Blood Tears

Michael Malone is one of those new writers that you feel you've known a long time. Blood Tears blasts onto the Tartan Noir scene like a bullet. Big, bold themes and terrific humour amidst the darkness makes this my debut of the year. --Tony Black, author of Murder Mile

Tough, funny, dark and so in your face it hurts, a superb piece of writing --Ken Bruen, novelist

What is particularly impressive about Michael J Malone's first outing as a crime novelist is that his characters, and DI Ray McBain in particular, hit the ground running in fully developed and highly believable form. Add in a complex and compelling plot that has strong echoes with current media concerns about child abuse and the Catholic church and you have an outstanding novel and a 'must read' for all lovers of really good crime drama. --Undiscovered Scotland

An old man is found murdered in his Glasgow flat. DI Ray McBain is called to the scene and is the first to notice that the man's wounds mirror the Stigmata. The victim is a former janitor who worked in several care homes where he abused his charges. Is someone taking revenge thirty years after the fact?

Malone's thrilling debut starts predictably enough but, within four chapters, you realise that this is no ordinary police procedural and that darker things are bubbling under the surface.

McBain is, himself, a former charge of Bethlehem House, a Catholic care home where the murdered man worked. Early on in the investigation, McBain decides to hide a crucial bit of evidence relating to his stay at Bethlehem House. It is this gesture, as in all great noir novels, which sets him off on an inexorable collision course with his own past.

When his superiors find out, McBain becomes the prime suspect in the case and has to make a decision which will leave him on the run and alone, trying to solve the murders and, at the same time, the puzzle that is his past the recurring dreams of blood and feathers that descend on him every night.

McBain is a haunted, complex character. replete with dark humour and a relentless urge for justice. Yet even he isn't sure what exactly happened to him one night back in Bethlehem House, and like the best crime novels, Blood Tears is as much an examination of the past as it is of the present. The book screams along at pulse-pounding pace. Malone effortlessly shuffling between characters, cities and situations with the hand of a far more experienced writer.

The denouement is one of the most surprising twists in modern crime fiction, McBain s character possessing a uniquely original and fascinating back story. There are graphic descriptions of sex and violence but Blood Tears is also a serious look at the abuse scandal and the price its victims pay, both at the time and long after the fact. It's a book about decisions and elisions, the way we hide secrets from others and the way we hide them from ourselves.

With his debut, Malone has leapt into the cluttered field of Scottish crime fiction with a flourish, placing himself up there with this distinctive and powerful novel. You leave the book wanting to know more about McBain and to read the next in the series which is, really, all you could want from a debut novel. --Stav Sherez, The Catholic Herald

What is particularly impressive about Michael J Malone's first outing as a crime novelist is that his characters, and DI Ray McBain in particular, hit the ground running in fully developed and highly believable form. Add in a complex and compelling plot that has strong echoes with current media concerns about child abuse and the Catholic church and you have an outstanding novel and a 'must read' for all lovers of really good crime drama. --Undiscovered Scotland