Bitter Water

Police have found a body with its head encased in concrete.  It turns out to be one of the councillors of Glasgow.  Shortly after reporting on it, Douglas Brodie is asked by a demobbed soldier, calling himself Ishmael, to arrange for legal help for a mate.  His friend, Samantha Campbell agrees to take on the case.

The soldier is given five years, and his friend protests loudly in court resulting in his arrest, too.  He vows that justice will be served.  The soldier, a POW taken at Dunkirk, commits suicide in jail a matter of days later.  It isn't long after that, that a loan shark is badly beaten.  After writing about it, Brodie receives a letter stating that this is how the 'Glasgow Marshals' are going to mete out justice since neither the police nor the judges were doing it.

As Brodie delves into the incidents, he discovers at least 19 of them.  Punishment fitting the crime.  While Brodie is investigating this his senior crime reporter is investigating the original crime, which he feels leads to a corrupt city council.

Brodie and his friend Sam Campbell are surprised by the Glasgow Marshals and held at gunpoint as they threaten Brodie and explain their point of view.  Later they expand their operations by chalking messages on walls asking people to report transgressors to them for punishment.  This leads to a murder of a homosexual, which the Marshals claim they didn't commit.  While Brodie is meeting with the gang, more homosexuals are killed.

It isn't long after this that an attempt is made on Brodie.  The concluding pages of Gordon Ferris' sequel to 'Hanging Shed' are filled with tension and excitement.  A thoroughly good read.