The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

The Skeleton Road Book CoverThe Skeleton Road by Val McDermid was first published in 2014 and it’s the third book in her Karen Pirie series.

Fraser Jardine is a demolition quantity surveyor, he’s been doing it for some years now but had always managed to avoid going onto the roof of any building that he was inspecting, which is just as well as he has a terrible fear of heights. But the day comes when he’s the only person available and he has to go on to the roof of a large and very tall and crumbling Victorian Gothic building, the John Drummond in Edinburgh. Fraser is a complete wreck, but when he reaches one of the roof’s decorative pinnacles, he’s in for an even worse time. There’s a skeleton lying inside the pinnacle, and the skull has a hole in the side of the head.

This is obviously a job for Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie, head of Cold Cases. As all the clothes have been rotted away by the weather and time there’s really nothing to go on, it seems unlikely that the murder victim will ever be identified.  But there is a tiny bit of possible evidence to be researched, and the trail leads to the time of the Balkan Wars some decades previously.

So this one was quite different from the first two books in this series, with the investigation moving to Croatia where Karen is told about some of the atrocities in that horrendous war.

The blurb says: Atmospheric, spine-chilling and brimming with intrigue and suspense , this is Val McDermid’s richest and most accomplished psychological thriller to date.

I actually found it to be a bit too dark and sad for me, but I suppose that given the fact that the very first shot of the Balkan War was fired in Kirkcaldy where McDermid grew up, then it’s fair enough that she wanted to incorporate it in one of her books.

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves was first published in 2006. This is the first book by Cleeves that I’ve read, and when I started to read it I realised that it is one that I had seen on TV years ago, but I didn’t remember the ins and outs of it  – so carried on reading. I’m glad that I did because there are so many details in the book that you don’t get on TV.

It’s January in Shetland, so it’s freezing and snowy, but the Up Helly Aa celebrations are something to look forward to, even if a lot of the locals see it as being a bit embarrassing, something for the tourists really.

But when Fran Hunter discovers that the splash of red that catches her eye in the distance turns out to be a scarf which has been tightened around the neck of her teenage neighbour Catherine, and the local ravens had already discovered her, the island is gripped with fear.

A young girl had disappeared some years ago and her body had never been found, the locals are suspicious of the man who had been under suspicion back then, but Jimmy Perez isn’t so sure. The mainland police have come over to Shetland to help with the investigation, which Perez doesn’t mind at all, in fact he’s not even sure if he wants to give up his career in the police and go back to his home of Fair Isle where a family croft is now available for him.

I’ll continue with this series as I enjoyed being in the company of Jimmy Perez and his team.

 

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid was first published in 2008, the setting is mainly Fife in the east of Scotland, and the time switches between 1985 and 2007. This is the second in the author’s Karen Pirie series.

DI Karen Pirie is in charge of cold cases. An adult daughter is desperate to discover the whereabouts of her estranged father who hasn’t been seen since the miner’s strike in 1985. It’s thought that he had been a ‘scab’ who had gone down to Nottingham to get work there. That turned his abandoned wife and young daughter into pariahs as far as the mining community was concerned.  It’s now 2007 and the action swings between 1985 and 2007 although it isn’t at all confusing.

Karen Pirie finds herself investigating two cold cases as in 1985 there had been a kidnapping in Fife. The daughter of a very wealthy and well-known businessman had been abducted along with her small son and in the chaos of a handover she had been shot dead, and her young son had never been handed over to his wealthy grandfather with the kidnappers disappearing with him. When an investigative journalist discovers a possible clue in an abandoned building in Tuscany – of all places – Karen has to open that case again too.

I enjoyed this one, I must say that a lot of people have in the past complained that Val McDermid’s books are too grim and violent, but this one isn’t like that. There’s violence but nothing really graphic.

This is the most local to me book that I’ve ever read, one of the detectives even bought a house that must have been about five minutes away from where I lived for 26 years, going from the description. It definitely adds to the experience when you can visualise all the wee villages mentioned in Fife.

The miners strike took me right back to 1985. Jack had trouble getting to work as the police were stopping any cars which only had men in them and as teachers had all been encouraged to car share as parking at schools was a problem, they didn’t have enough spaces. So the car they were travelling in was stopped by the police and turned back as they were suspected of being ‘flying pickets’ travelling to coal pits to help out the striking miners. So the police were menacing and threatening cars full of teachers – and getting huge pay packets for their troubles. Grim times all round.

