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Birthdays for the Dead

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About this listen

 Twelve years. Twelve dead girls. Thirteen will be unlucky for some. The Number One bestselling crime thriller from the award-winning Stuart MacBride. A bloody, brilliant and brutal story of murder, kidnap and revenge.

Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret…

Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. A year later the first card arrived: home-made, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front – Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last.

The tabloids call him ‘The Birthday Boy’. He’s been snatching girls for twelve years, always just before their thirteenth birthday, killing them slowly, then torturing their families with his homemade cards.

But Ash hasn’t told anyone what really happened to Rebecca – they all think she ran away – because if anyone finds out, he’ll be taken off the investigation. And he’s sacrificed too much to give up before his daughter’s murderer gets what he deserves…

 Crime Crime Fiction Crime Thrillers Fiction Modern Detectives Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Exciting Scary Emotionally Gripping

Critic reviews

Praise for Birthdays for the Dead:

‘MacBride is a damned fine writer – no one does dark and gritty like him’ Peter James

‘The master of murderous mayhem is back to his best with a belter of a book … a page-turner’ The Sun

Praise for Stuart MacBride:

‘Fierce, unflinching and shot through with the blackest of humour; this is crime fiction of the highest order’ Mark Billingham

‘Ferocious and funny, this is Tartan Noir at its best’ Val McDermid

‘Stuart MacBride’s thrillers just keep getting better’ Express
All stars
Most relevant
If you don't mind a bit of graphic violence, this was a good story. I thought I didn't mind but this was a bit much. I did listen to the end - like a car crash - one needs to find out how the story ends.

A bit too violent

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The writer manages to escalate the tension from the impossible debt owed to a loan shark to the search for a serial killer and the abduction of the protagonist’s daughter and so much more after that you feel compelled to listen on. It is frightening to see the young psychologist getting into the swing of things, but we know she and Ash are not villains, they are forced to extremes to try and make things right. The focus on the parents of the victims was original and even set pieces of violence were saved from being over the top by the control and insight of the writer who uses first person so we feel the protagonist’s pain both physical and psychological. He is a man of violence but he is provoked beyond reason and restraint by his situation and he gets as much pain as he gives out. Cleverly plotted, each time one target is achieved another is revealed and there is rough justice here but it is justice. Read this stand alone if you know MacBride’s work to see how he can create a complex single story and the go back and check out what else he writes, he is a master and you will be rewarded if you read more!

Rough justice meted out and received - but what extremes would a father be prepared to go to?

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Bit too unrealistic with all the violence and none of the redeemable characters that are prevelavnt in the Logan MacRae series.

Not his finest

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It’s a decent story & well read, but gets a little far fetched for my liking. & I did find myself wanting the end to hurry along a bit.

Not for the faint of heart.

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McBride has triumphed again. Great storyline and brilliant narrator. Would highly recommend for crime book fans

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