I tried so hard to get into this book but I just couldn't muster the interest. After reading a few chapters I realised I wasn't even fully paying attention to the book and my mind was wondering. If the book doesn't engross me fully then it's never going too. Not for me at all. I didn't like any characters including the main one.

A pretty decent crime novel set in Edinburgh. DI Tony McLean is having a bad time of it. His grandmother is in a coma, there has been a troubling series of suicides, and he's been tasked with investigating a brutal, decades old murder.

I mostly enjoyed this but by the end I felt they had introduced too many characters and I struggled to keep track of some of them. The end was decent but I saw the key elements coming a mile off. I'd recommend this but bear in mind it is rather dark.

Interesting but not riveting.

Este libro me gusto, resulto bastante ágil y entretenido. Ocurren muchas cosas a la vez y se involucran muchos personajes, pero no perdí el hilo en ningun momento y me mantuvo intrigada hasta el final.
Hay un momento en el final que me pareció muy fácil, muy deus ex machina, o sea muy conveniente para que la trama avance

Spoiler

La carta que recibe del abogado explicando todo, es demasiado conveniente

. Tambien el Unsub es un poco obvio

Spoiler

Bueno, uno de los unsubs

. Existe un elemento sobrenatural que no sabia que el libro contenía, me sorprendió porque es inusual en este tipo de novela policial, pero entiendo pudo ser mejor trabajado dentro de la trama.

Spoiler

El tema sobrenatural me recordó mucho a la pelicula Fallen con Denzel Washington, misma que recomiendo mucho. En el caso de Fallen, es más evidente que la parte sobrenatural existe. Pienso que como está planteada en la novela, era preferible que se dejara abierto, es decir, como que era posible que fuese real como que no, tipo el exorcismo de Emely Rose.

Esta es la introduccion a una serie de libros con el inspector McLean, y me parece lo suficientemente interesante y entretenida para continuarla.

4.5 stars. Excellent and enjoyable - McLean is a very relatable character, and the writing is such that you instantly feel as though you’ve known him, Grumpy Bob and MacBride for ages. Intricate and engaging plot - I might need a second read to fully follow it, which is the only reason it’s marginally off an outstanding 5 stars. I can see this becoming a new favourite series though!

There was a lot of untapped potential in this book, and, from the afterword, I feel that the author's lack of interest and experience in the crime genre was a contributing factor. The main issue I had was that there were no real extraneous characters or red herrings, so every time a new plot point arose it was blindingly obvious who or what was responsible. Therefore, it became more and more dull as I worked my way through the 457 pages. As for the 'supernatural' element, it was rather underplayed- not a patch on Ben Aaronovitch.

This is the first in the DI Tony McLean series and it includes supernatural elements, which I generally don't care for. However, they were well-integrated to the story and they were not too present, so I still found the overall reading experience quite enjoyable.

I got attached to Inspector McLean pretty fast and the secondary characters were also quite fun to follow, I liked the various cops involved and will definitely continue with the series.

The audiobook was good, the Scottish accent of the narrator really added a lot and I felt transported to Edinburgh right from the start, I could easily imagine the streets, the weather and the overall atmosphere.

A very enjoyable and quite gloomy read, great procedural. I don't know if the rest of the series also includes supernatural elements, but if they are not more present than in the 1st book I think it will be quite alright.

This book was not a typical detective story, it always hinted between being a typical detective story with a typical killer and a supernatural story with a killer that may not be so ordinary. It isn't until the end that either of those is confirmed when the killer is finally caught and punished for their crimes. The title of the book is also interesting as it's a play on words of 'death of natural causes' and that of a life cut short.

It is written in a larger font then most books which makes reading it easier for viewers who struggle with reading smaller writing and the font that is use is one that is pleasant to read as well. The length of the chapters means that you can easily keep up with the skips between crime scenes or locations, even the in-chapter person skips are easy to notice with a line usually diving them or a page being a divider between the two characters. It is not a book that is written in first person neither, which means that you feel like more of an observer to the situation then someone who is apart of, the set is that appears almost as a movie which you are watching from above rather than putting yourself in the shoes of the detective.

The book gives you enough clues that you are able to follow and see the pattern for yourself, but at the same time with enough mystique that you are not 100% sure of the answer until the final 20 pages. It keeps you wanting to find out more and makes you want to turn the page over, just to find out if the main character saw the same connections that you have seen. In terms of descriptions, there are enough information to assist you with telling people apart but at the same time allows you to imagine them for yourself which is something that I like within a book.

I would definitely recommend to people who like detective stories as it is an easy one to read and has a nice ending which does leave you wondering what other stories would the detective come across. Out of all of the ones I have read recently however, this is one of the only ones who does take the supernatural world into perspective as well, so if you don't like the line being blurred between the real and fiction with enough coloration that it could be neither. If you don't like supernatural ending then I would not read the final chapter as this is where it unfolds and you may put you off the book completely despite the ending allowing it to be something less fictional then portrayed at the end.