James Oswald – Grab This Book

Holiday Reads: No Time To Cry and The Long Drop

The pouring rain outside and the fact it is my birthday week mean that Summer is over. I have been able to get a few relaxing days away from the day job and this quiet time has allowed me opportunity to blitz my TBR backlog. So I now have a few reviews to write and I am keen to do some catching up – double review time again.

No Time To Cry – James Oswald

Undercover ops are always dangerous, but DC Constance Fairchild never expected things to go this wrong.

Returning to their base of operations, an anonymous office in a shabby neighbourhood, she finds the bloodied body of her boss, and friend, DI Pete Copperthwaite. He’s been executed – a single shot to the head.

In the aftermath, it seems someone in the Met is determined to make sure that blame for the wrecked operation falls squarely on Con’s shoulders. She is cut loose and cast out, angry and alone with her grief… right until the moment someone also tries to put a bullet through her head.

There’s no place to hide, and no time to cry.

First published back in July 2018, No Time To Cry was the first in a new series from James Oswald. Book 2 (Nothing to Hide) has been released and I understand the third book will be released before the end of this year. Which means I have a couple of months to read Nothing to Hide so I can roll straight into the third book – I absolutely loved No Time To Cry and I know know I don’t want to miss out on the Constance Fairchild novels.

Constance (Con) Fairchild finds her boss Pete Copperthawite murdered in the rooms the police had been using to run an undercover operation. As the most recent visitor to the rooms her colleagues question whether Constance was sufficiently careful to ensure she had not been followed thus blowing Pete’s cover. Pressure mounts on Con and to ensure her safety she takes herself away from work and heads back to her childhoom home.

Not that Con has missed home, she has had a complicated upbringing and her career choice is not one her family could understand. However, a childhood friend has asked Con to help find her younger sister who seems to have disappeared and hasn’t been in contact with her family. As Con digs deeper into the missing girl’s background she uncovers troubling evidence to suggest there is very good reason behind her absence. But this is not information which powerful people will allow to come to light and Con finds herself in even more danger than before.

Fans of James Oswald know he writes a great thriller and No Time To Cry is no exception. I flew through this one in a couple of days and had a huge grin on my face when a cameo appearance from a character in the Inspector McLean books suddenly popped up in Constance’s world.

Annoyed at myself for not reading this book sooner – terrific fun, I need more Constance Fairchild on my shelves.

The Long Drop – Denise Mina

Glasgow, 1957. It is a December night and William Watt is desperate. His family has been murdered and he needs to find out who killed them.

He arrives at a bar to meet Peter Manuel, who claims he can get hold of the gun that was used. But Watt soon realises that this infamous criminal will not give up information easily.

Inspired by true events, The Long Drop follows Watt and Manuel along back streets and into smoky pubs, and on to the courtroom where the murder trial takes place. Can Manuel really be trusted to tell the truth? And how far will Watt go to get what he wants?

This is utterly compelling reading. The Long Drop takes the real events which surround the Peter Manuel case and Denise Mina weaves her story around it to recount a dark period from Glasgow’s past.

In the late 1950’s Glasgow was a dark and dangerous place, Denise Mina depicts the life of the city, the atmosphere and its citizens astonishingly well – you feel yourself drawn into the book and the world around you fades away as masterly storytelling builds a new environment around you.

Peter Manuel is known as one of the most notorious serial killers. He hanged for his crimes but it seems there was always the belief he committed more murders than he faced trial for. In this book we see Manuel up close, the story addresses what he may have been like to those around him and the lengths he would go to to convince the world of his innocence. We also get focus on William Watt, his family have been murdered and he will do anything to find who was responsible.

It is a story of an obsession for the truth. The writing is so tight, not a word seems wasted as this short but powerful story drills down into the men at the heart of a dark, dark incident. Not a crime thriller which you would read for “fun” and the subject matter dictates this is a disturbing tale too. But it is a fascinating read and one I couldn’t stop reading once I had started it.

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February 18

Bury Them Deep – 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…

My thanks to Jennifer at the publishers for my review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the chance to join the Bury Them Deep blog tour.

When a James Oswald book opens with an extract from a book of Myths and Legends which discusses the story of Sawney Bean you need to suppress a shiver of anticipation. Tony McLean clearly has a troublesome case awaiting.

For those not familiar with Sawney Bean and wonder why I anticipated a challenging time for Tony; the intro contains the following words “gruesome”, “incestuous”, nurtured on human flesh”, “burned” and “executed”. This is all before page one! James Oswald never shies away from the darker side of crime thrillers and for the 10th Inspector McLean novel he is not giving his hero any respite.

