Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Cold Granite
    Cold Granite
    Cold Granite
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Cold Granite

    Written by Stuart MacBride

    Narrated by John Sessions

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The very first Logan McRae novel in the No.1 bestselling crime series from Stuart MacBride.

    DS Logan McRae and the police in Aberdeen hunt a child killer who stalks the frozen streets.

    Winter in Aberdeen: murder, mayhem and terrible weather…

    It’s DS Logan McRae’s first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn’t get much worse. Three-year-old David Reid’s body is discovered in a ditch: strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. And he’s only the first. There’s a serial killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood.

    Soon the dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. And if Logan isn’t careful, he could end up joining them.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 5, 2007
    ISBN9780007256594
    Author

    Stuart MacBride

    Stuart MacBride is the Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae and Ash Henderson novels. His work has won several prizes and in 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Dundee University. Stuart lives in the north-east of Scotland with his wife Fiona, cats Grendel, Onion and Beetroot, and other assorted animals.

    More audiobooks from Stuart Mac Bride

    Related to Cold Granite

    Titles in the series (16)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Police Procedural For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      80 Who Killed Claude Kendall? The Mystery Murder Of Charles Fort’s Publisher

      Dec 3, 2020

      Millions of Americans celebrated Thanksgiving in the comfort of their homes on 25 November 1937, but for one man fate reserved a different outcome. That same night, in a room on the eighth floor of a New York hotel, Claude Kendall was brutally beaten

      7 min read

    • Article

      Fitting In

      Oct 1, 2021

      Fitting In
      6 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      Framed for MurderBy His Own DNA

      Apr 19, 2018

      We leave traces of our genetic material everywhere, even on things we’ve never touched. That got Lukis Anderson charged with a brutal crime he didn’t commit.

      22 min read

    • Article

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men

      Sep 10, 2020

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men
      8 min read

    • Article

      TV Picks Of The Week

      Sep 18, 2023

      TV Picks Of The Week
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Oct 2, 2019

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Smrtss

      Apr 10, 2024

      In the dim, wet oven of the Huey’s troop compartment, the corporal sat on a flak jacket behind the sweat-stained backs of First Squad. Simms, the big machine gunner for Fire Team 2, leaned back against him, jamming the corporal’s knees right up to hi

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Lives of Bryan

      Jun 1, 2023

      The Lives of Bryan
      19 min read

    • Article

      Pleasure Palace

      Sep 1, 2022

      Pleasure Palace
      15 min read

    • Article

      The Heebie-gb’s

      Jun 23, 2022

      The Heebie-gb’s
      8 min read

    • Article

      ‘They Put Me On A Ship And Took Me Into The Sun’: The Wild UFO Podcasts Taking Over Our Earphones

      Apr 7, 2023

      In the depths of winter last year, I was running through a cold and unlit field near my house when I saw a trail of lights moving through the sky. I stopped. The air caught in my throat. “Bloody hell,” I thought, “were the UFO people right all along?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jul 12, 2023

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      "All of Us Inside Have Cried Out"

      Jul 24, 2020

      Protesters have started to change the way we think about law enforcement. Will it trickle into prisons?

      3 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Nov 9, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2023

      Radioactive dust landing on the surface of an eye decades after a meltdown.Something pooling there.The feeling one gets passing by a beggar who rattles his cup.Reaching inside, emptied of change.Not even one kind word.A woman weighing her pockets dow

      2 min read

    • Article

      Forever 19

      Jun 16, 2022

      Packing the car to the brim, I held my breath as the boot finally closed. ‘Let’s go on holiday!’ I shouted, as my hubby Dexter, now 53, and daughter Michelle, now 40, buckled themselves in. With my son James and grandson Liam gurgling in their baby s

      5 min read

    • Article

      In Booker-winning 'Prophet Song,' The World Ends Slowly And Then All At Once

      Dec 11, 2023

      The relentless bleakness of Paul Lynch's novel make it almost unbearable to read at times — yet its plausibility, and echoes of real events happening long after, keeps the reader from looking away.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Apr 21, 2022

