DYING LIGHT by Stuart MacBride (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Finally Scotland has another dynamite police procedural series. MacBride makes both his fictional and physical homes in Aberdeen. Detective Sergeant Logan MacRae was once a shining star on the force, but a bad tip which resulted in critically injuring a fellow policeman (with no arrests) delegates him to the "Screw-Up Squad." MacRae must use all his skills to find a serial murderer of prostitutes, which no one else believes is such, while most of the manpower of the force is focused on a series of murder by arson. Complicating MacRae's efforts are the two women in his life—his live-in lover, WPC Jackie Watson, and his new detective inspector Roberta Steel. MacRae's personal relationships add a lightness to the reality of the dark crimes, reminding the reader that there is, indeed, a silver lining out there—somewhere.