Harry McCoy is the creation of yet another Scottish author, this time by the name of Alan Parks. Unlike a number of the authors I come across, I know exactly how I discovered him and Harry – it was a recommendation on my Kindle from Amazon as something they thought I might like and I certainly did! On that basis, I am now going to introduce them to you in the hope that they might appeal to you as well. However, to begin with, I should explain my reference to the Bay City Rollers and Glam Rock in the heading of this post.
Alan Parks’ Harry McCoy detective stories are set in Glasgow across the years 1973 and 1974 when bands like the Bay City Rollers, Mud, Sweet, Showawaddy, the Rubettes and many more were strutting around in sequins and platform boots and I and my fellow students were enjoying being around in what some have cruelly referred to as ‘the years that music forgot’! As you might expect, a number of musical references appear in the books but, in fairness to Alan Parks, he seems to have musical tastes which are a bit more sophisticated with references to bands such as Pink Floyd and Yes rather than the glam rockers.
What I mean by the heading, is that I found it really interesting to be reading books which, while based in the past, some fifty years ago, it was a time in my life which I remember well and I enjoyed being transported back to it, even though I was reading some pretty brutal and gory stories while doing it!
I’ve been very impressed with the five Harry McCoy books I have read and I really like the way Alan Parks is able to take us and drop us into Glasgow in the early 1970s. there isn’t a great deal about him on the web but I think this link is a pretty useful synopsis, despite him not giving too much away! He gives his year of birth as 1963 and, since he was only ten when his books are set, he has clearly done a lot of very good research, in my view, to represent the early seventies in Glasgow as well as he has.
So, what about the books? Well, as I’ve said. There are five of them, so far, and they cover five cases which Harry McCoy, a Detective Sergeant in the Glasgow Police, deals with across 1973 to 1974. He is in his early thirties, divorced, having suffered the death of a very young child. Not surprisingly, he suffers from depression and he deals with that using alcohol and some drug use. He was brought up in care and his best friend from that time is now a gang leader in Glasgow. As you would expect, they have a difficult relationship but that doesn’t stop them using each other’s help during the books. Harry also has strong, but difficult relationships with his boss, his sidekick and with authority in general but, despite (or because of) this he is, inevitably, I suppose, a pretty good detective.
As with so many of the books I read and write about, the plots are pretty formulaic and just what you would expect – gangs, murder, corruption and extreme violence – but (and I know you would expect me to say this) the characters are really well constructed and interesting, all with their attractive and less attractive characteristics, and it is that, along with period when the stories are set, which makes them a really good read, as far as I am concerned. If you’re a fan of the detective fiction genre (and I have to assume that you are), give them a try – I’ll be surprised if you’re disappointed, but let me know either way!
Finally, if you’re out there, Alan Parks, let’s have some more!