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS As an FT reader and occasional correspondent of some 30 odd years, I enjoy the magazine as much as ever, but I did un

      11 min read

    • Article

      What To Read

      Jan 24, 2020

      James Mercer, a quantity surveyor by profession, holds a grudge against the banks, big firms and institutions that financially ruined his family’s business. And so he decides to take back what was taken from them. To achieve this, he becomes a thief

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Cold Granite

    4/5

    454 ratings48 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      awesome. can't wait to check out the rest of this series!
    • 4/5
      This is the first novel featuring Detective Sergeant Logan McRae, who is a very human and flawed character. When we meet him he has been off work for a year, after being seriously knifed in the stomach. We also learn that whatever happened on the day he was injured, resulted in his losing his relationship with pathologist Dr Isobel MacAlister. This is unfortunate, as their paths will cross many times in this book. In fact, almost as soon as McRae returns to work, the crime rate is about to soar.This is a gritty and hard hitting novel, involving two different investigations, which somehow merge along the way. The first involves the fact that little boys are being abducted and killed. The second concerns the murder of a gangster, who has ended up in the river minus his kneecaps. Thrown into the deep end, McRae finds himself trying to solve the crimes, stay warm (which doesn't sound easy in the portrait the author paints of a freezing Aberdeen!) and try to discover who is leaking information to the press. There are some fantastic characters - DI Insch, with his constant munching of sweets, slimy journalist Colin Miller, possible future love interest WPC Watson and that isn't even mentioning the criminals encountered. Stuart MacBride manages to tie in several story lines in a believable way, has great dialogue and a fast moving plot. I look forward to following this series.
    • 5/5
      Finally got round to reading through this after a number of false starts. What can I say. Loved it. Hard story as child abuse was never going to be all hearts and flowers, but the story is well written and the characters are excellent. Got a bit of a book crush on DS McRae. And Inspector Insch makes you smile too.A good number of twists and turns in the story, deliberate misdirection and interwoven stories which will keep you wondering right up to the end (even if you spot a few tells along the way for the sub plots, the main theme and villain is cleverly disguised throughout.) What a busy couple of weeks.I loved the depiction of Aberdeen too. I don't get up there as often as I like, but the narrative and the characters just put me in mind of too many people I know from North of the Border and it just makes me smile.Just bought books 2 through 9 so I should be busy for a while. Why did I miss this series before???
    • 4/5
      The first in the DS McRae series and the reader is introduced to Detective Sergeant Logan McRae newly returned to active duty after a serious stabbing incident, which we learn a little about as the story proceeds. The bodies of a number of children are discovered, mutilated and sexually abused and in the gritty atmosphere of a dark and constantly rainy Aberdeen Logan must find the killer before the body count mounts. As in all Stuart Macbride books the humour is dark and the story at times bleak and difficult to read but equally unputdownable. The pace is very fast, characters introduced at every opportunity ( I particularly like Roadkill working for the council ensuring all the streets around Aberdeen are kept free of.....roadkill!) The somewhat obscene DI Steel plays a minor role but it's good to note that in later books she takes centre stage much to the annoyance of Logan McRae as her manners and attitude leave much to be desired. This is my second reading of Cold Granite and it is a great introduction to the wonderful writing style of Stuart Macbride and the harsh environment around Aberdeen situated in the Grampian region of North East Scotland.
    • 4/5
      This got off to a rocky start, lots of bad language and scenes of post-mortem examination of abused children. If of tender sensibilities you may not even wish to begin this book. But if, like me, you enjoy a good story, well-told, it's worth carrying on after the rocky start, I'm glad I did. It went from a grudging 2.5 star beginning to a 4 star read, in the end.
    • 4/5
      oh good a new to me author with other books already in print.
    • 4/5
      A page turner! So much going on, so many twists and possibilities. I'll be reading the 2nd in this series shortly.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book of Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae series and it won't be my last. The characters are well developed and the plot has many twists and turns. Although the story was very noir and dark and the language was over the top, I still found the book to be a page turner with lots of suspense. I am now looking forward to reading the 2nd book in the series.