The Spider-Orchid by Celia Fremlin

The Spider-Orchid by Celia Fremlin was first published in 1977. I suppose that means it’s vintage crime – astonishingly!

This one is I suppose a psychological thriller, that means that for me it was an uncomfortable read, it’s certainly not cosy crime. Also it takes a very long time for an actual crime to take place, despite all that, it’s a very good read – at the end anyway.

Adrian has recently been divorced from his wife Peggy after she declared that she couldn’t stand it any longer. What she couldn’t stand was Adrian’s long term affair with a woman called Rita. Adrian is amazed as he didn’t even realise that Peggy had been aware of his affair, despite him flaunting Rita around the local neighbourhood and even in front of friends and work colleagues.

Living in a rented flat on his own is ideal for Adrian, with just a few visits from Rita a week, he’s happier living on his own, but Sundays are sacrosanct, that’s when his daughter spends the day with him. When Rita decides to move in Adrian is not at all happy, but he only has himself to blame as he has been agreeing with Rita for years that it would be wonderful if they could be together all the time. He’s aghast, especially when it transpires that Rita is very much against the existence of Amelia his daughter.

Ultimately I enjoyed this one because for me the ending went in the right direction, but for a lot of the time the plot was a bit of a worry!

It’s a quick read at just 176 pages.

 

 

Squeaky Clean by Callum McSorley

Squeaky Clean by Callum McSorley is the author’s first novel and it won the McIlvanney Prize: Scottish Crime Book of the Year. The setting is Glasgow, mainly the east end.  I must say that I did like this one but in parts it’s not for the faint-hearted, or weak stomached, it’s definitely on the violent and gory side, but there is comedy too.

Detective Inspector Alison McCoist (yes, Ally McCoist) bungled her last investigation so she’s been demoted, if that wasn’t bad enough her husband has got custody of their teenage twins, things couldn’t get much worse for her but she’s determined to claw her way back up again, it’s either that or she’ll be retired out of the force.

Sean owns a car wash business, he doesn’t do any of the work himself though, he’s in the office, with a serious cannabis habit. Davey is one of his employees, and he makes the huge mistake of ‘borrowing’ a client’s massive 4×4 to get to a family court session on time, he’s in danger of losing visiting rights to his much-loved daughter. Unfortunately Davey gets kidnapped on the way there, and the very expensive car is torched. He has been mistaken for Paulo, Glasgow’s most violent psychopathic gang leader.

Ally has had dealings with Paulo and company before, and she’s very suspicious of the car wash business. It’s all very dangerous for her, but if she succeeds in getting a conviction she’ll be back on that career ladder again.

This was a good read which reminded me a bit of Christopher Brookmyre’s books, but with less of the crazy humour, although it is funny in parts. I would definitely read more by McSorley in the future. I must admit though that there is quite a lot of Glasgow dialect which was no problem for me and I think should be easy for non Glaswegians to understand, but some people just can’t cope with dialogue like that.

 

 

Ryan’s Christmas by L J Ross

Ryan’s Christmas by L J Ross was published in 2020 and it’s the first book by the author that I’ve read. I chose it because of the title, but it might have been better if I had read one of her earlier books as she refers to several of them in this one.

Ryan’s Christmas has been inspired by several such previous books. DCI Ryan and his team of murder detectives are having a festive jaunt out in Edinburgh, but on the way home to Northumberland the weather is awful, they run into a snowstorm, then they run out of fuel. They’ll all freeze to death in the car overnight if they don’t find shelter.

Luckily they discover that they are close to Chillingham Castle, apparently it’s the most haunted house in England!  In fact the owners run ghost hunt weekends, so the staff are used to looking after guests, and they’re made welcome there.

You’ve guessed it – there’s a murder, but which of them is the culprit? With the telephone lines down and no mobile phone signal in the remote area there’s no easy way of getting help.

I enjoyed the setting of this book as it’s all familiar to me, that’s the way we drive when we visit friends in Sunderland, so I know Northumberland quite well, it’s a lovely area. For my taste though there was a wee bit too much romance going on in this book, but I realise that a lot of readers will enjoy that.  According to the blurb on the front  of the book L J Ross is a multi-million best selling author.  I’ll give another of her books a go sometime in the future anyway, but this one was just too much of an homage – or a cliche – for my liking.

