At the end of Dark Water, Caro Ramsay's third Glasgow-based police procedural but the first I have read, I experienced one of those occasional moments of regret I have when coming across a new writer: Why has it taken me so long to read this author?
It is not as if there have not been previous opportunities. I heard Caro Ramsay speak engagingly at the Harrogate festival in 2007, following the publication of her debut novel, Absolution. There have also been plenty of positive reviews in the mainstream media and the blogosphere. (The Washington Post, no less, described Absolution as being, "among the year's best literary thrillers").
Well, better late than never. Dark Water is a thoroughly engrossing tale of love and loss, of jealousy, manipulation and ultimately murder. It comes shrouded in a thick Glaswegian fog which intensifies the atmosphere and adds to the sense of fear and danger. The book also takes a prolonged and destructive swipe at the deranged modern obsession with vacuous celebrity that threatens our decaying cultural life.
The winning element in the writing, however, is Ramsay's strong and credible characterisation, starting with the two lead detectives in the case, Colin Anderson and Freddie Costello. The relationship between the two - protective, intense and mysterious, emotions camouflaged by wit and sarcasm - is the lynchpin of the book. Anderson, a fine detective, is a lost soul, living in a grim bedsit as his marriage teeters on the brink. Like many a fictional detective, he finds his solace in his work. Unlike many, he has a sensitive edge that often seems at odds with the job.
Costello, as well as being spiky and outspoken, presents a more complex character. She is hard, independent and smart. Not having read Ramsay before, I don't know too much about her history, but in Dark Water she balances this tough exterior with a very human and almost romantic side that rings true and works well.
They are augmented by a terrific chorus that includes DCI Quinn, the cold, distant superior; Gillian Browne, an insecure and harrassed mother, desperately trying to reconcile "the job" with bringing up her kids; and then DS Mulholland, greasy-pole-climbing pantomine villain.
And that's just the cops. The story itself drags in a veritable circus of primary colour characters including a famous-for-being-famous celebrity, Marita (so famous-for-being-famous she only needs one name), a highly strung professional photgrapher and even an albatross lost in the mists after being blown off course. (Smarter readers than I will see an allegory here somewhere).
Costello and Anderson are reunited as partners to investigate the hanging in an empty Glasgow apartment of a small-time gangster who had been thought to be living in Spain after narrowly escaping allegations of the brutal rape and near murder of a college student. Just as the detectives start to get to grips with this a second body turns up, with injuries so similar to that sustained by the previous rape victim that the Partickhill CID squad begin to think the two deaths might be linked.
The twist to the second dead body is that the victim is the sister of Glasgow celebrity Marita and the investigating officers suddenly find themselves exposed to the harsh glare of media scrutiny while their higher-ups demand a quick clearance with minimum fuss.
There's a lot in here - it's one part murder investigation, one part police politics with an excursion into modern media culture and the deification of celebrity. On top of which there are half a dozen characters each dealing with their own issues. It's almost too much at times. I picture Ramsay as a camper trying to stuff an oversize sleeping bag back into its flimsy surely-too-small case. How could it possibly all go in? But it does. And once it's back in there you realise how clever the design, how good the fit.
My one misgiving here is that I felt the ending was just a little too neat, but this didn't really diminish my enjoyment of the book. Once I started I just fell into the story-telling, fell in with the characters and that was it. Ramsay writes with verve and abandon and has been very healthily splashed with storytelling stardust.
I have no idea how I'll find the time to read her back catalogue. But I will.
