Good Deed by Steve Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is just good fun. Set largely in the Edinburgh area, Christie's debut detective novel is an excellent piece of fun which (we're told) introduces D.I.Buchanan and his sidekick Max. Lots of people get shot, there are more than a few Scottish stereotypes, but who cares? It's a story, not a serious work of art. Read this for pleasure.

Two slightly picky things. First, I'm not quite sure why the title of the book is 'Good Deed' - there's a good deed, but it's not really a part of the plot. Second, for some reason the book is allergic to indents, even at the beginning of paragraphs. I got used to it quickly, but not everyone would, and I'm not sure why it was done.

In addition, I wasn't quite sure about Buchanan, who somehow I couldn't quite picture as real - I felt that the police characters were a bit two-dimensional and formulaic. The book hinted at potential dark areas with his wife, for instance, which could have been developed a little more, although there's some scope for that in the future. On the other hand, I really took to his villains.

Steve Christie will write better books than this - I hope. This is a series which should get up and running. It's a great start, and I recommend both this and the next one he hopefully writes.

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