This book works best when the focus is on Maggie. While I enjoy the fact that Karen is not the sterotypical good looking women as well as the fact that she has friends. I even liked the Mint, her less than sharp sidekick. But the book truly sings when the focus is on Maggie because Karen's plot points are slightly been there, done that.

The book is good and riveting, however. It is a good read and ride.

I received this book from NetGalley in return for a review.

I've spoken on this blog previously about my love for Val McDermid books. In a few weeks time I am going to Cheltenham Literature Festival to see McDermid speak again about this book.

The book is based largely in Scotland, featuring a lead character that we have met before, back in A Darker Domain, DI Karen Pirie. Karen is working cold cases with The Mint and still calling on River Wilde's forensic abilities. I liked revisiting some of these characters years later.

Maggie Blake is a feminist geo-politics Professor at Oxford University, her lover Mitja, a Croatian army general has been missing for 8 years. Maggie's best friend and sometime lover is convinced that Mitja is behind a number of revenge attacks on war criminals from the Balkan conflict.

A skeleton is found at the top of an abandoned building. A single gunshot through the front of the skull. Investigation links this skeleton back to the Balkan conflict. The book moves quickly and introduced many characters but the story is easy to follow. At one point I thought I had sussed it all out but reading on I was wrong. This is one of the things that I love most about McDermid's books. The reader is often kept guessing right until the end.

I enjoyed reading about the Balkan conflict, Croatia, Serbia and learning more about what went on back in the Yugoslav war in the 90s. This story is quite different to some that McDermid has written recently but I enjoyed it nonetheless, I will certainly be buying the book and re-reading.

Very well plotted, brings back the horror of the Balkan conflicts and the challenges over justice. Nice edge to IndyRef too.

Took a long time to get into - only got more gripping in the last quarter of the book. I did learn a lot about the Balkan situation though!

Excellent read

Very well written, really enjoyed this. Great historical background and insight into Croatia/Serbia and the Balkan wars.