#BlogTour Bury Them Deep by James Oswald

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Bury Them Deep by James Oswald.

About the Author
James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries, as well as the new DC Constance Fairchild series. James's first two books, Natural Causes and Te Book of Souls, were both short-listed for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award. Bury Them Deep is the tenth book in the Inspector Mclean Series.

Follow @SirBenFro and @Wildfirebks on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit jamesoswald.co.uk, Buy Bury Them Deep

About the book
The tenth book in the Sunday Times-bestselling Inspector McLean series, from one of Scotland's most celebrated crime writers.

When a member of the Police Scotland team fails to clock-in for work, concern for her whereabouts is immediate... and the discovery of her burnt-out car in remote woodland to the south of Edinburgh sets off a desperate search for the missing woman.

Meanwhile, DCI Tony McLean and the team are preparing for a major anti-corruption operation - one which may raise the ire of more than a few powerful people in the city. Is Anya Reynolds' disappearance a co-incidence or related to the case?

McLean's investigations suggest that perhaps that Anya isn't the first woman to have mysteriously vanished in these ancient hills. Once again, McLean can't shake the feeling that there is a far greater evil at work here...

The truth far more chilling than a simple cold case...

Review
There are certain things that will always manage to creep me out no matter how you package them. Zombies are one and the other is a major part of this book. Oswald really captures the obsessive nature, the call of the forbidden fruit aspect of it all and combines it with folklore that has been passed down through the ages.

As a character Anya has always drawn the short straw, well up until this book she has. Readers will know her as the go-to person for anything cyber related. She keeps herself and her life very private, and colleagues find it hard to relate to her because she doesn't necessarily fit the stereotypical description.

In this book we get to learn a lot more about what makes Anya tick or rather what she does in her spare time to keep her ticking, which isn't going to make life easier for her in the long run when everyone finds out. It's hard enough being a woman in a certain environment without having to deal with salacious gossip.

Anya goes missing on the brink of the launch of a huge undercover operation, which puts the aforementioned on hold and begs the question whether she and it have been compromised. McLean is convinced the timing is a coincidence but that doesn't bring him any closer to the truth about her whereabouts.

It's a combination of police procedural crime and psychological thriller. The lines between the two become skewed the darker and more morally corrupt it becomes. When people cross the kind of boundaries that instantaneously put them in a completely different tribal bracket. There is most definitely a very noticeable boundary when certain lines are crossed - they ones who have and would again, and those who would never.

Oswald gets a wee bit darker this time when it comes to the storyline, atmosphere and characters. I liked this more evil and macabre element to the series. Overall this story shows how Oswald is honing his craft as he delivers an even better body of work this time.
  
Buy Bury Them Deep at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Wildfire: pub date 20 Feb. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my review of No Time to Cry by James Oswald
Read my review of Cold As the Grave by James Oswald
Read my review of Written in Bones by James Oswald
Read my review of Nothing to Hide by James Oswald

#BlogTour Nothing To Hide by James Oswald

Today it's a pleasure to help kick off the BlogTour Nothing To Hide by James Oswald.

About the Author
James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries, as well as the new DC Constance Fairchild series. James's first two books, Natural Causes and The Book of Souls, were both short-listed for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award.
James farms Highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night

Follow @SirBenFro and @Wildfirebks on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit jamesoswald.co.uk, Buy Nothing to Hide

About the book
Suspended from duty after her last case ended in the high-profile arrest of one of Britain's wealthiest men, DC Constance Fairchild is trying to stay away from the limelight. Fate has other ideas . . .

Coming home to her London flat, Constance stumbles across a young man, bloodied, mutilated and barely alive. She calls it in and is quickly thrown into the middle of a nationwide investigation . . . It seems that the victim is just the latest in a string of similar ritualistic attacks.

No matter that she is off-duty, no matter that there are those in the Met who would gladly see the back of her, Con can't shake her innate determination to bring the monsters responsible for this brutality to justice.

Trouble always seems to find her, and even if she has nothing to hide, perhaps she has everything to lose . . .

Review
Not to be critical or anything, but Fairchild can really do without the extra aggro of finding a corpse. After the whole Serpicoesque drama of the previous book she should be steering clear of trouble, but hey we all know when crime and trouble call Constance is the first to pick up the phone.