    • 5/5
      DS Logan McRae and the police in Aberdeen hunt a child killer who stalks the frozen streets. Winter in Aberdeen: murder, mayhem and terrible weather. Soon the dead are piling up and Logan knows time is running out. Another of my favourite authors and the first of the Logan McRae series. This is a gritty, hard hitting novel with a fast moving plot. There is a great combination of police procedure and forensics plus good solid characters and dark Scottish humour.
    • 4/5
      I am a little late getting into this series by Stuart MacBride -- after all, this book came out in 2005. That said, it was an engaging, gritty, and occasionally funny and complex police procedural... with lots of cases, including a serial killer, and lots of action. Well-written, I am most certainly moving on to the next in the series... excited that I have 11 others to look forward to reading.
    • 4/5
      A new author for me and a bleak story set in a very bleak wintry Aberdeen involving nasty child disappearances and murders. The characters encompass the victims, their families, the local ne’er do well crooks, the pathologist, and the team of cops. Unusually, and refreshingly, the mainly cop gets on with his boss - a nice change. Including the pathologist delivers somy gruesome ortopsy detail! Well worth the read and I’ll look out another.
    • 4/5
      I'm glad to have discovered this series - there are plenty left for me to read. This is set in Aberdeen, and is a little dark in places, but generally brisk and gently humorous. It read like a spin-off from another series (but I don't think it is) with the hero Logan returning to work after a serious injury resulting from a previous case which is constantly harked back to, and having previously been in a relationship with the pathologist, who now hates him.There were various missing and murdered children and one adult, and I am happy to say that not all of these turned out to be miraculously linked; although some were, others turned out to be unlinked tragedies. I like Logan and the feisty WPC Jackie, although I still hate the journalist Miller very much.
    • 5/5
      If you think it's grim oop north, carry on for another 400 miles until you get to Aberdeen. Obviously cold, according to Stuart Macbride, it'll also almost certainly be raining - and usually in an amusing way. Meanwhile DS Logan McRae isn't so amused by the serial killer who's after the city's children. The plot abounds with red-herrings, possible leads, misdirection and all the rest, including some memorable characters and good jokes, though on occasion some strain too hard for memorability - 'the day was dark as a lawyer's soul'(!). The relationship between polis and press is very well done, and the finale, too, is suitably gripping. McRae and those around him do come off the page, and Aberdeen sounds well worth a visit. With an umbrella.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed my first book by this author. I loved how the various plots kept you guessing as to what was actually going on. I'll definitely be reading books by Stuart MacBride again.
    • 5/5
      DS Logan McRae is just coming off medical leave in Aberdeen (where it's usually cold and raining sideways) when he's assigned to DI Insch to investigate the murder of three-year-old David Reid. Soon, other children have gone missing and bodies are being discovered.‘You know,’ said [DI] Insch, ‘since you came back to work we’ve had two abductions, found a dead girl, a dead boy and dragged a corpse with no knees out the harbour. All in the space of three days. That’s a record for Aberdeen.’ He poked about in his packet of fizzy, jelly shapes, coming out with what looked like an amoeba. ‘I’m beginning to think you’re some sort of jinx.’ ‘Thank you, sir.’The prime suspect is "Roadkill," a schizophrenic with a degree in medieval history who, after leaving a mental hospital got a job picking up dead animals off the roads. Turns out he was keeping them on his small acreage and in one of the large piles was found the body of a 4-year-old girl. The community is enraged, of course, with self-righteous anger directed at the police and this occasioned one of the funnier scenes in the book as protesters have gathered outside the police station with the usual misspelled signs. (You know the ones: "Get a Brain. Morans" or "Obama. Commander and Theif." or "No Pubic Option.") Or, as here, who can't spell paedophile.  Logan winced as he read that last one. Nothing like stupid people with righteous fury and a mob on their side. Last time there had been this kind of fervour three paediatricians had their surgery windows smashed. Now it looked like they were after the foot fetishists.The situation becomes more confused when forensics reveals one of the dead children had most likely been hit by a car.  Excellent.
    • 4/5
      Complex plot with Detective Sergeant Logan McRae just returned from sick leave and having to solve a brutal child murder with a journalist seemingly with access to confidential inside information. Entertaining dialogue between the characters which jump off the page. Not for the sqeamish or prudish though.
    • 4/5
      Cold Granite
      4 Stars

