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The Night the Rich Men Burned

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The Night the Rich Men Burned

By: Malcolm Mackay
Narrated by: Angus King
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Longlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger for Best Thriller 2015.

There's nothing so terrifying as money . . .

Two friends, Alex Glass and Oliver Peterkinney, look for work and for escape from their lives spent growing up on Glasgow's most desperate fringes. Soon they will become involved in one of the city's darkest and most dangerous trades. But while one rises quickly up the ranks, the other will fall prey to the industry's addictive lifestyle and ever-spiralling debts.

Meanwhile, the three most powerful rivals in the business – Marty Jones, ruthless pimp; Potty Cruickshank, member of the old guard; and Billy Patterson, brutal newcomer – vie for prominence. And now Peterkinney, young and darkly ambitious, is beginning to make himself known . . .

Before long, violence will spill out onto the streets, as those at the top make deadly attempts to out-manoeuvre one another for a bigger share of the spoils. Peterkinney and Glass will find themselves at the very centre of this war; and as the pressure builds, each will find their actions – and inactions – coming back to haunt them. But it is those they love who will suffer most . . .

From the award-winning author of the Glasgow Trilogy, The Night the Rich Men Burned is a novel for our times, and Malcolm Mackay's most ambitious work to date.

 Crime Fiction Genre Fiction International Mystery & Crime Modern Detectives Mystery Urban Fiction Crime Suspense Exciting Scary
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Critic reviews

Malcolm Mackay's writing rings true . . . [he] is quite unlike the general run of writers of Tartan Noir. Indeed he is quite unlike most crime writers . . . He writes with authority, and this is what makes his novels compelling . . . Mackay's underworld is convincing . . . Mackay writes with such assurance that he makes it credible . . . Mackay's achievement is to have created a credible world of his own . . . He is a very unusual writer, one who skilfully gives the impression that he is without illusions about how people think and act.
For his Glasgow trilogy, Malcolm Mackay accumulated praise and awards rarely accorded to a new crime writer, all the more astonishing for an author who has rarely ventured into the city that he describes with such vigour. Can he keep it up? His fourth novel, The Night the Rich Men Burned, says yes. Different characters and more intricate storylines than the books of the trilogy, but recognisably the same terrain. Mackay has created his own world of Glasgow gangsterism, and within it two friends try to set up an empire of debt collectors that is not to the liking of the existing operators.
Hailed as the rising star of Tartan Noir, this is Mackay's much anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed Glasgow Trilogy . . . Mackay captures the helplessness of a recession-ravaged industrial city.
Malcolm Mackay has only been a published crime writer since June last year but his Glasgow Trilogy attracted the sort of acclaim normally reserved for far more experienced novelists. Fans of the trilogy will be relieved to know that The Night the Rich Men Burned - Mackay's fourth novel and the first to stand alone - does not stray far from the already tried and tested formula . . . [It is] a fast-paced read, combining an enjoyably voyeuristic insight to the violent world of these gangsters with enough of a focus on their lives and motivations to make them if not likeable at least understandable. Mackay's description of his chosen setting is superb . . . the characters are well thought out and believable . . . the huge number of fans Malcolm Mackay has garnered since his first release 14 months ago is unlikely to be disappointed.
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This novel is set the same world as the Glasgow trilogy, and some characters from those books appear.

It is a stand alone tale. The writing is deceptively simple, and it's very much a plot driven crime novel. Nothing profound or particularly thought provoking but an extremely engaging, easy read nonetheless.

The narration is fine, some of the stresses grated me a little but overall the narrator suits the book well enough.

One tip : skip through the very long list of characters at the opening of the novel. You won't need them - this isn't Tolstoy - and all characters are introduced fully in the text. This list might be fine in print but really adds nothing to an audiobook.

More of the same ; works for me

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This was a great book, enjoyed the new characters. This is a book that I'll listen to again in the future

Just very good

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I'm enjoying this book. I like the other works by this author. He has a very gripping style of writing and it holds your interest.
It's just that.. well.. it's supposed to be set in Glasgow but it's really not.

It's not very Glaswegian in any way at all. This gets grating after a while.

It's not just that the narrator doesn't have a Glaswegian accent or even the odd bit of 'Glesga hard man' accent when required. Its also that the characters aren't very Glaswegian either.
The dialogue doesn't place them in either area of the city and neither does the narrative.

If you are not from Glasgow, haven't been around the type of character described (loosely) and not reading it or listening to it with Glasgow in the forefront of your mind then you probably won't notice.

But it just isn't grounded where it's meant to be set and that gets annoying every time two characters have an exchange.

e.g. having one say, "It ain't like that." when they would actually say, "It's no like that."

I'm probably nit picking, but it really does detract for me, from what is an otherwise well written story.
Maybe the author needs to hang about more dive bars in Glasgow or get in touch for dialogue editing advice 😂

Wrong setting for an otherwise good story.

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Using similar characters from other books it starts to build up a great history of a serial story.

Good read

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