This is the second in the Constance Fairchild series. Both books can be read as standalone novels, however I would recommend reading No Time to Cry to get the full gist of this new series by Oswald.

Constance Fairchild is a police officer through and through. There is no doubt that she is driven to find the criminal elements in the world and bring them to justice, especially the kind that enjoy torturing and killing young men.

Oswald likes to add a pinch of magical realism to his police procedural, which also brings a hint of mystery to the table. Simultaneously the author captures both the camaraderie of the police force and how hostile the environment can become when you go against the brotherhood.

It's a police procedural with crime at the core, which seems like a given, and yet the author sets fire to the rain by adding that extra note to the story.

If I am being completely honest I think Oswald is just getting started. There is a lot more to come. I say open the doors and let it out.

Buy Nothing To Hide at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Wildfire; pub date 14th November 2019 - Published in paperback by Wildfire £7.99 - eBook and Audiobook also available. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my review of No Time to Cry by James Oswald
Read my review of Cold As the Grave by James Oswald
Read my review of Written in Bones by James Oswald

#BlogTour Cold As the Grave by James Oswald

Today is the last stop on the BlogTour As Cold As the Grave by James Oswald. It's an intriguing combination of police procedural crime, mystery and supernatural.

About the Author
James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries, as well as the new DC Constance Fairchild series. James's first two books, Natural Causes and The Book of Souls, were both short-listed for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award. As Cold as the Grave is the ninth book in the Inspector Mclean Series.

James farms Highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night.

Follow @SirBenFro and @Wildfirebks on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit jamesoswald.co.uk, Buy Cold As the Grave

About the book
Her mummified body is hidden in the dark corner of a basement room, a room which seems to have been left untouched for decades. A room which feels as cold as the grave.

As a rowdy demonstration makes its slow and vocal way along Edinburgh's Royal Mile, Detective Chief Inspector Tony McLean's team are on stand-by for any trouble. The newly promoted McLean is distracted, inexplicably drawn to a dead-end mews street... and a door, slightly ajar, which leads to this poor girl's final resting place.

But how long has she been there, in her sleep of death? The answers are far from what McLean or anyone else could expect. The truth far more chilling than a simple cold case...

Review
This is the ninth book in the Inspector McLean series. It can be read as a standalone novel. The other books are definitely worth a gander too.

McLean is having a wee bit of difficulty adjusting to his promotion. He is used to being the man on the ground in the midst of the dirty work. Hands-on is not just an instinct it has possibly become a hindrance to his career and close relationships. He lets himself get so enveloped by the crime of the moment that he forgets everything and everyone else.

His relationship with Emma has almost come to a complete standstill. McLean doesn't know how to deal with her emotional turmoil. Her mood swings are unpredictable, but perhaps understandable given the circumstances. I think she is a little egocentric in a sense that the world and the pain is exclusive to her. No thought is given to how McLean may or may not be feeling or how he might be dealing with things.

McLean accidentally stumbles on the corpse of a young girl. It looks like a crime committed many decades ago, perhaps even longer. A cold case of interest rather than of importance, however something isn't quite right.

I think the way Oswald mixes the genres becomes better with each book. The supernatural element of this crime story has the vibe of horror fiction, but the fascination of a mystery. It has a certain subtlety to it, an almost indiscernible feeling of something that is there, but not quite tangible.

It's an intriguing combination of police procedural crime, mystery and supernatural. Oswald delivers a riveting read and compelling story. Like a fine wine he is getting better with age or with each book.

Buy Cold As the Grave at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Wildfire pub date 27 Jun. 2019. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my review of Written in Bones and No Time to Cry by James Oswald.

#BlogTour No Time to Cry by James Oswald

Today it's an absolute pleasure to take part in the BlogTour No Time to Cry by James Oswald. It's the first part in a brand new crime series featuring tougher than old boot nails DC Constance Fairchild.

About the Author
James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries. The first two of these, Natural Causes and The Book of Souls were both shortlisted for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award. No Time To Cry is the first book in James's new Constance Fairchild series.
James farms Highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night.

