Old Friends and New Enemies by Owen Mullen #FridayReads #BookReview

The body on the mortuary slab wasn’t who Glasgow PI Charlie Cameron was looking for.

But it wasn’t a stranger.

Suddenly, a routine missing persons investigation becomes a fight for survival. As Charlie is dragged deeper into Glasgow’s underbelly he goes up against notorious gangster Jimmy Rafferty and discovers what fear really is.

Rafferty is so ruthless even his own sons are terrified of him.

Now he wants Charlie to find something. And Jimmy Rafferty always gets what he wants.

There is only one problem… Charlie doesn’t know where it is.

My Review

I chose to read the second book about Charlie Cameron because it is partly set in the village of Luss which I know well, but I didn’t feel as if I had missed background knowledge by not reading the first in the series.  The reader soon learns that Charlie has rejected the values of his “Tory” father, who had owned a famous whisky business and that he had also given up on a law degree in which he had no interest.

Starting with a violent scene involving one of the infamous Rafferty family, Charlie finds himself involved in the misdeeds of his former friend Ian Selkirk, whom he had last seen in Thailand several years earlier.  Soon he is reunited with his former girlfriend, Fiona but he is inextricably drawn into great danger.  He should be concentrating on his latest commission to find the husband of the gracious Cecelia McNeil, whose son had recently committed suicide, but he cannot concentrate on the investigation despite the help of his sidekick, Pat Logue and friend, DS Andrew Geddes.

The story builds up to a thrilling conclusion with a dramatic scene in Edinburgh castle, eminently suited to a film scenario.  The characters are vividly painted and believable and the plot is followed in a spare style which keeps up the momentum.  I shall certainly be downloading “Games People Play” the first Charlie Mullen book.

 

Owen Mullen

When he was ten, Owen Mullen won a short story competition and didn’t write anything else for almost forty years. In between he graduated from Strathclyde University with a Masters in Tourism and a degree in Marketing, moved to London and worked as a rock musician, session singer and songwriter, and had a hit record in Japan with a band he refuses to name; on occasion he still performs. He returned to Scotland to run a management consultancy and a marketing agency. He is an Arsenal supporter and a serious foodie. A gregarious recluse, he and his wife, Christine, split their time between Glasgow – where the Charlie Cameron books are set – and their villa in the Greek Islands.