Dead Men’s Bones by James Oswald

Back to Mandie who is sharing her thoughts on the next instalment in James Oswald’s Inspector McLean series, Dead Men’s Bones. Here’s what it’s all about.

About the Book

Dead Men’s Bones is the fourth novel in James Oswald’s phenomenal Inspector McLean series set in Edinburgh and is already a Sunday Times Top Five bestseller.

A family lies slaughtered in an isolated house in North East Fife . . .

Morag Weatherly and her two young daughters have been shot by husband Andrew, an influential politician, before he turned the gun on himself.

But what would cause a rich, successful man to snap so suddenly?

For Inspector Tony McLean, this apparently simple but high-profile case leads him into a world of power and privilege. And the deeper he digs, the more he realizes he’s being manipulated by shadowy factions.

Under pressure to wrap up the case, McLean instead seeks to uncover layers of truth – putting the lives of everyone he cares about at risk . . .

The first three titles in the bestselling Inspector McLean series – Natural Causes, The Book of Souls, and The Hangman’s Song, are all available as Penguin paperbacks and eBooks. Fans of Ian Rankin and Stuart MacBride will love James Oswald’s writing.

Mandie’s Thoughts

I am still really enjoying my DI Tony McLean catch up and am now on to book 4 Dead Men’s Bones and things aren’t getting any easier for Tony and the team. When he is called to the house of MP Andrew Weatherly nothing really prepares him for what he sees when he gets there. Weatherly has killed his wife and two children before turning the gun on himself. Working with a fellow DI due to the newly formed Police Scotland he is not sure what his role is in the investigation but with the pressure on to close this case down quickly you just know that he will ruffle more than a few feathers along the way in his resolve to get to the truth. Added to this the body of a tattooed man is found, what they don’t know is who he is or how he got there.

Tony is missing Emma as she continues to deal with her problems so he is determined to concentrate on his job putting in long hours and not always looking after himself as he should especially as he is still recovering from recent events himself. He is still butting heads with his superiors and the police therapist but for once they both actually seem to want to help him do a good job (not that they would admit it). He is also contenting with a mysterious visitor that keeps tuning up at his house with little snippets of information and photographs, clearly wanting him to dig deeper or possibly setting him up for a fall. Only time will tell.

Dead Men’s Bones really does tap into the other worldliness that has been present throughout this series so far and the mysterious Mrs Saifre seems to be at the heart of everything, but proving it is not going to be easy. With a disused asylum that has links to Weatherly and more bodies turning up even Tony is not sure he will ever truly understand what happened to make Weatherly do what he did and that maybe he should have let things lie, that is until his team are targeted, and their lives are put in danger, and they don’t all have Mrs. McCutcheon’s cat to look out for them. The only thing I would say is that maybe he should just not bother getting another car…. They never seem to last long and appear to be in as much danger as his team and himself.

With 8 more books in the series to read I can’t wait to see what other investigations and manifestations he gets involved in.

About the Author

James Oswald is the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Edinburgh-based Detective Inspector McLean novels, the first two of which were shortlisted for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger award for best unpublished author, as well as the epic fantasy series The Ballad of Sir Benfro. In his spare time he farms 350 acres in North East Fife, Scotland, where he raised pedigree Highland cattle.