The #Bookvent Calendar 2020 – Day 2

#Bookvent – Celebrating my top reads of 2020

My day 2 #bookvent pick is from one of my all time favourite series of books. Book one was one of the earliest books I picked up when I started getting really back into reading, and I’ve been with the series every since. I love the characters, I love the setting and I love that the author chooses to blend the everyday police investigations with something a little more … unusual. He is not afraid to dip into the supernatural and even the occult, and as a person whose childhood was dominated by ghost stories and horror tales, it really give it the edge for me. I must admit I was wondering just where the book was going after reading the first few chapters, but when McLean is in town, it pays to expect the unexpected. Yep … my day two pick is …

Bury Them Deep by James Oswald

When a member of the Police Scotland team fails to clock-in for work, concern for her whereabouts is immediate… and the discovery of her burnt-out car in remote woodland to the south of Edinburgh sets off a desperate search for the missing woman.

Meanwhile, DCI Tony McLean and the team are preparing for a major anti-corruption operation – one which may raise the ire of more than a few powerful people in the city. Is Anya Renfrew’s disappearance a co-incidence or related to the case.

McLean’s investigations suggest that perhaps that Anya isn’t the first woman to have mysteriously vanished in these ancient hills. Once again, McLean can’t shake the feeling that there is a far greater evil at work here…

Oh I do love an Inspector McLean mystery … or Detective Chief Inspector as he is now. The characters are brilliant, the cases a little – how should I put it – obscure, and the story told in such a way that you are drawn in, partly out of intrigue, and partly because you have to see how in the heck Tony and co are going to get to the bottom of the case this time. I will admit that the opening chapter of the book had me completely sucked in too. It’s a tale of legend, of a character so dark and twisted that it could stand as a book in its own right. I had to know how this fed into the story and I was not disappointed. This is a very twisted tale that brings Tony back, face to face, with a figure from his past so you may want to have read some of the earlier books before tucking in. It unearths some rather varied out of work activities of a distant colleague that could have implications for a major case. It is full of tension, mystery and atmosphere, and the usual level of jeopardy for the characters we love so much. And I do love Grumpy Bob. He may be on the verge of retirement but he’s a McLean classic character and one of my favourites. If you love Tony McLean and co, you will love this too.

If you’d like to read my full review, you will find it right here.

Happy #bookvent reading all

Jen