Vile City a Taut and Suspenseful Crime Thriller

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Taut crime thriller with a dark and morally complex mood.

Set in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, Jennifer Lee Thomson's taut, crime thriller, Vile City, the first in a new series, will keep readers turning the pages and guessing until the very end. Detective Inspector Duncan Waddell investigates the unexplained disappearance of two young women. Waddell, a brooding, introspective detective worn down by cares and the increasing politically correct expectations imposed on modern policing is far from simply heroic, but a man with a stronger moral compass than most of the citizens of the city that employs him as a veteran police investigator.

The disappearance of a third young woman, Shelley Craig, puts Glasgow on the verge of a media-fueled panic and Waddell under increasing pressure to find the three women and bring to justice the person responsible for the series of abductions, both from the Glasgow press and his superior, Detective Chief Inspector Galbraith. The investigation soon draws Waddell into an intricate web of depravity as he uncovers evidence that kinky sex, swingers clubs, and human trafficking, are all involved in the disappearances of the three victims. No sooner than Waddell painstakingly identifies a possible suspect in the abductions, than the suspect turns up as a crime victim too, of murder.

Thomson, winner of the Scottish Association of Writers' Pitlochry Quiach Award, masterfully paints Waddell as an empathetic hero and sprinkles the story with a lively cast of supporting characters who help bring the story alive. When the shocking identities and crimes of the suspects involved are revealed, readers will feel as chilled as a bitterly cold and wet Glasgow wintry day.

Vile City is a gripping, and entertaining thriller. Thomson has an impressively distinctive and appealing direct writing style, reminiscent of that of another fine Scottish author, Ann Cleeves. It's realistic, simple and precise prose, stripped of all unnecessary words. Vile City is a novel with a dark and morally complex mood exemplified by the seemingly conscious inclusion of a critical perspective on present-day Scottish urban society. If you enjoy a good thriller, this book will not disappoint.