Book Review: Old Friends and New Enemies (Charlie Cameron #2) by Owen Mullen

Title: Old Friends and New Enemies
Author: Owen Mullen
Series: Charlie Cameron #2
Publisher: Self Published
Publication Date: 31st January 2016
Pages: 338 
Format Read: EBook
Source: electronic copy courtesy of author 

 The body on the mortuary slab wasn’t who Glasgow PI Charlie Cameron was looking for.
But it wasn’t a stranger.
Suddenly, a routine missing persons investigation becomes a fight for survival. As Charlie is dragged deeper into Glasgow’s underbelly he goes up against notorious gangster Jimmy Rafferty and discovers what fear really is.
Rafferty is so ruthless even his own sons are terrified of him.
Now he wants Charlie to find something. And Jimmy Rafferty always gets what he wants.
There is only one problem... Charlie doesn’t know where it is.

Old Friends and New Enemies is book 2 in the PI Charlie Cameron series.

Charlie has been approached by Cecilia McNeil to track down her husband who has disappeared after the death of their son. When an unidentified body turns up at the morgue he thinks his job is done. However the body is not that of the missing husband but an old friend of Charlie’s, Ian Selkirk. How did Ian end up in the morgue and where is Fiona? Ian and Fiona were inseparable. While Charlie takes finding out what happened to Ian as his own personal case he will put himself in grave danger, be double crossed and reunite with the love of his life.

Mullen has written another gritty, brutal and unforgiving Scottish noir crime thriller. I always enjoy Mullen’s writing style.

Plenty of old friends from book 1, Jackie from the NYB cafe, DC Andrew Geddes and Charlie’s offsider, Pat Logue, make an appearance in this book with a few new enemies, in the cut-throat Rafferty clan, making Charlie’s life hell.

In this book I found Cameron rather self indulgent and lacking motivation. I think I prefer his cases to be a little less personal.

Old Friends and New Enemies has a gritty plot with some unpredictable twists and a good dose of Glaswegian humour. Well worth a read.

*My thanks to the author for my copy to read

Content: descriptive torture scene

                 mild sex scene

                 minimal coarse language

My rating 4/5                     🌟🌟🌟🌟 

photo courtesy of Twitter

Owen Mullen is a McIlvanney Crime Book Of The Year long-listed novelist.
And So It Began earned a coveted Sunday Times Crime Club ⭐Star Pick.

Owen Mullen graduated from Strathclyde University, moved to London and worked as a rock musician, session singer and songwriter, and had a hit record in Japan with a band he refuses to name; Owen still loves to perform on occasion. His great love for travel has taken him on many adventures from the Amazon and Africa to the colourful continent of India and Nepal. A gregarious recluse, he and his wife, Christine, split their time between Glasgow, and their home away from home in the Greek Islands where the Charlie Cameron and Delaney series', and soon to be released psychological thriller were created.