Blood Runs Deep

DS Malkie McCulloch, Book 1

By: Doug Sinclair

Narrated by: Angus King

Family ties can be deadly

In the shadow of the Pentland Hills, a man has been callously struck down in front of his home. Tyre marks suggest it was no accidental hit-and-run. Somebody wanted him dead and as the man fights for every breath, they might still get their wish.

Grappling with the demons he thought he could leave behind after months away on enforced leave, D.S. Malkie McCulloch resists pressure from his superiors to pass the case on to the road policing unit, convinced that whoever was behind the wheel will be waiting for the chance to finish the job.

With the help of his partner DCI Steph Lang, Malkie uncovers evidence that leads him to a former soldier suffering with PTSD. Risking his already tarnished career – and his life – he must unpick a complex web of family ties, deception, and greed to reveal the secrets at the heart of the case. When the former soldier decides to take justice into his own hands, and a key witness reveals information that implicates somebody within the police, can Malkie piece together the truth before the body count soars?

The first in an utterly gripping new Scottish crime thriller series featuring DS Malkie McCulloch, a brilliantly complex detective who will risk everything to protect the innocent. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, JM Dalgliesh and JD Kirk.

©2024 Doug Sinclair (P)2024 Storm Publishing

Too depressing

I’m not in the mood for having both the criminal and the cop being majorly screwed up.

Frustrating in it's woke correctness

The story was slim in believability, but ok. I put it aside quite a few times when the detective work was following mental illness outcomes as absolute. "he couldn't have committed the crime or he would have remembered, and he's far too reliable even though he's clearly violent and insane". It made this a tough story to attach to emotionally.

All the interior questioning was wearing

The repetitive angst felt like filler. Trying book 2 with hopes for improvement. Fingers crossed.

Book 1 of a new series.

I expect a lot of ground work to be laid in a book 1. But this was too unnecessarily long and repetitive without building a base for future stories. The inner dialogues were very annoying.
Angus King was the best part of the listen.

Most entertaining!

Loved angus king- getting ready for a brand new series. This was a job well done not much more to say

A wild ride to uncover the truth

An exciting and thrilling book. Nonstop thriller that will keep you reading until the very end. Narrator is totally amazing. Looking forward to the next break in the series

Of course Angus King King of Narration

Story ran too long
Constantly looping over itself
I kept fast forwarding
Main character was closely becoming annoying with the endless selfish whining
Ending was anticlimactic, bit of a letdown

I love Angus King as the narrator in these books.

The one thing that I did begin to dislike was Malkie’s constant running into danger without thinking things through. It did become a bit annoying for me.

Too much internal dialogue

This book would have been vastly improved if the main character did not have so much internal dialogue. The struggles he faced emotionallydid not weigh up to the super long, super boring, internal monologues that we had to endure. The book probably would’ve been cut down by about a third, had they been appropriate. The issue with the main character’s mother‘s death didn’t seem weighty enough for the guilt suffered by Malcolm.
The performance of the book was fine, there were a lot of characters and they were pretty easy to identify just by the actor’s voice changes.
Overall, I would not recommend this book, at least without more editing.

Ten hours too long

Was looking forward to a new series. I'd listen to most anything narrated by Angus King, but even he couldn't save this tour de force of self-pity and repetition. Half way through I started fast forwarding and every time I never missed a thing.