Birthdays for the Dead
Crime
Stuart MacBride
Ash Henderson, Book # 1
HarperCollins Publishers
January 1, 2012
ebook
465
English
July 30, 2017 August 5, 2017
Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret…
Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. A year later the first card arrived: home-made, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front – Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last.
The tabloids call him ‘The Birthday Boy’. He’s been snatching girls for twelve years, always in the run-up to their thirteenth birthday, sending the families his home-made cards showing their daughters being slowly tortured to death.
But Ash hasn’t told anyone about Rebecca’s birthday cards – they all think she’s just run away from home – because if anyone finds out, he’ll be taken off the investigation. And he’s sacrificed too much to give up before his daughter’s killer gets what he deserves…
About the Book
This was a new series for me but not a new author. I read the other MacBride’s series (Logan MaRea) and I intend to keep reading it but not this one.
I find Ash disgusting, a criminal and a magnet for bad luck.
I loved the plot, it is quite chilling and inventive but the book is ruined by the main character. It talks and talks about his life, his family and his criminal adventures with loan sharks and his ex-wife’s ex. My interest was picked only when his daughter was kidnapped even if, really? Two daughters, two kidnappings? Told you, bad luck magnet…
And the ending? Not the real ending with one of the murdered girl’s father but with the cliffhanger about Ash’s brother? It should make me come back for more? No thank you.
I fast forward when he was in Bath, I actually didn’t care if the drug dealer beat him to death… and he seems to never get it right, how many men did he beat before finding the killer? I know policemen are flawed and sometimes don’t get it right, but this one seems a little too flawed.
The synopsis sounds good. It’s a shame you didn’t really like this one, but you can’t win them all!
Yes! That’s what made me read this book, the synopsis is really good and the case, too. Pity for the detective that ruined the book…