As the story opens we are with an unnamed woman venturing out as she prepares to participate in an activity she both anticipates and hates herself for seeking. We then cut to McLean as he also prepares for a major (and secret) cross-agency operation – the brilliantly named Operation Caterwaul. However Caterwaul cannot start until a key member of the Police Scotland team turns up and the normally dependable Anya Renfrew is missing.

Could Renfrew be the woman we observed in the opening chapter? If it is the same person then how will Tony and his colleagues track her down? As we read deeper into Bury Them Deep we learn woman we saw heading out in chapter one has placed herself in real peril and the chances of her surviving are slim. Very slim.

The police step up efforts to track their missing colleague but as they look into her life away from work they find they don’t really know her as well as they may have believed. Renfrew has been living a double life and McLean is going to have to take unusual steps to get to know her better. He will be distracted from this by the re-introduction of Norman Bale, a prisoner in a secure unit who also claims to be a childhood friend of McLean but a friend McLean believed died at a young age.

With numerous demands on his attention and a personal life which is not as robust and secure as he would like Bury Them Deep will challenge McLean in a way readers will love.

I am a big fan of this series and find it hard to believe we are already at book 10. James Oswald has built a cracking character base to surround McLean and he keeps the compelling stories spinning around their lives despite the darkness he pits them against.

I don’t want to discuss too much of the detail behind Bury Them Deep as the joy in reading this shouldn’t be dimmed by reading spoilers. It’s a wickedly dark tale and there are clues to the bigger picture which I totally missed until I reached the endgame. Love when that happens.

Highly recommended – James Oswald never fails to deliver the thrills and Bury Them Deep is excellent.

Bury Them Deep is published by Wildfire and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07T6YDYPW/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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August 6

Holiday Reading – Part 2

Time to do some catching up. I have spent a large part of July reading and a tiny part of July writing reviews so it’s time to redress the balance. I finished over a dozen books during my summer break and that is too many to fit into a single catch-up post so I shall break these down into double headers.

Black and Blue – David Rosenfelt

Doug Brock hasn’t had it easy since his getting shot in the line of duty as a New Jersey state police officer. Between the amnesia and having to solve two murder cases, it hasn’t been the most restful recovery. Now, the cold case department is checking evidence from a murder case Doug was investigating before the accident, but the DNA points to a man Doug eliminated as a suspect and he remembers none of it. Doug begins to reinvestigate what turns out to be a series of unsolved killings and must retrace his steps to discover why he would have let the suspect go free. What he uncovers may be more dangerous than any case he’s faced yet.

My thanks to Minotaur Books for my review copy

David Rosenfelt has written a lot of books but this is my introduction to his work. David has released 19 books in the Andy Carpenter series, all with a distinctly canine theme, I shall be turning my attention to those very soon. However, it should be noted that Black and Blue does not feature Andy Carpenter (and I don’t recall many dogs) this one is a Doug Brock thriller – I inhaled it in just two sittings.

Brock is a cop in New Jersey. He was shot in the line of duty and lost a lot of his memories – not them all but enough that he cannot remember much of his life over the last few years prior to the shooting. This has created issues with his fiancee and means some cases he worked are a total mystery to him.

In Black and Blue one of Brock’s older cases may have become pertinent to an active investigation and he will need to revisit his original case notes to try and identify who may be responsible for a shooting. Did Brock let a killer walk free?

As Brock and his colleagues review likely suspects the body count increases. The most elusive of killers, a sniper, seems to be working through a list of intended victims whilst taunting the police about their lack of progress in stopping his “work”.

The dynamic between Brock and his colleagues was engaging and gave some lighter moments away from the murder scenes. Pacy, action packed and with a good number of twists to keep me reading. Perfect holiday reading.

Black and Blue is published by Minotaur Books and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Blue-Doug-Brock-Thriller/dp/1250133149/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=david+rosenfelt&qid=1565117369&s=gateway&sr=8-8

Exit Wounds – edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan

A brand-new anthology of crime stories written by masters of the genre, including Jeffery Deaver, Val McDermid and Lee Child.

A brand-new anthology of crime stories written by masters of the genre. Featuring both original in-universe stories and rarely-seen reprints, this collection of masterful short stories brings together some of the genre’s greatest living authors.

This was perfect reading for a summer vacation. I was able to pick up and set down the book for short reading bursts between activities and day trips. While stop/start bursts is frustrating when working my way through a novel, these bite sized, unsettling tales were ideal.

I don’t read many short story anthologies so I am not sure what the correct etiquette may be for a review. As such I don’t plan to discuss each story individually (there are nineteen) but as I go along I will highlight a few which stood out.

First I need to highlight the quality of the collection. Val McDermid shares a Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story, James Oswald treats us to a Tony McLean chiller (one of my favourites in the collection), Lee Child, Dean Koontz and Dennis Lehane are joined by Steph Broadribb, Sarah Hilary and AK Benedict and I still haven’t mentioned more than half of the authors!

