Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Gunner by Alan Parks

  

Joseph Gunner has returned to a war-torn Glasgow after being severely injured in the early days of World War II. With an eye injury that the doctors hope will improve over time, a leg injury that likely won’t, and a morphine addiction to cope with the pain, all Gunner wants to do is find a quiet place to regroup. He isn’t given the opportunity. His old boss in the Glasgow police, Detective Inspector Malcolm Drummond, meets him at the train station. Drummond’s retirement was rescinded because the younger police officers were drafted. Drummond bullies Gunner into helping him identify a badly damaged body found among the neighborhood casualties from the latest German bombing. Results from the autopsy indicate the victim was not a local and lead Gunner to the local POW farms to ask if they might be missing a prisoner. His involuntary involvement in a backdoor political conspiracy spirals from there. This primary story line is based on history: some pro-German factions in England urged collaboration with Hitler at the beginning of the war but faded when popular feeling turned against them.

At the same time Gunner searches for his younger brother who registered as a conscientious objector but who fled his work assignment on a farm. Fearing a prison sentence or worse for him, Gunner canvasses the bars where his brother’s Communist cronies gather, hoping to bring his brother in before he’s arrested.

In the background, Gunner watches Drummond, who has become far too close to one of the local gang leaders, build a lucrative black-market business. The criminal competition forcefully drafts Gunner as a go-between to tell Drummond to back off, creating a relationship with Gunner that he knows he will come to regret.

Much has been written about London during the Blitz, this is the first I have read about Scotland which was also heavily bombed. The descriptions of the attacks and their aftermath are painfully vivid and convincing.

I am a huge fan of Alan Parks. His Harry McCoy books, which describe Glasgow in the 1970s, are among the first I recommend to anyone rash enough to ask me for reading suggestions. This book is the first of a series about Glasgow during the 1940s, seen through the eyes of Joseph Gunner, a terrific new character.

The Crime Fiction Lover review compares the book to the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr, set during World War II in Germany. https://crimefictionlover.com/2025/07/gunner-by-alan-parks/

 

 

·         Publisher: ‎John Murray/Baskerville

·         Publication date: ‎July 17, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎288 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1399819666

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1399819664

  

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4otgGi5

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

 

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