Random by Craig Robertson

Random by Craig Robertson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Glasgow is being terrorised by a serial killer the media have nicknamed The Cutter. The murders have left the police baffled. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason behind the killings; no kind of pattern or motive; an entirely different method of murder each time, and nothing that connects the victims except for the fact that the little fingers of their right hands have been severed.

If DS Rachel Narey could only work out the key to the seemingly random murders, how and why the killer selects his victims, she would be well on her way to catching him. But as the police, the press and a threatening figure from Glasgow's underworld begin to close in on The Cutter, his carefully-laid plans threaten to unravel - with horrifying consequences.



This was an unusual book - a serial killer is loose on the streets of Glasgow and it appears the police are finding it difficult if not impossible to catch him. With little or no clues and victims being seemingly chosen at random the police are baffled and frustrated at the lack of information for them to grasp to piece together who is behind the crimes.


Its unusual because the narrator is the killer. You are instantly transported into his mind and through his thoughts and actions we learn how a tragedy in his life has shaped him into a lonely empty shell of a man incapable of emotion and filled with grief he embarks on a single goal - retribution against the person/persons responsible.


The pace is energetic, chapters not overly long which keeps this going like a ticking time bomb in the killers mind. Good characterisation, I even felt empathy for the killer and understood his motivation albeit that he could have driven his energies to better use like his wife was doing. He sets out to show the darker side of the city in Glasgow, the seediness of a large town where its inhabitants are faceless and keep themselves to themselves. Robertson allows the reader to sympathise with the killer by seemingly being able to justify his actions so that we start to understand the logic of them and poses the question of 'would you do the same' - frighteningly real.


Through a mistake he finds himself in trouble with the mob in Glasgow and things take a different turn for him where he is not totally in control of events and you feel as if you are now there for the ride with him. I wont say more as I wouldn't want to spoil it but suffice it to say that there is a twist of sorts and it makes the ending rather sad.


I enjoyed this novel for the unusual way it was written, the characterisation and clever way it was all pulled together, its the first book for me by this author but I would definitely read more of his work. A well deserved 4 stars from me.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.