OUR LITTLE SECRETS – Peter Ritchie
Detective Grace Macallan - Book 5
Black and White Publishing
ISBN-10: 1785302418
ISBN-13: 978-1785302411
ASIN: B07S33XMXQ
July 2020
General Fiction – Adult

Edinburgh, Scotland – the Present

A hatchet bearing Pete the Pole was screaming how he would slice Tonto up as he chased him. Tonto sees two PCs (cops) ahead, outside the Tynecastle Stadium where football game attendees are gathering. The cops who see him coming run away. Luckily an armed police team shows up saving Tonto's life.

Detective Inspector Janet Hadden sees Tonto and recognizes him as a gangster tool. Someone she might use as a grass (snitch). A search shows he has a packet of drugs on him. She has grand goals for her career and hopes she can twist the situation to her advantage. Hadden digs herself into a lot of trouble. 

Tonto works for Paul Grainger. Paul and his brother Seth handle the family's illegal business. Their older brother Dominic handles the legal side, but he still has oversight on all the family's business. Something Paul resents and wants. Dominic's wife Jude is planning to divorce him for his infidelities. She is just as guilty, but she plans to take everything, which might expose Dominic's other bad habit—gambling. Grainger seeks to work with Irish gangsters in a new illegal deal which will relieve his financial woes. Arthur Hamilton, a powerful crime leader now retired, hires private detective Frankie Mason to investigate his son-in-law Dominic Grainger. While his daughter Jude hates him, he adores her and will protect her.

Crime and violence vie with hatred and rage in OUR LITTLE SECRETS, especially when a dishonest cop gets involved. The characters range from grungy to elite, but all are willing to perform or be trapped into unethical acts. Everyone has seen or endured incidents which haunt them. While Grace Macallan makes a brief appearance in an early chapter, it isn't until much later that she becomes active in the maelstrom of the story.

The author of OUR LITTLE SECRETS, Peter Ritchie, has vast experience in policing and organized crime in Scotland, so his writing is authoritative and believable. His previous profession also shows in his understanding of criminal minds. The local jargon is sometimes hard to fathom, but a glossary of Scottish crime terms is included. While it is hard to empathize with the characters, they all provide intriguing interest. Danger always lines the story's edges evolving from all the character's convoluted twists and turns. It is a long story, but well-worth the read.

Robin Lee