#Bookvent – Celebrating my top reads of 2017
My ninth bookvent choice is part of one of my favourite series of recent years. I found it by accident, I think while perusing a Bookbub email once upon a time, but as soon as I read book one I was hooked. This was the series which reignited my love affair with crime books and, well, reading in general. So much more than a simple police procedural, this series blends the criminal with the sometimes slightly mystical. You could tell in this one the author was missing one of his other great creations, the nod to his twitter handle and winged protagonist making me smile from the off. Book nine in my #bookvent countdown is …
When a body is found in a tree in The Meadows, Edinburgh’s scenic parkland, the forensics suggest the corpse has fallen from a great height.
Detective Inspector Tony McLean wonders whether it was an accident, or a murder designed to send a chilling message?
The dead man had led quite a life: a disgraced ex-cop turned criminal kingpin who reinvented himself as a celebrated philanthropist.
As McLean traces the victim’s journey, it takes him back to Edinburgh’s past, and through its underworld – crossing paths with some of its most dangerous and most vulnerable people.
And waiting at the end of it all, is the truth behind a crime that cuts to the very heart of the city…
I can’t believe this was released way back in February. February! I do remember though that it kept me reading right through until 04:00 and it was only the fact that I had to go to work that day that stopped me from reading the whole book in one sitting. Didn’t last long when I got home though … This book harks back to a previous case and there are elements of this which take the reader back to the more paranormal elements of the earlier investigations, the very thing which hooked me and drew me in from the beginning. McLean ends up investigating a very strange murder – a man who is found suspended from a tree. Witness testimony is suspect and unusual to say the least and it is hard to know where the fantasy ends and the truth begins, something very much not helped by the re-emergence of an old adversary of McLean’s. I loved every minute of this book, from the very basic police investigations, to the more atypical elements. There we new characters introduced who I quickly warmed to and I even found myself starting to like Duguid. Who’d a guessed it? And the ending … I absolutely cannot wait for January when we get to savour the next book.
You can read my full review of Written in Bones right here and purchase a copy of the book for yourself from the following retailers:
Amazon UK | Amazon US | Kobo | Waterstones
Happy #bookvent reading all
JL
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