Dyed in the Wool — Ed James

"Rankin for the Xbox generation" Detective Constable Scott Cullen finds his professional and private lives at opposite ends of the spectrum. While his career is stagnating - impacted by the jockeying for position ahead of the Police Scotland restructure as much as by his own inability to push for promotion - his love life goes from strength to strength. But when a family dinner is interrupted by the discovery of a body found in a Range Rover at the foot of a shale bing in West Lothian, Cullen is forced to go back to his old stomping ground. Now, haunted by figures from his past, Cullen comes up against DS Colin Methven, the latest officer occupying the position Cullen has long coveted, intent on straightening out Cullen's cowboy nature. Lurking in the background is DI Paul Wilkinson, trying to push Cullen back to a recent major case. DYED IN THE WOOL is a dark police procedural novel about male identity set against the backdrop of football hooliganism. The fourth book in a series of Edinburgh-based police procedurals starring DC Scott Cullen which has been compared favourably with Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Christopher Brookmyre, Ed McBain, Elmore Leonard and Stuart MacBride.