James Oswald with Written in Bones

James Oswald is Scotland’s grittiest crime writer and a true bookshop favourite- in the crowded market of Tartan Noir his sensational Inspector McLean series is a true stand out. Set in an Edinburgh not so different to the one we all know, Detective Inspector Tony McLean is the unlucky policeman who can see beneath the surface of ordinary criminal life to the dark, menacing evil that lurks beneath.  This March McLean is back in Written in Bones, where the roots of murder run deep.

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…

The hallmarks of Val McDermid or Ian Rankin: it’s dark, violent, noirish -The Herald