Book Review: Abattoir Blues (aka In the Dark Places)

In the Dark Places

Abattoir Blues (published under the title In the Dark Places in the USA) is anything but a white-knuckled reading experience. I could never invest myself (which is never a good thing when it comes to reading), neither in the story nor in its characters, and for the most part, the case, involving three initially-disparate-but-must-be-somehow-interconnected incidents, that of the discovery of an apparent crime scene at a disused airfield hangar, a stolen tractor, and the sudden disappearance of two young men, is conveniently plotted and stringed together by coincidences and contrivances. Sadly a case of one more author falling into literary torpor after what was a strong start to the Alan Banks series.