The first in the series of the Inspector McLean stories and it took some time to hook me in - a few too many characters and I found McLean somewhat one-dimensional. However, as the connections of the plot came together and the characters became more familiar, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next.

Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid.
This is the first in a series I'd been meaning to read for a long time. Unfortunately stereotypes abound & several significant plot twists are telegraphed from a mile away. The fact the MC didn't see them coming doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his abilities. There's also a large paranormal element to the story that felt strangely discordant within this otherwise very british police procedural.
Really disappointing as I was looking forward to having a new series to devour. The cover boasts "the next Ian Rankin". In my humble opinion, not even close.

A good if gruesome tale of Edinburgh murders which would be improved with the absence of the supernatural twists.

This series was recommended to me when I was discussing books with someone and said I enjoyed crime fiction (e.g. Mark Billingham & Robert Galbraith) and urban fantasy (e.g. Jim Butcher & Ben Aaronovitch). Boy, were they right!

This is essentially a high quality Scot-cop detective series set in Edinburgh (which a I know fairly well) with a sympathetic central character and great storylines. The cherry on top is the very subtle undercurrent of supernatural shenanigans going on in the background that isn’t acknowledged by the majority of the characters.

I have dabbled with Rebus but wasn’t enamoured but McLean is more interesting and compelling to me. So much so that I have devoured the first three books and don’t see my enthusiasm waning anytime soon. I have recommended it widely and will continue to do so.

Disappointing police procedural, especially the reveal of the murderer...

I finally read this book after much harassment from my husband as he was convinced it would be right up my street; he wasn't wrong. A detective story set in Scotland with a supernatural theme.....my favorite. The plot was a really slow build that came to a hurtling end. The author is good friends with one of my favorite authors (Stuart MacBride) who's Logan McRae series is both hilarious and excellent. James Oswald shows shades of Stuart MacBride in his writing and I can only imagine he will get better over time.

The story itself while really well put together was easy to solve, some clues that were blaringly obvious to the reader seemed to be missed by Inspector MacLean, that being said it did not detract from a completely enjoyable read. As with all Scottish detectives MacLean is slightly morose but not to the extremes of Ian Rankin's Rebus who I cannot read as I just end up walking around seeing doom and gloom everywhere. He also doesn't have Rebus's drinking problem which was a happy change.

The murders themselves were delightfully described so there wasn't any doubt at them being horrific but its a detective story and they are generally quite graphic so be warned if you're at all faint of heart.

4 stars for the easy plot solve and what I'm convinced is an error written about the sequence of events and how they happened in one of the last chapters. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series and look forward to more MacLean, Grumpy Bob, DC MacBride and Angus.

Hate being conned into supernatural books. Putting that aside, this book seemed to not have an editor. No joke there’s a bad cut and paste where the demon POV starts immediately following the main character, making it seem like he is thinking and doing those things. (Every other time the POV changes, it’s a new chapter.). Then the exact same sentence is used to describe a character accent. Word for word. As if it wasn’t said a paragraph before. I would also expect an editor would have told the author to cut some of it out. It’s ok to guess what’s going on and then have the detective figure it out, but when you actually know what’s going on and then the “brilliant” detective takes ages to make even the most obvious conclusions it becomes irritating. The detective even says in multiple instances something along the lines of “I’m being dumb, can’t believe I didn’t think of the most obvious thing”. I really can’t imagine where this series could go but I won’t be finding out.

There’s a lot going on in this book. Bodies pile up, fights ensue and some of it is fairly outlandish. For all that it’s very readable, and the police characters are well done.