      Following a year of recuperation, DS Logan McRae is hoping for a slow return to the Aberdeen force. However, with the discovery of the body of a 3-year-old boy, McRae is thrust into a heartbreaking and horrific investigation. As the bodies begin piling up and several children go missing, the press is convinced that a serial killer is on the loose, and McRae will have to use all of his wits and experience to uncover the truth.

      ***Warning***: This book contains graphic and disturbing descriptions of child murder, and is not for readers offended by this type of story and writing.

      The plot is comprised of several seemingly unrelated threads that MacBride ultimately weaves together to form a unified whole. While some of the plot twists are obvious, others come as a surprise and the finale is intense and satisfying. MacBride's writing is brisk with sufficient humor to offset the terrible nature of the crimes without being callous or cold-blooded.

      DS Logan McRae is an appealing mix of experience and naiveté. While he is a skilled investigator with excellent instincts, he is almost childlike when it comes to personal and professional relationships.

      The secondary characters are well-developed whether it is McRae's tetchy boss with his penchant for charity pantomimes or the smarmy journalist with his loathsome attitude or the feisty and capable WPC assigned to keep McRae out of trouble.

      In sum, Cold Granite is a riveting police procedural with engaging characters and a complex and multifaceted storyline. Highly recommended for fans of British crime novels and the writing of Tess Gerritsen and Karin Slaughter.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed it. A good first book in a mystery series set in Scotland. Not quite as good as Rankin or Robinson but a very respectable first novel. Will read book 2 and hope that the series stays as good.
    • 4/5
      I've only read one other of Stuart MacBrides's novels and that was not in the McRae series. If I ws going to read one I wanted to start with the first in the series ... that's what lead me to Cold Granite. Even though the subject matter of the novel was some hard reading at times I really enjoyed the Logan McRae's character. I found a well developed plot populated with a series of complex characters. I look forward to ready more of McRae's escapades as I make my way through the series.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this book. .The characters are down to earth. Scottish weather more or less accurate. The meanings of the Aberdeen slang could be guessed. Will read more from this author.
    • 4/5
      The weather is grim. The city of Aberdeen is portrayed as grim. The crimes committed are very grim. The police procedure throughout the book is pretty grim. So, did I enjoy it? You bet I did, even though some of the subject matter appalled me.
      I enjoyed the eye for detail in the plotting, the interweaving of various different strands to form a complex few days in the life of Detective Sergeant Logan McRae, and above all the characters developed throughout the book, all of them being believable even though some of them could have been described as a waste of a good skin!
      The author also has an intriguing way with words – his descriptions bring the snow covered city of Aberdeen to life. You can almost feel the cold and damp that he portrays, to say nothing of the smells so completely described as to be almost in your nostrils. The unpleasantness of some of the characters really does lead to a thorough dislike of them. Some of his descriptions use unusual words – “Sunday was tearing at the windows of his flat with wintry fingers” – one example of giving additional colour to an otherwise drab setting.
      I will be reading more of this series, although I assume that the following books will be just as stark as this one. Engrossing.
    • 4/5
      It’s DS Logan McRae’s first day back on the job after a year off on sick leave. It starts out badly when three-year-old David Reid’s body is discovered in a ditch, strangled and mutilated. He’s only the first. Soon another young child is abducted, as well as the discovery of a little girl who looks like she's been dead quite a while. It appears a serial killer is stalking Aberdeen and the local media, especially a reporter named Colin Miller, will do anything for the exclusive.

      As the reader follows Logan through the investigation we meet some really interesting characters: WPC Watson, the tough and attractive officer assigned to babysit him, candy-addicted Detective Inspector Insch who doesn't suffer fools and thinks everyone is a fool, and the colorful womanizer, DI Steel.

