Mystereity Reviews's Review of Prayer for the Dead (Inspector McLean) (An Inspector McLean Mystery, #5)

by James Oswald

Sunday Times bestseller Prayer for the Dead is the fifth novel in the bestselling Inspector McLean series by author James Oswald.

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

***

'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?'

Praise for James Oswald:

'A star of Scotland's burgeoning crime fiction scene' Daily Record
'Crime fiction's next big thing' The Sunday Telegraph
'Literary sensation . . .James' overnight success has drawn comparisons with the meteoric rise of E L James and her Fifty Shades of Grey series' Daily Mail
'Fifty Shades of Hay' The Times
'Oswald is among the leaders in the new batch of excellent Scottish crime writers' Daily Mail
'The new Ian Rankin' Daily Record
'An excellent start to what promises to be a fine series' Guardian
'Classy, occasionally brutal, and with the odd suggestion of the supernatural, this will doubtless be another deserved hit. Oswald's writing is in a class above most in this genre' Daily Express

See this and all of my reviews at Mystereity Reviews

‘You’re going to make it complicated again, aren’t you McLean?’

In Prayer for the Dead, Tony investigates the seemingly ritualistic murder of a reporter in the historic Gilmerton Caves in Edinburgh, Scotland. With no evidence left at the scene, the investigation flounders amid several more murders possibly related to the first and Tony finds he has no choice but to reluctantly team up with a colleague of the victim, Jo Dalgleish, herself an abrasive reporter who has caused Tony problems in the past. With very few clues, Tony sets out to connect the murders and find a killer.

I’ve been an avid fan of this series since I read Natural Causes back in 2012. Tony is an enigmatic main character; each book tantalizes with just a little bit more of his history and you never quite feel like you get to know him. That accomplishes two things for me; for one, it adds an element of unpredictability that keeps you just a little off balance, you can never get ahead of Tony. The second thing, of course, is it keeps me coming back for more. Add in the colorful cast of characters that makes up Tony's "family" including Grumpy Bob, DC MacBride, DS Ritchie, Madame Rose and, of course, Mrs McCutcheon’s cat, and it's easy to be drawn into McLean's unique world where anything can happen.

The fast-paced plot blended a chameleon of a killer, possibly shifty developers and Madame Rose’s harassment into a twisty puzzle that kept me turning pages. I loved the plot twist at the end about the killer, and that moment when they went to the killer’s house? Creepy!

Overall, Prayer for the Dead is an entertaining and thrilling mystery, and readers unfamiliar with the series will find it an enjoyable police procedural. This book can be read as a standalone or as an entry into the series, but I recommend reading the series from the start, as there are some on-going plot threads that wind through the series.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Crooked Lane and Netgalley for an advance copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Prayer for the Dead (Inspector McLean) (An Inspector McLean Mystery, #5)

by James Oswald

Reviewed by Mystereity Reviews on Dec 18, 2016

Reading updates