Two of the stories which stuck with me long after I put the book down were Dead Weight by Fiona Cummins and Disciplined by Martyn Waites. Some voices across the book just strike a chord with me or I found the twist was unexpected (and possibly nasty). It has been almost 3 weeks since I finished the last story in the collection but these two stories were the ones I thought of first when I sat down to prepare my review.

This is a cracking collection from Titan Books. The stories are dark and disturbing and the quality of tales assembled in a single volume is terrific.

Exit Wounds is available to order here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exit-Wounds-K-Benedict/dp/1785659189/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=exit+wounds&qid=1565123235&s=digital-skills&sr=8-1

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March 20

Written in Bones – James Oswald

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…

My thanks to Laura at Penguin for my review copy

A new Tony McLean novel from James Oswald is always met with great anticipation here at Grab This Book. I am a big fan of this series and love the balance that the author finds between cracking police procedural but with a dark, and sometimes supernatural, edge to the stories.

Written in Bones is the 7th title to feature Tony McLean, knowing the back story helps but is not essential – new readers can easily pick up the series without worry of too many spoilers and will not be overwhelmed with confusing links to past events. One of the things I enjoy most about James Oswald’s books is how accessible they are, the stories all flow really well and are nicely paced.

From the very first pages of Written in Bones I was hooked. A body is discovered in The Meadows, a pleasant park in Edinburgh city centre. However, the body is stuck high in a tree and it appears to have fallen out of the sky. The only possible witness to the crime is a young boy who was walking his dog around The Meadows early in the morning. Unfortunately for McLean and his colleagues he does not appear to be the most reliable source for information as he maintains that he saw a dragon flying over the park at the time the body would have fallen into the tree.

Further investigation will reveal the young witness is the son of one of Edinburgh’s more notorious characters – someone very well known to the police. Could this simply be a coincidence or does the child’s presence link to crimes committed by his father? This element of an investigation could prove potentially tricky to some of McLean’s colleagues and Tony will be required to play politics around the station.

Although McLean can be a bit of a loose cannon at times, in Written in Bones there are new colleagues in the station and McLean will have to spend some of his time managing a team. The interaction between McLean and the younger, less experienced officers added a fun new angle to the story and I hope that we get to see a bit more of Tony in “mentor” mode.

Away from the mysterious body in a tree, Tony is also finding himself at a number of properties which have been subject to a break-in. He is pulled around the city and his investigations will leave someone unhappy – powerful people will not want the police sniffing around their operations. Back to that political pressure – Tony’s bosses will try to clip his wings and restrict his resources…can he find a way to make his already stretched team focus on more than one investigation?

I had great fun reading Written in Bones, it’s nice to be able to pick up a book which I know will entertain me and it did not fail to deliver the thrills and excitement that I look forward to in James Oswald’s writing. This has been a richly rewarding series thus far and Written in Bones only enhances the Tony McLean collection.

Written in Bones is published by Michael Joseph and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Written-Bones-Inspector-McLean-7/dp/0718183673/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489962099&sr=8-1&keywords=james+oswald

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February 24

Prayer For The Dead – James Oswald

The fifth novel in the bestselling Inspector McLean series by Sunday Times bestselling author James Oswald.

‘Are you ready to be reborn?’

The search for a missing journalist is called off as a body is found at the scene of a carefully staged murder.

In a sealed chamber, deep in the heart of Gilmerton Cove, a mysterious network of caves and passages sprawling beneath Edinburgh, the victim has undergone a macabre ritual of purification.

Inspector Tony McLean knew the dead man, and can’t shake off the suspicion that there is far more to this case than meets the eye. The baffling lack of forensics at the crime scene seems impossible. But it is not the only thing about this case that McLean will find beyond belief.

Teamed with the most unlikely and unwelcome of allies, he must track down a killer driven by the darkest compulsions, who will answer only to a higher power…

‘Are you ready for the mysteries to be revealed?’

My thanks to Penguin/Michael Joseph and Netgalley for my review copy

Jump back 11 months to 24^th March 2014 when, after a bit of hesitation, I bit the bullet and posted my first review on my blog. I had been toying with the idea of blogging for some time so decided to write a review of the book I had finished earlier that day – it had been a great story from an author I’d not read before. Natural Causes by James Oswald.

7 months later, it’s October 2014. I am officially a ‘fan’ of Mr Oswald’s Tony McLean series and I am sat in Coatbridge Library where, as part of the North Lanarkshire Encounters series, James Oswald is visiting to discuss his books. The evening opened with a reading from the opening chapter of Prayer For The Dead – a debut read as the final edit had only just been confirmed. It was a treat and a pleasure to hear an extract from an unpublished novel and just 4 months later I finally found out what followed! Added bonus from that night was that James Oswald was fabulous and had us hanging on his every word for well over an hour of uninterrupted anecdotes and readings.

