What I enjoy most about Scottish crime fiction is the dialogue. Luckily, there’s plenty here to indulge in. Whether or not you have a view on Scottish independence, it’s a divisive topic and one that will continue to simmer. The Bastard Plot focuses on possible anomalies in the referendum and throws an American FBI agent into the mix. Of course, with the recent voting scandals around Trump’s election, you’d have to say that the Americans are well placed to take a view on interference when it comes to ballots. In terms of the plot then, I didn’t find it abundantly clear but the quirky characters, the nicknames and, as mentioned, the cracking dialogue carried me through.

In the United Kingdom if you mention a contentious referendum result most people will immediately think of the 2016 “Brexit” vote. If, however, you live in Scotland then your first thoughts may well shift to the 2014 Independence Referendum. This YES/NO vote split the country, families disagreed, friends fell out and the media first showed their true colours by brazenly ditching any suggestion of impartiality…you see! It still causes high emotion.

The “Indy Ref” is almost 9 years in the past (a generation if you’re Irish but apparently not if you’re Scottish) the outcome still raises passions and many, many people believe there were significant trust issues surrounding the vote and the result. In Bastard Verdict James McCrone turns attention to the turmoil, incorporates the suspicions and unusal practices into a cracking thriller He brilliantly taps into the paranoia which his protagonists will experience as they look to see if there was Governmental interference in the vote and it makes the story a tight and tense affair.

Imogen Trager is an FBI agent but she is working at Glasgow University as a guest lecturer following her involvement in an extremely high profile case in the US where she exposed vote tampering in the Amercian elections. Imogen became toxic at home as the fallout from her investigations cast huge ripples through the American political system. She is in Scotland where she will be safely out of the way! But soon after her arrival Imogen is approached by a high ranking official of the Scottish Government. He indicates he would like Imogen to spend some time looking at the 2014 Independence referendum, she is a specialist in identifying election irregularities and he says the 2014 election “was stolen”. But his request comes with a warning, if Imogen is going to look at the vote she must be very careful – if she does find any evidence of wrongdoing then this can only have been orchestrated by some very powerful people. Those people would not want anyone to shine a spotlight on their interference.

McCrone has also tapped into live political issues. In Bastard Verdict there is a strong suspicion the UK Goverment is seeking to announce a new policy initiaive to make Great Britain stronger. This patriotic excercise in London would also seriously undermine the authority of the devolved governments and would see several key areas which are legislated in Edinburgh cede back to London’s control. If Imogen can identify interference in the Independence Referendum it will seriously undermine any London attempts to wrestle control away from Scotland – suddenly a vote nine years ago has a very real and imminent deadline if doubt is to be cast upon the outcome.

As someone that closely followed the 2014 election I was very aware of some of the “unusual” elements surrounding the vote. James McCrone uses real questions (never fully answered) as fictional plot points which drive Imogen’s investigations forward. When there is suspicion of sensitve infomration being revealed people start to die. But the forces working against Imogen and her small cohort of colleagues are worried and mistakes are being made – the reader gets to follow both sides of the process we see when robberies are arranged, when surveillance is deployed and who is calling the shots. Knowing Imogen is getting deeper into danger keeps the reader turning the pages.

Election vote counting doesn’t sound like the most likely backdrop for a crime thriller but James McCrone steps up and makes it an utterly absorbing read. I loved this story and have already been recommending it to many of my friends.