Books like Halfhead by Stuart B MacBride
Set in a Glasgow not far from our present, the novel introduces ‘halfheading’—a punitive procedure that removes a criminal’s lower jaw and lobotomizes them so they can be forced to work as city cleaners. The system is portrayed as a deterrent and a means to reduce the prison population.
Six years after her surgery, Dr. Fiona Westfield begins to regain her thoughts. She wakes in a warehouse surrounded by the severed body of a man she has just killed. As fragments of her mind return, she embarks on a savage quest for revenge.
The mystery attracts the attention of William Hunter, Assistant Section Director of the Network, a military wing of the police. At the grim crime scene, Hunter confronts violent residents of Sherman House, a dilapidated housing estate. With the aid of former allies and a sharp‑tongued Detective Sergeant Josephine Cameron, Hunter pursues the killer, uncovering links to a tragic past and a broader conspiracy that threatens Glasgow’s most vulnerable citizens.
First publish date: 2009
Genre: Suspense/General Suspense
Authors: Stuart B MacBride
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