Whisky from small glasses

This book is first in the series of DCI Daley books written by Scottish author, Denzil Meyrick.

When a woman's body is washed up on to a beach in western Scotland, Inspector Jim Daley, with his colleague Detective Sergeant Brian Scott, is sent to Kinloch from Glasgow to investigate. In Kinloch they discover a close knit community containing a variety of characters who assist or hinder the investigation. This is a character driven crime thriller with the village of Kinloch and its surroundings also playing an important role in the telling of the story.

Being the first in a series of books, the back story of the characters that is gradually revealed, including Daley's marriage problems and the revelation that much of the crime occurring in the area is drug related, is continued in subsequent volumes. As the investigation continues Daley realises that corruption in high places is behind much of the crime in the area. Although the books in the series could be read as stand alone titles it is probably better to read the books sequentially.

I enjoyed this introduction to the world of DCI Daley and his colleagues, and once I became used to the vernacular spoken by many of the characters I became immersed in the life of community of Kinloch and the attempts of the police to solve the spate of violent crime occurring in their region.