Hard Man by Allan Guthrie

Hard Man is primarily concerned with the predicament of the Baxter family, in which the father and two sons think they're hard men, but are in fact useless next to Wallace, the psychopath husband of Baxter's daughter – who is pregnant with another man's child. This Edinburgh set novel drifts around in a world of low-level thugs and nut-jobs in moderately compelling fashion, never catching fire but never quite fizzling out either. The Baxters want ex-con Pearce to act as bodyguard for the girl, but Pearce has little interest in babysitting until events force him into reacting. The book is a brisk and suitably boisterous read, punctuated by some bone crunching fights and inventive swearing. However, even though it tends towards the parochial in places, it never quite engenders any real flavour of Edinburgh. But what really lets it down is a protagonist who doesn't drive events. Pearce could and should have been an intriguing, commanding character, but he remains inert for long stretches while secondary, less interesting players are allowed to dominate the action, even though there doesn't seem to be any real goal in sight for anyone other than not dying horribly. [Paul Greenwood]