Bitter Water — Gordon Ferris

Summer in Glasgow, when the temper bubbles and the tenement windows bounce back the light, when lust boils up and tempers fray. The second installment in the Douglas Brodie series.

Glasgow's melting. The temperature is rising and so is the murder rate. Douglas Brodie, ex-policeman, ex-soldier, and now newest reporter on the Glasgow Gazette, has no shortage of material for his crime column. But even Brodie baulks at his latest subject: a rapist who has been tarred and feathered by a balaclava-clad group. Brodie soon discovers a link between this horrific act and a series of brutal beatings. As violence spreads and the body count rises, Brodie and advocate Samantha Campbell are entangled in a web of deception and savagery. Brodie is swamped with stories for the Gazette. But how long before he and Sam become the headline?