caldat as it is believed that dirty money is being washed through and they don’t understand why. Martin and his genius computing protege Michael have been working on a software which analyses Twitter to help identify and weed out the bots which are pumping out misinformation. Turns out they are all working on roughly the same thing and when they get to together that’s when the pacing kicks up a notch…..
I honestly thought some of this might go over my head but nope (means I have been listening to the hubby!) and I enjoyed reading the book. The only criticism I have is I felt as if there were too many ‘investigators’ - I didn’t really see the need for Pete, Amanda could have said I just got this from my police source. Apart from that it’s a thoroughly good read. It explains all the technical side with ease but more importantly without dumbing it down. I really enjoyed the storyline with the politician - shocking but unfortunately believable in age where Trump gets elected! The character I would have liked to have followed out with this book would have to be Cairns as he was great, kind hearted, intelligent and just looking to be loved!
This is definitely a book I can recommend!
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