This is actually not a new series, the first originally published in 2007, just recently published as an e-book, I think. I will certainly be checking up for more.

A serial killer is acting as a vigilante, targetting women who have betrayed others. So far three have been brutally killed, and there is no sign that "he" is stopping.

It is a complex plot, with clues that seem to lead nowhere. In many ways this is a very solid police procedural. The ending will leave you wondering where the series is heading. ( )

I did like the characters well enough, but the story didn't do a lot for me. I liked the narration though so am going to try another. ( )

First in the Anderson & Costello series, as the teams searches for a serial killer under the sometimes intuitive, often drunk and muddled DCI Alan McAlpine.
As a first effort, it is at times difficult to follow, but the series improves with time. ( )

PC Alan McAlpine returns to work after a family tragedy and is rostered to hospital duty to wait for the awakening of a young woman who lies near death after being the victim of a horrific acid attack. McAlpine is soon obsessed by the woman and even after discovering what led to her predicament he continues to fantasize about her. Fast Forward 20 years and McAlpine is a Detective Inspector who investigating a series of brutal killings

The opening passages of this book are some of the most moving I have read, in any kind of genre, and perfectly sparked my interest in both the story to come and getting to know McAlpine. Ramsay’s writing is wonderfully descriptive and evocative of the time and place. She builds the suspense well and the ending fits logically with the events that went before it which is not always the case with crime fiction these days. There is one thread that I found awkward and unnecessary from a plot development point of view (the car crash) but I can easily forgive this in a book with so much else to recommend it.

The book has a swag of well-developed and interesting characters which is just as well because I grew to despise Alan McAlpine. I suspect readers are supposed to feel sympathetic towards him but I just found him totally self-absorbed and hated the way he treats his wife and friends with utter contempt much of the time. Which presented me with my only real gripe about this book because I could just about swallow that either his wife or one of his colleagues would be blind to McAlpine’s faults but found it too much of a stretch to accept that they would universally put up with his poor treatment of them, cover for his drunken mistakes and generally ignore the fact he’s a selfish ingrate. Happily for him (and the good citizens of Glasgow) the dogged and devoted Colin Anderson and smart, courageous Winifred Costello are available fo the actual police work. Likeable or not though, all the characters are well constructed and nicely multi-dimensional.

I’ll definitely keep my eyes out for any new books by this author.
( )

I read this last before the third and second in the series, which was unfortunate. In this story the characters haven’t fully developed in the way they have in books 2 and 3 and I found the character of DCI Alan McAlpine a little unlikely to generate the loyalty often referred to in books 2 and 3. That aside it is still a cracking read and worth it for the back story to the even better books 2 and 3. ( )