Silent Bones by Val McDermid is Book 8 in the Karen Pirie series, and even though I arrived embarrassingly late to the party, it worked perfectly as a stand alone. After a brief adjustment to the language and little Scottish nuances, I felt completely transported. I was in the middle of Scotland, ready to pull on a pair of wellies and follow Karen Pirie or any other member of the straight into the muck. The discovery of Sam Nimmo under a road after years of vanishing flips every theory about his past on its head. At the same time the Historic Case Unit is handed new evidence on the so called accidental death of Tom Jamieson, a hotel manager whose fall down the famous Scotsman Steps suddenly looks a lot more deliberate.
What makes this book such a rush is the way McDermid turns what seem like separate cold cases into a single maze of past crimes, corruption, and the kind of dark secrets that only very powerful people can hide. The character work is sharp, the atmosphere is thick, and the plotting is so intricate that watching the pieces lock together is its own thrill. When the investigation edges toward a secret group with influence, privilege, and more than a few ugly connections, the story gains real moral weight. By the time the twist lands, you are picking your jaw up off the floor and wondering why you have not been reading Val McDermid all along.
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Barrington Books
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