      I thought the book was well written with many twists and turns I didn't see coming. This is the first book of a long running series and I plan to read the next one. There are detailed and gruesome descriptions of autopsies of dead children so sensitive readers might want to skim those sections. I know I did!
    • 4/5
      When Logan McRae comes back on the force after months of medical leave due to a crippling stabbing wound to the stomach, he is immediately pulled into a tense case as a young boy is found murdered and another goes missing. The pressure rises at every turn and is not aided by media frenzy as they seem to be always a step ahead. There is also the case of the body without kneecaps found in the harbor demanding attention.

      This story featuring a police force dealing with multiple cases of policing and court appearances at the same time, under close scrutiny of the media and rising pressure from the public, has a very authentic feel. As the pace pick up rapidly the different strands of the story come together. The characterizations may suffer a bit under the complexity of the plot, but it is a nicely tense read.
    • 4/5
      What can I say...it's Stuart MacBride. Smart, tightly plotted & laugh out loud funny, usually at the most inappropriate times. Highly recommend this series.
    • 3/5
      DS Logan McRae is back at Grampian Police HQ in the cold of Aberdeen after a year on the sick from being stabbed repeatedly in the stomach and it's not the best start. His first day back they find a dead young boy, with only more to come. Not only that, but the Media are baying for blood and they want Logan to co-operate; but they're not playing fair. It's a race against time before any more dead children show up.


      This was a wonderful début novel. The only other crime thriller writer I have read is Ian Rankin (of course) and I wanted to address this, but didn't want to look to America for one like Cornwell. His writing style is similar to Rankin's in the sense that he couples humour and Human-repartee well with the grim forensic and policing.

      Logan McRae is a very likeable character. There's nothing flat about the writing at all, but at times I felt the supporting cast were a bit dull and two-dimensional. For a début novel this is sterling stuff.
    • 4/5
      I am going to start off by calling this a page-turning read for me. What else could it be if it only took me two days to read 464 pages? Logan McRae is a rather likeable cop and I was kind of surprised that he doesn't come with a lot of psychological damage/baggage. Physical damage he has in spades but he is a pretty well-balanced guy. Even his acting DI, Insch, started to grow on me as the story progressed. I really liked the tight, complex plot and the ending.... well, I am just glad I read the last 4 chapters during the day while enjoying some wonderful summer weather and not in the dead of night all alone with a storm brewing outside. I was a little bugged that MacBride took his own sweet time to disclose the scant details he did of the Mastrick Monster case that is part of McRae's past (pre-Cold Granite) and the graphic and gory details contained in this story pretty much pushed my blood and gore limits with its more than a few cringe-worthy moments. Overall, a really good read and I will read more of this series.... but I think I need to take a bit of a break from dark reads like this one before I think about diving into book two in the series.
    • 5/5
      What a page turner. I absolutely relished this. I first 'met ' Logan half way through the series and I enjoyed it, but parts didn't make sense. It's definitely a series you need to start at the beginning to understand fully. Logan is just so likeable , though he does have a lot of slightly unbelievable flashes of brilliance. Insch was my surprise favourite character....my fellow sugar/sweet holic. I'd forgotten about DI Steel. It is gritty, and realistic sounding. He's a very talented author. The victims are so ...pathetic in the proper sense and the outrage the police feel at the crimes is palpable. Went and bought Dying Light before completion.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book of murder and misadventure in the Scottish city of Aberdeen. This setting is different to the usual setting of books I read and helped to make it more enjoyable. The characters are flawed but so believable and help to make this the perfect start of a series.
    • 3/5
      Gritty Scottish police procedural. While I like the tone of the book and MacBride's writing style, I'm not at all comfortable with the graphic nature of what a sexual sadist is doing to children under five. Not sure that I want to read a story where poor wee bairns have their genitals sliced off and objects inserted where they shouldn't be. Different matter if the victims were paedophiles.It hasn’t put me off reading more of MacBride’s work, though.
    • 4/5
      First on the Logan McRae series, good police procedural. Enjoyed it.