Follow @SirBenFro @Wildfirebks
Visit jamesoswald.co.uk
Buy No Time to Cry

About the book
Undercover cops are always dangerous, but DC Constance Fairchild never expected things to go this wrong.
Returning to their base of operations, an anonymous office in a shabby neighbourhood, she finds the bloodied body of her boss, and friend, DI Pete Copperthwaite. He's been executed - a single shot to the head.
In the aftermath, it seems someone in the Met is determined to make sure that blame for the wrecked operation falls squarely on Con's shoulders. She is cut loose and cast out, angry and alone with her grief... right until the moment someone also tries to put a bullet through her head.
There's no place to hide, and no time to cry.

Quickfire Questions with James Oswald (supplied by the publisher) 
Give us three adjectives to best describe your new novel?
Thrilling, breathless, short
What are the three most important character traits of your protagonist?
Dogged determination, ability to think on her feet, she doesn’t much care what others think of her
Where is the novel set?
London, Northamptonshire, Perthshire and Angus
Who is your biggest influence as a writer?
Without a doubt, Terry Pratchett
Have you ever killed anyone off from real life in one of your novels?
Frequently. One friend even asked if he could be the villain. He dies naked in his bath.
What was your favourite ‘terrible’ review?
The Hangman’s Song, book three in the Inspector McLean series, has a one star Amazon review that ends
“Incidentally, even the title is misleading - there's no singing in the book.”
What is your favourite writing snack?
Chocolate. It’s the perfect brain food.
Which of your characters would you most like to have dinner with?
Madame Rose. Or maybe Mrs McCutcheon’s Cat.

Review
DC Constance Fairchild certainly doesn't have time to cry or take a breather. It is non-stop action from the get go, from the very moment she finds her mentor, superior, colleague and friend murdered. Instead of the police trying to widen the net and look for possible suspects they zoom in on Connie, so she finds herself suspended and without back-up in a very precarious situation.

Simultaneously an old school friend asks her to look for her missing teen sister, which leaves Connie in the strange position of wanting to find the girl, but being unable to use the usual resources to do so. She soon finds herself in the middle of deeply buried family secrets and running for her life at the same time.

I loved her bolshy attitude. She is the rich kid, who dislikes her family and yet gets treated like a posh kid with connections, despite working hard to get where she is in her career. She is also a woman, which means having to deal daily with misogyny, sexism and harassment. Not exactly a raving endorsement for the police force. Her frustration and anger are understandable, so kudos to her for not whacking them all around the head with a baseball bat.

My second favourite element of the story was Pete. The fact the 'two' of them engage in dialogue brings an aura of the paranormal to the story, despite Connie telling herself that he isn't really there. Her conscience speaks to her in the most informative way. Sort of like the Watson to her Sherlock or the alarm signal in her gut.

Let's not forget the cat, the hardened fuzzy criminal who becomes a steadfast feature in Connie's life, albeit inadvertently. In fact overall all the characters came together so perfectly it's almost as if they were meant to be together from the start.

What Oswald does brilliantly and with such panache, is to deliver the tragic and serious with an almost indiscernible layer of wit. It's always there just hovering in the background waiting to spring forward into the scenes. This is the start of fantastic new series and I can't wait to read more.

Buy No Time to Cry at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Publisher: Wildfire (1 Nov. 2018)

Written in Bones by James Oswald

I still think you shouldn't rule out dragons completely. I'm with the smart kid, if it looks like a dragon-kill it probably is one. Just Saying.

Aside from the possible involvement of fiery scaled flying creatures, the story offers an interesting mixture of crime and something with an undertone of the occult.

Oswald has a tongue in cheek humour, the kind of humour that makes you smirk as you read. It's very subtle and it doesn't disturb the serious intent of the plot.

The opening scene is an excellent example of what the author is capable of. You can almost hear the blood dripping and smell the fear. It is an unusual and very violent crime.

There is a strange undercurrent of something evil and supernatural woven into the fabric of what appears to be the culmination of an internal feud between criminals. The author toys with the unexplained element in a way that makes the reader think it could possibly just be an exaggeration by the main character.

Is it his imagination or stress induced hallucinations? Then again if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it probably is some kind of duck.

Hopefully McLean will encounter his nemesis in the next book and the strange entity will be explored a wee it more.

Buy Written in Bones at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.