Marion Todd - See Them Run

Published by Canelo, Marion Todd's debut novel is out on 31st October

Set in the plush and lovely surroundings of the illustrious St. Andrews, DI Clare Mackay is in a new job having relocated from Glasgow following a firearms incident.

Mackay is trying to get back in the saddle and find a reason to work, the relocation to the supposed quiet surroundings of the famous golf resort should hold her in good stead, as she gets over the trauma of the shooting mishap.

The quiet gets disrupted by a hit and run case at a local wedding one Saturday night; a supposed mistake becomes a criminal case and apparently pre-meditated as a card with the number 5 on his body. Once they delve into the deceased's history they find that he simply disappeared every Thursday evening with no reason.

So a hit and run, no surprise. Accidents can happen, but then another attack occurs the next day with a number four on this victim.  With the second victim being a local business mogul who owns the renowned brewery, and a friend of Mackay's superior; the attention turns to finding the murderer quickly. Mackay knows there will be a third victim and suddenly a serial killer is on the loose

Mackay must navigate all manners of boundaries; be they constructs of her gender, her class and the fact that she is coming from the gritty Glaswegian streets to the quaint St Andrews countryside. Throughout the book, a great trick is Mackay learning her way around the town and surrounding locations, she constantly has to ask for directions and how far away places are.

And yet as Mackay tries to keep her head on straight, more bodies start to turn up with the same vehicular modus operandi - knowing that a third would turn up soon enough, it could have been prevented yet her eagerness scuppers the preventative measures.

Todd has written a unique character in Mackay, one who is secure in her position as an authority figure, confident in her decision making and respected for her work.  The camaraderie of her team is one that will build up in more novels in the future, yet it is good to read a book with a leading female protagonist defined by her job and not her being a women coupled with a fish out of water narrative.

For a debut, Todd has written a well crafted thriller with genuine moments of jeopardy faced by our St. Andrews police force as they track down the killers.  The use of the Scottish town is clever in that it translates the worst of human nature into a microcosm of a small town, as if St. Andrews is a petri dish of all that is wrong with the world.  This is something that could be developed in further tomes but it is clear that DI Mackay will be able to handle anything this bad world can throw her way.

See Them Run is released from Canelo on 31st October.
My thanks to Tracy Fenton for running the book blog tour