The Book of Souls

May 12, 2014
At the outset of Oswald’s engrossing second Det. Insp. Anthony McLean novel (after Natural Causes), the Edinburgh detective is still reeling from the decade-old murder of his fiancée, Kirsty Summers, by a brutal serial killer. Donald Anderson (aka the Christmas Killer), who was apprehended by McLean, insisted at his trial that the Book of Souls, a volume he bought at a house clearance sale, had forced him to abduct and murder his female victims. Shortly after Anderson is knifed to death in prison, someone commits three murders following Anderson’s m.o. Det. Chief Insp. Charles Duguid, McLean’s superior, undermines the new investigation, which McLean heads, while journalist Joanne Dagliesh, author of a bestseller about Anderson, publicly questions the credibility of the original investigation. The pressure escalates when a fourth woman is snatched, and the police must find her before she’s killed. Readers will eagerly await the next installment. Agent: Marc Gerald, Agency Group.

June 1, 2014
Not even the death of an infamous serial killer brings closure to the detective who brought him to justice.A fellow prisoner has murdered the Edinburgh Christmas Killer. But for DI Tony McLean, this news only brings back memories of the horrendous death of his fiancee, who was the killer's last victim. Then the body of a young woman is found in a stream, naked, tortured, raped, her throat cut and her body washed clean-all hallmarks of the Christmas Killer's work. McLean is given the case over the protestations of DCI Duguid, who wants every man working on a big drug operation. He's also working on a series of arson fires that are destroying big, old buildings that are unused or being rehabbed for other uses. McLean is embarrassed when his own apartment building goes up in flames and he learns that one of the flats was occupied by drug dealers. Meanwhile, another copycat death doubles the pressure on him. Afraid he'll crack, his boss orders him to attend counseling sessions that he considers a waste. When the original murderer, a bookseller, confessed to the crime, he blamed his actions on an ancient book with mystical powers that he claimed turned him into a serial killer. McLean can only hope that the disappearance of that book will provide the clue that cracks the case.The violence and supernatural touches may put some readers off this sequel (Natural Causes, 2012, not reviewed), but Oswald's detective gives John Rebus a run for his money in this noirish page-turner.

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June 1, 2014
In the second Detective Inspector Tony McLean mystery (after Natural Causes, 2013), the Scottish cop is shocked to learn that a man he put behind bars a dozen years ago, a serial murderer known as the Christmas Killer, has been killed by his cellmate. But McLean is even more shocked by the discovery of a woman's body killed in the manner of the Christmas Killer. The question: Is this the victim of a copycat, or was the man convicted all those years ago not, in fact, the real killer? This is a fine crime novel, so sharply written that it wouldn't be out of line to mention Oswald in the same conversation as such notable Scottish crime writers as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid. Oswald's relatively new on the scene, but he has a lot of talent, and readers of Scottish mysteries would be well advised to get in on the ground floor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)