James Oswald (1)

In Dead Men’s Bones, the fourth installment in James Oswald’s McLean series of police procedurals, DI Tony McLean is called upon to solve two cases. The first involves a body found at the bottom of a cliff beside the River Esk: a naked man covered head-to-toe in fresh tattoos. The other is a brutal murder-suicide: at their posh home in the countryside, MSP Andrew Weatherly has killed his two young daughters with poison, shot his wife, and then turned the gun on himself. The mystery posed by the Weatherly murders is a question of why, since there is no doubt Andrew Weatherly committed the horrific murder of his family unaided (the house was well-covered by CCTV). The naked man case poses a riddle of a different order: who is the man, how did he come to be where he was found, why is he covered with tattoos? At the behest of Detective Superintendent Duguid, McLean starts digging, and in the process (as is his habit) ruffles quite a few feathers among the high and mighty. After numerous twists and turns, the trail leads McLean and his team to a derelict mental hospital and an ultra-wealthy, supremely tight-lipped business partner of Weatherly’s: the deeply mysterious and bewitching Mrs. Saifre, whose interest in Tony seems anything but benevolent. Along the way, McLean is fed sordid information and lewd photographs meant to besmirch Weatherly’s reputation by a mysterious individual (special forces? MI5?) who seems able to enter McLean’s house at will. The plot is engaging if somewhat convoluted, but eventually Tony establishes a link between the two cases, a discovery that leads to a resolution filled with mayhem and destruction. Oswald’s unadorned writing serves the swiftly paced story perfectly. Tony McLean is an attractive hero with a tragic past, a relentlessly curious detective who will piss off whoever he has to in his quest for the truth and damn the consequences. The dour Scottish setting drips atmosphere, and the supernatural element is handled with subtlety and grace. A worthy addition to a stellar series.… (more)