PRAISE FOR THE HURTING:THE GLASGOW TERROR

“The Hurting: The Glasgow Terror takes all the elements of RJ Mitchell’s debut novel, Parallel Lines: The Glasgow Supremacy, and places them on a bigger stage. The stakes are higher and the action scenes more thrilling, as the story expands out from personal vendetta to global terrorism: if you put a Glasgow cop with a death wish up against suicide bombers, you can be sure that sparks

will fly.

As the body count soars and DS Gus Thoroughgood takes repeated beatings that would have Jason Bourne crying for a time out, Mitchell is careful to root his fictional creations in factual reality of the city of Glasgow. The locations ring true even as characters and scenarios take on violent and exaggerated twists, with the result that this is a timely addition to the Tartan Noir genre.”

ALAN MORRISON, Group Arts Editor, Herald & Times

“A fast-moving thriller in which two desperate Glasgow CID officers try to thwart a Jihad on their own doorstep.

A suicide bomber detonates a bomb at a shopping centre. The countdown has now begun – but how do you track down the other bombers when you have no idea where they are hiding?

It all leads to a showdown at Ibrox stadium, where the action off the field is even more explosive than the action on it.”

RUSSELL LEADBETTER, Glasgow Evening Times

“RJ Mitchell’s latest presents a truly chilling scenario: fundamentalist terrorists wreaking havoc on the streets of Scotland’s largest city.

Keeping readers on the edge of their seats throughout, the author is a skilled exponent of the action set piece as outrage mounts on outrage and a rawly grieving DS Gus Thoroughgood faces a race against time to kick the legs out from under the evildoers before they can unleash their ultimate weapon.

Full of red herrings and false dawns – plus a leftfield “no way!” surprise return – this is a thriller packed full of blood and sweat that also has its human side: none more so than in the rendering of a Saturday morning, West End sniper attack that raises the pulse no question, but also left me with a surprisingly large lump in my throat besides.

A welcome addition to the Tartan Noir fold.”

GREGOR WHITE, Stirling Observer