4 Stars from me
There is little better than reading the first book in a new series – and Broken Bones by John Carson did not disappoint. This is my first time reading one of his books and I am thrilled to find there is quite the back collection for me to catch up on.
In Broken Bones we meet DCI Liam Brodie who has been assigned to the MIT in Fife following the disappearance of his predecessor. A bit of an inauspicious entry to a role and one in which I would certainly be watching my back if I were him!
But Brodie is no stranger to finding himself in dangerous situations, having arrested Dr Gabriel Kane, notorious serial killer, and nearly losing his life in the process.
Throughout the book, Dr Kane toys with the police by offering to reveal the location of one of his victims each year. This dynamic puts Brodie and the police team on the back foot throughout and especially so for Brodie who still bears the scars of their last encounter.
Alongside this narrative, a set of bones are discovered in a former foster home, and DI Art McKenzie and DS Cameron Reid are leading on the search for their former DCI, Alan McRae.
I enjoyed the different threads and the directions that they took the characters in as they fought to solve their respective elements and it isn’t long before the tense ramps up with implications for Brodie personally once their search for bodies drags up something unexpected for his partner – who just happens to also be the forensic psychologist on the case.
Overall, a gripping and engaging read that crossed the line between Scottish noir and classic crime thriller and I very much look forward to reading the rest of the series.
My thanks to the author, Boldwood Books and @rararesources for my place on this blog tour.
Blurb: Some bodies just won’t stay buried…
After putting a stop to one of Edinburgh’s most notorious serial killers 3 years ago, DCI Liam Brodie is known as a man who can handle – and solve – the hardest of cases. But when he’s assigned to Fife’s Major Investigations Team, he soon realises that he’s walking into a minefield. The previous DCI is missing, presumed dead, and the case he’s been called in to lead becomes dangerously close to home.
When a child’s bones are unearthed beneath the floorboards of an old house in Fife – the same house where his girlfriend, psychologist Ruth Calder, grew up as a foster daughter – Brodie uncovers a tangled web of lies and jealousy. Ruth’s foster mother, now gripped by dementia, holds fragments of the truth but in a community haunted by its history, Brodie must navigate betrayal and buried guilt to bring a decades-old secret to light.
But at what cost to those he loves most? ⚠️
Read and Rated 