I loved the first book in this quartet - The Hanging Shed. I usually read a series in order but this time I jumped to number 4 - will still read the middle two soon. Douglas Brodie, the protagonist, is an ex Police Officer who is now a journalist - the series is set in Glasgow shortly after WW 2. I found this book hard to put down, fantastic suspense and action all the way through. The writing style is so focused and concise, never slow or ponderous. All the characters are interesting. Really, this series has everything that a suspense/mystery/crime lover could ask for. I really cannot think of anything negative to say about it except I will be sorry if it is only a quartet. I suppose I could complain that the middle two are not available outside the UK in e-book format, which is why I jumped to the fourth one, but I see that my local library has the middle two in paper-based format. ( )