DS Roberta Steel is back. I’ve been reading MacBride for a few years now, this book brings us up to date with where our regular favourite is, after finding herself demoted for planting evidence and trying to still bring down the man she believes has been raping women. Unlike a lot of crime books, this one doesn’t have a major incident that we need to figure out the criminal for, but instead focuses on day to day policing, with Steel’s history ticking away in the background. We have teenage mobile phone thieves, a loan shark, a man with a strange sexual habit of pleasuring himself in superhero masks... and of course a man free whom Steel really wants locked up. All these give a great mix of cases that allow you to feel the stresses and strains of day to day policing, whether that be dealing with superiors, the need for evidence of everything, and uncomfortable uniforms., which all come together in the end but in the mean time allow for endless laughs and jokes along the way. I loved this book and giggled on the bus so much that people were craning their necks to see the title. There are of course gory bits that you’d expect of MacBride and the genre in general, but there’s so much more to this book than that. There’s also a nice nod to MacBride’s appearance on Celebrity Mastermind and specialist subject of A. A. Milne, as the chapters are described in the way you would find in Winnie the Pooh books, and echoes of the characters Milne created, particularly in DS Steel’s sidekick, Detective Constable Stuart Quirrel, or Tufty, who amusingly always seems to get the wrath of all who surrounds him in the defeatist way Eeyore might, but with the classic innocent simplicity of piglet. Overall, if you like MacBride, this won’t disappoint, even Sergeant Logan McRae crops up once or twice, and Steel is both irritating and as loveable as ever, and new readers will be lucky to meet her and learn her story and slightly unorthodox way of doing things. A funny, warm, grim read that gave me plenty of entertainment.

Being a great fan of DCI Logan McRea I was curious to see how the author would handle (handle is probably the appropriate word as DS Steel is a bit of a rogue to curtail) setting one of the main characters and indeed one of the much loved characters into her very own book! The now newly demoted Detective Sergeant Roberta Steel is still determined to bring to justice pedophile Jack Wallace even though she has been warned to stay away from him and if she disobeys runs the risk of being thrown of the force for good. It is not so much the plot that I love in Stuart MacBrides books but his larger than life characters and none are more electric than Roberta Steel. In Now we are Dead two things struck me as worthy of mention. Roberta's long suffering partner Susan, taking away all the joking and bravado these two ladies love eachother and this love brings a great stability to Roberta's life. The second thing worthy of note is that once all the cursing and bad language has faded Steel has a heart of gold and will fight with her life where she sees injustice...."Roberta gave Beatrice's hand another gentle squeeze. It gets better. I know it doesn't seem like it but it does. There comes a time when you won't flinch if someone touches you. When your heart doesn't feel like you're going to die if you feel footsteps coming up behind you. When the darkness doesn't make you want to scream. She stood leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead."....( Could this really be the Roberta Steel we all love to laugh at the lady who is always scratching shifting and re positioning her knickers and bra!) Setting Steel in her own adventure has it seems allowed MacBride to add some very human observations and gentle touches...."Oh to be five again. When the only things you had to worry about was how many marbles you could fit up your nose and how dinosaurs brushed their teeth with those stubby wee arms of theirs. When the scariest thing in the world was running out of chocolate biscuits and the monster that lived under the bed".....Having said that the trademark dur Celtic humour is still very much present..."Ten to four on a Wednesday and the regulars were well into their fourth or fifth pint- the empties littering their tables. Some hadn't even bothered changing out of their overalls before coming in to quench the demon thirst"....."She killed the engine. You got a girlfriend, Tufty? Or boyfriend? Or favourite sheep?"...... Having paid the above compliments I need to be more convinced that Steel is worthy of a second outing? She simply flouts the rules (ok we all know this happens) to an extent that any police force would have discharged her a long time ago. I think she is more suited to a secondary role acting as a buffer or comical aside for Logan McRae. So not a bad book, enjoyable with limitations....