Kiss Her Goodbye

By Allan Guthrie

When people in Edinburgh need to borrow money, they go to Cooper. When they don't pay it back, they get a visit from Joe Hope. But now, Joe's got troubles of his own. His teenage daughter's been found dead, an apparent suicide. Then the police arrest him for murder. But, for once, Joe is innocent. With help from Scotland's hardest men - and one woman - he sets out to discover who has framed him and to deliver his own brutal brand of justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Birlinn
• Release date: Nov 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9780857901729

Reviews for Kiss Her Goodbye

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A quick, dirty read! Joe Hope finds out his daughter is dead, his wife is murdered, and he's the one being blamed! But he didn't do it! So he's off to prove he's innocent, and to find out who is responsible! I enjoyed this read, as I do almost all of the Hard Case Crime books I've picked up! They sure seem to know their audience - me!

[birdy55 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good quick read, reminds me of 40s crime noir fiction, but updated. The Hard Case Crime series is generally pretty good, overall.

[davewilde-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“Kiss Her Goodbye” was one of the earliest of the Hard Case crime publications, eighth if you are keeping count. What makes this novel stand out from the rest of Hard Case Crime’s gallery of rogues is that it is neither a reprint of a fifties/sixties pulp novel nor a newer novel that sets out to attain the feel and atmosphere of the fifties/sixties pulp world. It is decidedly modern in that it involves cellphones and it is one of the few HCC novels that is not American. (Obviously, AC Doyle’s Valley of Fear is not American noir either.) Although it is hard to put your finger on it, this Scottish noir has a feel that is simply different, but it doesn’t feel contrived. If you could have the British version of “Shameless” playing in the background or even the Clash pounding out your stereo, you might just have some of the atmosphere that is in this novel.

In any event, it is the saga of Joe Hope, who you first meet breaking into someone’s house in the middle of the night and beating him senseless with baseball bats because he didn’t make the vig and said some things in a pub.

Joe isn’t your young, innocent, starry-eyed reporter/college student caught up by accident in criminal mischief. Rather, he is a guy who has never held a job according to official reports and consorts with various underworld figures. But, he is, on the other hand, human, and despite a troubled marriage, bitter to the point of acid, he internalizes a lot of agony.

But, he has never faced agony like what is about to happen to him. Flying to Orkney to bury/avenge his suicidal daughter, Joe is arrested to his great surprise for his wife’s murder. All alone against the State with not much left for him to live for, Joe stands up tall and soldiers on to wreak justice against whoever wasted his family.

It opens with great violence and passion and, although it doesn’t manage to maintain that same lightning strike intensity and grittiness throughout, is nevertheless a good, solid story and well worth reading. This apparently was Guthrie’s second published novel and it will be interesting to read whatever else he has penned.