Close to the Bone cover art

Close to the Bone

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Close to the Bone

By: Stuart MacBride
Narrated by: Steve Worsley
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The eighth Logan McRae novel in the No.1 bestselling crime series from Stuart MacBride.

Every murder tells a story. But not every victim tells the truth.

‘A terrific writer … McRae is a delight’ The Times

Sticks and stones may break your bones…

The first body is chained to a stake: strangled, and stabbed, with a burning tyre around its neck. But is this a gangland execution or something much darker?

Someone’s leaving little knots of bones on DI Logan McRae’s doorstep, but he’s got bigger concerns. Rival drug gangs are fighting over product and territory; two teenage lovers are missing; someone’s crippling Asian immigrants; and Logan’s been lumbered with an ambitious new Detective Sergeant and gained the unwelcome attention of the local crime boss.

When another body turns up, the similarities between these murders and the plot of a bestselling novel seem like more than just a coincidence. And perhaps those little knots of bones are more important than they look…

©2013 Stuart MacBride (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Crime Crime Thrillers Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Exciting Feel-Good Scary Witty

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Cold Granite cover art
22 Dead Little Bodies and Other Stories cover art
A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller cover art
Now We Are Dead cover art
A Dark So Deadly cover art
A Song for the Dying cover art
Birthdays for the Dead cover art
Halfhead cover art
The Turning of Our Bones cover art
The Bonnie Dead cover art
A Long Time Dead cover art
Return to Evil cover art
Northwind cover art
Grimm Up North cover art
Silent Tide cover art
First Blood cover art

Critic reviews

"Some of the grittiest crime-writing in the field." ( Independent)
"MacBride is a damned fine writer - no one does dark and gritty like him." (Peter James)
"Admirers of tough, modern crime novels will be in seventh heaven - or should that be hell?" ( Express)
All stars
Most relevant  

If you could sum up Close to the Bone in three words, what would they be?

Sarcastic, exciting, gripping

What did you like best about this story?

I like the isn't play between the characters, and the banter back and forth. I also think the descriptions of Aberdeen are quite funny.

Have you listened to any of Steve Worsley’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Steve Worlsey is always great. The only reason I put 4 stars rather than 5 is because I have had Stuart mac ride books read by the author and he brings a little more out of the characters (seeing as he invented them), which I suppose is unfair to Steve...

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book made me laugh in several occasions, to funny looks from other people on the bus

Any additional comments?

Well worth a read!

Great story, twists and turns and great sarcasm

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Might sound odd, but my favourite characters in all of Stuart McBride’s McRae books are the supporting cast.
Steele is obnoxious and devil-may-care, and would drive you mad in real life, but I love her thieving, badger haired, grumpy self.
Tufty is just Tuftylicious and has many clevers, and is just a daft, over enthusiastic spaniel puppy.
Then there’s the Idiot Rennie, Weird Sheila, Nosferatu, Fatty Inch and the rest of them. It’s a world of misfits that somehow manage to catch seriously psychotic individuals while just about managing not to get fired or killed (barely).
This series are repeat listens for me, and I always enjoy them. They have complex storylines with believable protagonists, well drawn landscapes and a good pace, given feeling and believability by the narrator.
If you can believe that coppers will pinch any food that doesn’t contain rat poison, sleep through surveillance operations, exist on fish suppers, tea and biscuits, and don’t really do much by the book apart from sweat to death in white paper oversuits at crime scenes, you should enjoy the McRae series.

More a review of the whole series than just this volume.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great narration on a fabulous story line. Roberta Steele continues to play a blinder and McRae grows with each story.

Brilliant, as always

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved it I've and listened 3 times. the naration is aceptable. and the storyline superb.

solid

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Performance perfect as always . By accident and maybe poor planning reading out of sequence but it leads to some ah that explains that moments. Not sure in today’s politically correct police how long Ms Steel would last but here fictional world life would be poorer without her disreputable behaviour, potty mouth and kindness and appalling delivered care and heaven help us wisdom


Logan is complex damaged often wrong but always well intentioned. Must be Catholic with that much guilt and self doubt


Immerse yourself and enjoy



Recoil, laugh,be horrified listenable romp

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good storyline, in depth characters, keeps you listening, a few unexpected twists to keep you guessing.

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The phrase Laugh Out Loud is used all too often these days to describe something which might make you chuckle. Stuart MacBrides books actually DO make me lol! This one is as good as any in the Logan MacRae series ; well crafted, full of filthy D.I. Steel isms and wonderfully narrated by Steve Worsley. Fabulous!

Another triumph!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not sure whether it was badly orchestrated scene changes or the limited repertoire of character voices, but in places, I struggled to get a handle on what was happening. Almost felt like it was more of a film script, rather than a novel, at times - like a change in visuals was the missing ingredient.

Seriously considered "returning" my purchase for much of the first few hours, but decided to stick with it until the end. A decision I'm probably 70% happy with.

OK story, variable performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
couldn't wait for the next chapter great story and love the chemistry between the characters.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I dont know if this book was supposed to be so funny, but it made me laugh out loud on many occassions. An enjoyable listen!

Laugh out loud humour

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews