A tight, gripping tale from an expert in the genre. Another book which proves that Chris Longmuir, who wrote the prize-winning Dead Wood, knows the ingredients you need for a tense, satisfying crime novel and can put them together in a way that keeps multiplying the cliff-hangers and keeps you asking what will happen next. The story is set in an atmospherically-conveyed Dundee, the people and their contacts are created with those little touches of `ordinary’ behaviour that enhance their reality. Behind them all, creeping through the book’s shadows, there’s an anonymous figure determined to complete the `missions’ set by the voice he hears in his head. He’s introduced in the opening paragraphs as, already responsible for at least one murder, he arrives in the city with his next victim already chosen and an absolute certainty that he’s doing the right thing. Cleverly, though, some of the `normal’, ordinary people who make up the small cast of central characters, are equally driven – by power, lust, revenge – and equally capable (or so it seems) of extreme actions to achieve their aims. Although there are clearly goodies and baddies, trust is in short supply. In their cases, there’s no inner voice urging them to destroy the lives of others, but their motives and impulses are potentially just as deadly. Love is transactional, infidelity is the norm and Longmuir keeps the focus tightly on them as the night watcher observes them from his shadows. The resolution is delayed up to the final pages with not just one twist, but two. It’s a very enjoyable read from a writer who knows what she’s doing. Reviewed by Bill Kirton

The first in the Dundee Crime Series, Nightwatcher is about revenge, obsession, and stalking. But far from the stereotyped 'psycho man stalks helpless women' scenario which is all too familiar, Longmuir has created a set of flawed, suffering yet sympathetic characters, and the stalking is not all by men. A lot of the time we see things from Julie's point of view - a nice woman who's been knocked into a kind of psychopathic state by the apparent suicide of her beloved and unfaithful husband. She chooses to blame 'the other woman' and to seek revenge. But there is a more deeply disturbed night watcher at large... Nicole, the other woman, is seen as a home wrecking bitch by some characters, but we see other sides to her - her abusive marriage and damaged self-esteem, yet her real abilities at work. The scene is set for bad things to happen, and they do. I looked at the kindle percentage at the bottom of the screen early on, thinking how is this going to be sustained for a full length book? A small group of suspects and characters, just how many permutations can there be of victim, killer, innocent suspect? But Longmuir has the ability to keep the reader circling and guessing, as layer after layer of the story is peeled back. Who can we, and the other characters, trust to be what they seem? Julie is such a powerful protagonist, a self-proclaimed 'villain' from the start, yet we wonder will she be able to carry through her awful plan? There is a strong police procedural strand to the novel, and we meet some all-too-human officers, including DS Bill Murphy who is no Sherlock Holmes or Spenser - a basically caring man who gets too involved with victims of crime, but who is a bit slapdash about official procedures. The stage is set early in the book, and the drama plays out, keeping the reader firmly seated and gripped until the end.