 

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths is the most recent book in the author’s  Dr Ruth Galloway series.

When new owners of a shop in King’s Lynn decide to do some renovations there’s a shock in store for them.  With the removal of a false wall a skeleton can be seen in the void. It’s another job for archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway who is called in to examine the bones to see if they’re modern or ancient. It turns out that the skeleton belongs to an archaeolgy student who was reported missing over twenty years previously. It seems that the case wasn’t taken that seriously at the time and Nelson and his team discover a lot of clues which had been overlooked.

It turns out that Cathbad had known the victim and he had been with her at an archaeology camp shortly before she disappeared. When Cathbad himself disappears Judy his partner and his children are worried, especially as he’s still suffering from long Covid.

Ruth is also worried. for different reasons. Her whole archaeology department is in danger of being axed by the university, and the Nelson/Michelle marriage is still ongoing it seems.

I think this one wraps up the series. I enjoyed it although I must admit that I found Cathbad more than a bit wearing at times.

In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson – 20 Books of Summer 2023

In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson is set in Edinburgh in 1948. The National Health Service is just being set up and Helen Crowther has got a job as a medical almoner, akin to a social worker nowadays, attached to two local doctors’ surgery. Previously the work had been done by a sort of ‘lady bountiful’ type of woman who had been doing the work voluntarily, and she had trained up Helen to help her.  Helen has trouble making people believe that they won’t have to pay for visits to the doctor as the idea of the NHS seems too good to be true to them, but as she has been brought up in similar circumstances to her clients she’s more in tune with their problems.

When Helen and her husband get the chance to move into a home of their own they’re ecstatic.  Helen hopes that not sharing cramped accommodation with her parents and sister will mean that things will now be different in their marriage, her husband isn’t interested in her and her mother is champing at the bit to be a grandmother.

When Helen stumbles across a body she’s sure she knows who the victim is, but she’s perplexed when the investigation doesn’t proceed the way she thinks it should. There’s a lot going on in the secretive life of some of Edinburgh’s more prominent citizens and Helen needs to untangle it all. This was a really good read. This is one of my 20 Books of Summer reads.

 

 

Time and Tide by Shirley McKay

Time and Tide by Shirley McKay was published in 2011 and it’s the third book in the author’s Hew Cullan series.

The setting is St Andrews 1582 and a ship has been wrecked just off the town. There’s only one survivor, all the others have succumbed to some sort of illness. The locals are worried that it might have been some sort of infectious disease, but there’s a windmill on  the wreck and various inhabitants of the town want it for themselves.  But who does it belong to?

Hew is given the job of sailing to Ghent to find the owner and to tell them what has happened to all of the sailors, while Hew’s brother-in-law tries to establish what the sailors died from.  Hew’s task is all the more dangerous as the Low Countries are at war with Spain, but he’s glad to get out of St Andrews and to be travelling again and he soon falls in with a Scottish mercenary who will help him with his investigations in Antwerp and Vlissingen –  or not.

There’s a lot going on in this book, murders, rumours of witchcraft and Hew meets royalty,  I really liked it although my thoughts on it are hardly rivetting reading, but I’m looking forward to reading the next one in this series.

 

The Face of Trespass by Ruth Rendell

The Face of Trespass by Ruth Rendell was published in 1974. It’s donkey’s years since I read anything by Ruth Rendell, I don’t know why but I have always got mixed up between her and P.D. James.

Anyway, I did like this one although it takes almost the whole book to get to the crime. I really prefer it when there’s a murder on the first or second page, so I did get a bit frustrated at what I regarded as a lot of scene setting. This does lead to an atmosphere of menace though, you just know that things are not going to go well for the main character.

Graham, generally known as Gray had written a very well-received novel two years previously and everybody had great hopes of him having a very successful career as a writer, but he hadn’t been able to replicate his success and didn’t even seem to be trying now.

He’s living in a small rural cottage not very far from London which is known as ‘the hovel’ as it’s just about falling down. It belongs to Mal, a friend who is travelling at the moment and is happy for Gray to live in the cottage – and stop it from falling down.

Gray has an obsession though, he’s having an affair with a married woman  who is rich – well her husband is rich. Apparently she always gets her own way but the relationship breaks down when Gray refuses to be manipulated by her.

There’s an atmosphere of danger and tension, especially towards the end of the book, and I enjoyed it despite its structure not being my favourite style.