First book by this author. Must disclose my bias: I love British writers. Very much enjoyed this book. Good pace and action, interesting plot and characters. Had everything really if you like crime fiction. Powerful crime gang with friends in the police force. Not a police procedural though, the protagonist is a journalist. He was in the police but quit to join up in WW2. The story is set a few years after the war, west of Glasgow. The protagonist is working in London and is called home to Scotland to help an old friend who is condemned to hang for a murder he allegedly committed. My only disappointment is that not many of Ferris's books are available as kindle e-books - the only format I read. ( )

This was a very surprising book for me. I was recommended this series by Goodreads, and thought I'd give it a try, but I wasn't prepared for this book at all. I thought it would be a nice historical mystery and since that's my favourite mystery genre, I thought it would be worth a try. Well this book blew me away. Think Jack Reacher with a Scottish brogue in the late 1940's just after WWII, and that might give you a better idea, but it still won't prepare you for the awesomeness of this book. Douglas Brodie is our hero, and he is originally from Glasgow and has been recently demobbed out of the British army. More similarities to Reacher, but Brodie was more like special forces than military police. And before he signed up of the Highland regiment, he was a police officer on the mean streets of Glasgow. Now Brodie is a stringer reporter working in London and he gets a call from an old pal to come back to Glasgow to help him. His pal, who he thought was killed in the war, is actually alive but horribly burned, and he is facing the death penalty for the rape and murder of a young Glasgow boy. Brodie doesn't want to go back to his home town, but something draws him there and he meets his old friend in the prison where he is being kept awaiting execution. Brodie finds something believable in Hugh's story and teams up with a young lawyer by the name of Samantha (Sam) Campbell to try to find evidence to get an execution stay. And the the story just blows up from there until Brodie finds himself in grave personal danger, and as he plumbs the depths of the Glasgow underworld he discovers corruption, murder and scandal that includes not only some unsavoury Scottish gangs, but all the way into the police department and the judicial system. The creep list gets longer and longer, and Brodie sets out to eliminate them all one by one with the help of Sam. I couldn't put this book down, and I highly recommend it. It's a stunning thriller that just never lets up. ( )

Like a couple of other reviewers I Ickes this up for my kindle for £1, it was definitely value for money. but if you think that is faint praise, you would be right. It is an OK book, but neither the plot nor the characters are particularly interesting and the writing is a little pedestrian. Because it is a first book I will probably give him another try. ( )

Set against the backdrop of post-WWII Scotland (and Ireland), Ferris has created a noir crime story that appeals to my love of stories with a more historical fiction setting. I also like the fact that this isn't another 'cop on a mission' kind of story. This time, the lead character is a former cop, now struggling crime reporter, who ends up butting heads with cops he used to know back during his days on the force. Having a strong female partner in legal advocate Sam Campbell give the story a nice balance to it, and a good thing too as the plot delves into some pretty murky waters of past personal histories and grudges. Ferris also did a great job capturing the strong religious divide between Protestants and Catholics and the wrongs of individuals in a position of power and trust. The story has its gritty moments and the crimes are heinous to say the least, but I think Ferris manages to contain 'cringe factor' moments rather well - enough cringe to make me react but not over the top to make me close the book and walk away from it. Lastly, if you do decide to read this one and you find it is going a bit slow - or the middle makes you want to throw your hands up in the air in frustration - the suspenseful built at the end makes up for any sluggishness encountered earlier in the story. This is one of those few noir books I have read so far that conveys the whole 'hat and trench-coat investigator' feel that I expect from a noir read. ( )

Douglas Brodie is a well-educated (courtesy of a scholarship), working-class bloke who’s been a student, a policeman, a soldier and, in the year since WWII ended, has tried to make a career as a reporter. At the start of the novel he is drawn back to his past by a plea from an old friend. Hugh Donovan is convicted of murder and is due to hang in four weeks but claims he is innocent. Brodie and Donovan had fallen out many years before but his childhood friend’s desperation at his plight is enough to prompt Brodie’s return to Glasgow to see if there’s anything he can do.

Even in the crowded space of crime fiction set in the post war period THE HANGING SHED stands out as above average with its strong characters and compelling plot,neither of which always behave as expected. Brodie is a complicated man who has clearly been deeply affected by his wartime experiences but the traumas of his youth are also haunting him. He feels his old friend betrayed him when they were teenagers and so does not immediately warm to the idea of helping him. The depiction of Brodie working his way through the emotions connected to this betrayal was very realistic and one of the highlights of the book for me.

Ferris deals cleverly with the story and doesn’t dwell on the most horrific elements which include the crime that Donovan is convicted of being the murder of a young boy and the disappearance of four others. There are no gruesome descriptions or other sensationalising of this aspect of the story for which I am grateful. Along with Hugh’s lawyer, a young woman called Sam Campbell, Brodie tries to piece together what really happened by re-tracing Hugh’s steps and learning about his post-war life which is shown to be a pretty grim existence due to his extensive injuries. Slowly the pair come to realise that a combination of a ruthless criminal gang and police corruption have played a large role in the case but they struggle to gather enough evidence in time to prevent Hugh’s execution.

For me the last third or so of the novel became a little unrealistic – more a Hollywood thriller type of storyline with lots of in the nick of time escapes and a rapidly mounting body count – but overall I found it very, very readable and will look forward to the next installment of the series. The setting is depicted so evocatively and the central characters are so interesting that I can’t imagine too many readers who would not enjoy THE HANGING SHED.