Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead by Owen Mullen

Owen Mullen is a Glasgow writer who is also quite productive: He’s published seven crime novels in the past four years with an eighth scheduled next year. His first book, private investigator Charlie Cameron’s initial appearance, was nominated for the McIlvanney Crime Book of the Year in 2017.

Cameron’s third adventure is Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Bloodhound Books, 2017), in which he is asked to find a missing surgeon who disappeared after he filed a malpractice complaint about another doctor at the hospital where they both worked. Cameron is reluctant to take the case. If the police can’t find him, he doesn’t think he can either. But the money is too good to pass up so he asks a few questions. He learns the hospital would have been happy for the surgeon to disappear, as his testimony threatened its reputation and certification. The incompetent surgeon had as much to lose from the complaint, if not more. And the patient’s husband is distraught over her debilitating injuries and is looking for someone to take his anger and frustration out on.

Cameron doesn’t find much evidence for any of the three beyond motive and he’s trying to gracefully withdraw from the case when a member of the Glasgow city council is found hanging from a bridge one snowy morning. The councilor’s sister isn’t ready to accept the police verdict of suicide and wants Cameron to investigate. Cameron’s questions about the councilor’s recent activities reveal he’d been talking to a major player on the Glasgow crime scene, whom Cameron has crossed before.

Sean Rafferty is even more rotten than his father, who’d been the worst kind of thug. Sean has acquired a veneer of respectability and needs the cooperation of the Glasgow city council to push through a commercial development that would make him a legitimate businessman. Unfortunately, the council remembers his father all too well and has no desire to work with the son, so he applies some injudicious pressure to some of the more vulnerable council members, which draws Cameron back into his life.

Nice juggling of the two investigative story lines and a couple of well thought-out surprises in the plot. An effective portrayal of contemporary Glasgow in its grit and glamor serves as the backdrop of the story. Sound piece of tartan noir. Mullen is an author to watch.

·         File Size: 647 KB

·         Print Length: 272 pages

·         Publisher: Bloodhound Books (March 21, 2017)

·         Publication Date: June 16, 2020

·         ASIN: B08B7P6GK1

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.