Whirligig by Andrew James Greig

Just outside a sleepy Highland town, a gamekeeper is found hanging lifeless from a tree. The local police investigate an apparent suicide, only to find he’s been snared as efficiently as the rabbit suspended beside him. As the body count rises, the desperate hunt is on to find the murderer before any more people die. But the town doesn’t give up its secrets easily, and who makes the intricate clockwork mechanisms carved from bone and wood found at each crime?

Whirligig is a tartan noir like no other; an exposé of the corruption pervading a small Highland community and the damage this inflicts on society’s most vulnerable. What happens when those placed in positions of trust look the other way; when those charged with our protection are inadequate to the challenge; when the only justice is that served by those who have been sinned against?

This debut crime novel introduces DI James Corstophine – a man still grieving for a wife lost to cancer; his small close-knit team of passed-over police and their quiet Highland town. He’s up against a killer who plays him as easily as a child. For a man whose been treading water since the death of his wife, he’s facing a metaphorical flood of biblical proportions as he struggles to understand why these murders are happening, and who is behind each carefully planned execution. All the time, the clock is ticking.

Author

Born in London, moved to historic Monmouth as a young teenager and escaped as soon as I could to the bright lights of Bristol where I combined the careers of sober aerospace engineering and libertine sound engineering for as long as I could juggle these disparate and separate worlds.

Now living happily in central Scotland, where I enjoy writing books, playing music and exploring the great outdoors with my best friend who happily is my wife.

https://andrewjgreig.wordpress.com  

I saw Whirligig mentioned somewhere months ago and was very excited by the prospect of it as it sounded a great addition to the Tartan Noir scene and got in touch with Fledging Press to ask for a copy! They put me on to LoveBooksTours and Kelly as they knew she was going to be doing the blogtour for it. As it so happened, I had actually connected with Kelly the day before on Instagram on a readalong we were both doing and had signed up to be informed about her blogtours! Serendipity at its best. So basically I was very excited to read this book! Now did it live up to expectations………..

Yes, yes it did! This book is as intricate and complex as the Whirligig on its front cover. Also let’s just reflect on this front cover - how beautiful is this. Covers are a bugbear of mine at the moment. Yes I get the psychology behind their designs, but there are only so many backs of women I can take before it gets boring. This cover was a breath of fresh air and beautiful with it - well done! It’s the little details like the random red blades of grass and all those cogs.

I have to admit when I first got the book I had to google what Whirligig meant. So for my readers who aren’t based in Scotland or just don’t have a clue here is the definition;

So let’s get down to the review proper. Whirligig begins with a gamekeeper being found in an elaborate snare dangling from a tree on his route to work. He has a reputation in the area of being a trouble maker and drunk so it seems quite simple at first, suicide. However, the snare which killed him was formed from a complex mechanism formed of clockwork cogs which seems far too sophisticated for him and could it be related to a suicide years ago at the exact same spot?

The characters tasked to finding out what happened are DI Corstorphine and DC Frankie McKenzie. I really enjoyed how they worked together and complemented one another throughout the book. DI Corstorphine is trying out internet dating after losing his wife to cancer and Frankie determined to prove to people that she can do this job.

Obviously more people begin to die and it soon becomes clear that this is more complicated than they thought. The second death method I actually laughed out loud at as well as simultaneously gasping. Andrew certainly has a sick sense of humour and I am loving it.

However, the reason behind the killings soon turns out to be rather emotive. Andrew deals with the topic with sensitivity and empathy. There has been many discussions, books and films on this topic and it can been done rather brutally and without thought to readers who may have gone through this themselves. All the characters involved with breaking the case i.e. witnesses are shown compassion and are instantly believed. It’s really hard to talk about this theme without giving away spoilers!

I also liked the fact that this was deemed as being a backwater, a rural community with a police force that doesn’t have a lot to do and murder cases rarely happen. It made me think of communities like Helmsdale where everyone knows each other, nothing really ever gets done at a police station ‘detection’ wise. A force that has been written off. Well spoiler alert, all these preconceptions are wrong. It might take them longer than a ‘MIT’ team but they get there!

Andrew had me guessing till the last page who the killer was. It wasn’t until Corstorphine realised that I got it! That rarely happens now to me so a huge round of applause.

This book was complex, intricate, creepy, laugh out loud funny, chilling, compassionate and a cracking read! I am looking forward to the next one. Bring it on!

Trigger warnings - domestic abuse, sexually abuse.

Thanks to Kelly at LoveBooksTours and Fledging Press for the gifted copy. It is going to stay on my bookcase for a long time!