The Shadow Men - M.R. Mackenzie

Crime novels are not usually all that complicated or nuanced. In many cases someone is killing people, a police detective is called in to investigate, solve the mystery and try to prevent more deaths; there are good guys and bad guys. Things are never so simple in M.R. Mackenzie's Anna Scavolini series of books, which is appropriate as she is a lecturer in criminology at University of Glasgow and it's a vast subject. And she is a lecturer, not a police detective or investigator. Yet crime affects everyone and has a wider impact on society, and that is something we continually find in Mackenzie's writing. That and the guarantee of a rattling good crime thriller, and he provides that again, page after page, in The Shadow Men.

Mackenzie certainly doesn't take any easy route in the crimes he covers in his work. In Cruel Summer, the second Anna Scavolini book, he hinted at crimes of corruption and abuse that extend beyond the traditional underground gangland crime or serial killer subjects. There's another dark seam of criminality among those with the power, authority and influence to cover it up. In The Shadow Men he takes that further, considering paedophile rings and the lengths the establishment could conceivably go to in order to cover up this kind of vile activity.

Another reason why this is tricky is that it risks credibility indulging in conspiracy theories, or in the idea that a university lecturer and her friend could potentially blow it all apart and bring it to light. However we know such things go on and there are now many testimonies coming to light from those who are now able to find sympathetic ears willing to listen and believe. If The Shadow Men succeeds in its intentions, it's because Mackenzie's insightful writing propels you along the rapidly unfolding plot with clear, fluid prose and authentic dialogue. On top of this however is the attention to character, detail and nuance. Every issue is thought through for consequences and implications.

Most importantly perhaps is the choice of having Anna Scavolini and Zoe Callahan tackle the issues and criminal activities raised from different angles and social backgrounds. There is perhaps a little contrivance here this time, but no more so than two separate stories coming together in a traditional crime novel manner. Here the two have a shared history so it is less surprising, but more important is how their differences in character and temperament provide a dynamic and wider overview of the investigation.

Anna is methodical but hesitant, Zoe wading in there with no sugarcoating. But nothing is that simple and other factors or extreme situations can influence how we behave and sometimes act out of character. Here Anna is pregnant and she has to take that into account, while we know about Zoe's brother having shall we say (no spoilers) a troubled history in In The Silence. All of this has an impact on how they approach their investigation and how they react to what they find, to say nothing of the fact that this is a difficult and sensitive subject. Life goes on and people carry their scars with them. This is vital to The Shadow Men, and Mackenzie doesn't put a foot wrong.

As a thriller this hits all the expected points, a little too mechanically and cinematically perhaps with some things falling into place a little too conveniently. All that however is part of the package, designed just to keep you reading - and it does - looking for resolution to a crime of a terrible nature, scale and proportions. Will Anna and Zoe resolve an age-old conspiracy that runs deep through the highest levels of society's most respectable institutions? Whether they do that or not, what Mackenzie really achieves - for me anyway - is much more important. He delves further into the nature of crime, its pervasiveness in society and how much remains unseen, and he connects its novelistically into a truth that manages to be shocking and thrilling, darkly humorous and insightful, and does it without compromising at all on the serious nature of the subject.