The body of Paul Shore toppled onto him, a stream of blood pooling around them on the concrete. Bernard lay back and waited to see if he too was going to die.

An undercover agent gone rogue is threatening to shoot a civil servant a day. As panic reigns, the Health Enforcement Team race against time to track him down – before someone turns the gun on them.

My thanks to Sandstone Press for my review copy.

A pandemic has caused a huge loss of life. The Health Enforcement Team (HET) was established in the aftermath of the virus to ensure people continued to be checked for possible infection – it is a thankless job and the HET does not attract elite applicants. However, the HET are our principle characters in Lesley Kelly’s Health of Strangers series; crime stories all set in post viral outbreak Edinburgh. Murder at the Music Factory is the 4th book in the series – it can be read as a stand alone thriller.

When I encountered the HET in the first Health of Strangers book it was June 2017 the idea of a pandemic sweeping through the world and changing life as we know it just seemed a clever piece of fictional world creation by Lesley Kelly. Then 2020 happened and…well, you know how that has turned out.

In Murder at the Music Factory the virus is under control and life has returned to a new normal.  This means I may need to stop referring to the series as dystopian, perhaps idyllic would be more appropriate?  For the Health Enforcement Team there is a more pressing issue confronting them – someone has shot a civil servant and poor Bernard, HET’s perpetual unlucky sod, was on the scene as it happened.  It transpires nobody in the HET or any civil servant is safe as the shooter has threatened to target one of their number each day.  A manhunt ensues but what could be behind these attacks?

As more incidents occur a pattern is established, the victims are not being selected randomly and the common link ties back to the Scottish Government and one high profile MSP. Is the shooter trying to ensure something remains a secret?  Is there any link between the shootings and the disappearance of a legendary musician?  The alternative pop-star is an obscure figure on the music scene but it appears he may also have held some obsure and unwelcome opinions which border on the fantatical. If the shooter and the musician are not connected then Mona, Bernard and the HET team have twice as many problems to contend with.

I hold my hand up to confessing my love for this series.  I have enjoyed all the previous Health of Strangers books and Murder at the Music Factory was no exception. The new title is one of the few I actively watch out for each year.  The characters are developing with each new instalment and I long to read more about them. Each book is engaging, funny, thought provoking and there is now a suspicion of a political conspiracy theory to keep me hooked.  Honestly, if you are not reading these books you are missing a treat.  More please.

Murder at the Music Factory is published by Sandstone Press and is available in paperback and digital format.  You can order a copy here:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YF6PYF4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0