But to the book…

Prayer for the Dead is the 5^th outing for Tony McLean and this is another stellar read in a series that has maintained a high standard of entertainment and thrills throughout all the books.

I am always pleased to revisit recurring characters in the books I read and I very much enjoy the team that assemble alongside McLean. Grumpy Bob returns as does Jane Macintyre, Stuart MacBride and even Madam Rose is back. The relationships between the characters is a key element to my enjoyment and there is a genuine feel of a ‘team among the police characters. McLean is supportive of MacBride, tolerant of Grumpy Bob and collectively they grumble over the senior officers who frequently appear to be inept.

More unusual is the ongoing relationship between Madam Rose and Mclean, particularly given how events unfold during Prayer For The Dead. Their friendship is taken in a very unexpected direction and we get to see Rose in a very different light – another nice touch.

The most important element of a crime thriller is that there is an engaging crime to be solved. Very much so I am pleased to report. A few unnatural deaths have occurred around Edinburgh, there does not appear to be any obvious connection yet the cruel manner of the deaths and the short intervals between the murders leads McLean to believe they are the work of one individual.

With no clues to pursue the police are very much in the dark as to how they may track down the culprit (assuming they ARE just looking for one person). With no meaningful progress being made, McLean finds himself distracted by other cases: particularly when the property developers who are trying to get him to sell his home turn up dead and their connection to McLean is investigated by London’s Serious Crime team.

I very much enjoyed Prayer For The Dead, it is a cracking murder mystery with some nasty deaths to squirm over and a sinister murderer who keeps several steps ahead of McLean et al. Fans of James Oswald will not be disappointed with the latest novel…except when it ends and you realise that the next book is ages away!

Prayer For The Dead is available now from Penguin/Michael Joseph and is in all good bookshops, online and in many a supermarket too.

On a final note – I am constantly amused that there is a character called Stuart MacBride in James Oswald’s books. This amusement increased tenfold when I read the apology that Mr Oswald offered to the real Mr MacBride in the author notes at the end of the book. Perhaps I am just easily amused?

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October 8

North Lanarkshire Encounters : James Oswald

During October North Lanarkshire are running the Encounters Festival. This is a cultural festival with over 100 events bringing together the best of literature, art, music, drama, dance and a whole lot more – these events are showcased all over North Lanarkshire.

North Lanarkshire is my home and it is a joy to me that events such as Encounters take place here – we are not generally considered to be the most glamorous of areas!

Today I was delighted to be able to attend an evening with James Oswald, author of the Inspector McLean novels and the fantasy saga The Ballad of Sir Benfro. Hosted at Coatbridge Library on a cold dark night (we all agreed on this point) Mr Oswald entertained with readings and stories of his long road to publication.

Despite his concerns that he had been waffling, James Oswald tells a fascinating story. It transpires that he is good friends with fellow crime writer Stuart MacBride and the pair forged an early working partnership writing comic books (partly illustrated by MacBride) which sadly did not catapult them to the success they had envisaged. Although this was clearly a great loss to the Graphic Novel industry it has been to crime fiction’s gain.

The evening opened with James Oswald reading from The Hangman’s Song. When your opening gambit includes a corpse, purification and the phrase ‘diarrhoea bursting’ you know you have captured your audience’s attention. I was captivated for the next hour as we learned how the character of Tony McLean evolved prior to his full debut in Natural Causes and it is exciting to think there are other Inspector McLean cameos out there waiting to be found.

Mr Oswald also outlined how his writing career suffered peaks and troughs building up to the whirlwind of publications that began with Natural Causes hitting Amazon (as a self-published novel) in 2012; and has since seen 7 published books in just a 2 year period. I got the impression on more than one occasion that even the author was a little startled by the speed at which new books were hitting the shelves.

Dividing his time between writing and farming James Oswald seems to have a busy schedule ahead. He indicated that his writing commitments are fully booked until 2017, however, he is keen to rework some of his early writing which he believes will appeal to the YA readers. Patience may be required for those stories though.

A highlight was the second reading of the evening – a debut reading from the not-yet-published 5^th McLean novel which I hope I correctly recall to be Prayer for the Dead. As the final draft was only confirmed today we were treated to the first public reading of the opening chapter. I already want to read what comes next.

Sadly the evening ended too soon and I had to head home (with arms full of signed paperbacks). I had a great night in good company and am already thumbing through the Encounters brochure to book my next event….Back to Coatbridge for Magic Den with my 4 year old!

You can follow James Oswald on Twitter where he is @sirbenfro

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