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 Drummond’s retirement was rescinded because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.
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