Customer Reviews

The Book of Souls: An Inspector McLean Novel, Book 2 (Unabridged)

Bought this for Kindle after reading Natural Causes, another Inspector McLean crime/mystery/thriller. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I like McLean as a character and like the sort of supernatural element to the stories.
would make great TV or film. Thanks for a great read.Hopefully MrOswald will have time and inclination to write some more.

Having read the author's other Inspector McLean novel, Natural Causes, I was keen to see if this would be as enjoayable. It was.

The recurring themes do not become boring - you could scream in frustration at McLean's dealings with his superior - Charles Duguid. You want to lamp the guy for McLean!!! The themes of loss, culpability and guilt at any attempt to move forward are believable and well written. I enjoy reading books where, at the end, I am left thinking that I'd like to have a drink with the main characters. This book achieved that.

I hope that this helps you make a decision about buying the book. I'm glad I bought it.

James Oswald's first foray into crime fiction, Natural Causes, has become a bona fide word-of-mouth hit. With over 100,000 downloads in a couple of months it dominated the Kindle free chart and received rave reviews. That all of this was achieved with no advertising campaign and a minimal online presence is testament to the quality of Oswald's work. Now he has released his second Inspector McLean novel, The Book of Souls.

Set six months on from the events of Natural Causes it finds McLean gradually coming to terms with the murder of his fiancée, not moving on but accepting the hole in his life. When Anderson - the Christmas Killer, responsible for her death - is himself killed in prison by a fellow inmate, it seems as if the demons can finally be put to rest. However, within hours of the funeral a woman's body is found, left in a culvert, bearing all the hallmarks of an Anderson victim, and McLean is faced with the prospect of a copycat continuing the man's work.

Meanwhile decommissioned factories around Edinburgh are burning down. Ten and counting, each locked up tighter than Fort Knox and stripped of combustible materials. The fire officer is at a loss as to the cause, but they keep burning and people keep dying. Are the construction companies developing the sites responsible? Or is something more sinister at work? Witnesses give strange accounts, akin to spontaneous combustion, like the buildings wanted to die. But that's just dementia and alcohol talking, surely.

As more young women turn up dead the pressure is on McLean from all angles. His boss needs a result, his psychiatrist wants to see a catharsis, and an elderly monk with some very strange ideas about a missing text from Anderson's shop, The Book of Souls, wants MacLean to understand that he is dealing with an ancient evil which can consume anyone who reads it. Our hero brushes the old man's theory aside and tries to concentrate on the facts of the case; what other explanation could there be but a copycat drawing inspiration from a high profile serial killer? Then McLean starts seeing Anderson on the streets of Edinburgh and the book builds to a genuinely shocking denouement.

Successfully weaving supernatural elements into a police procedural is a tall order and Oswald gets the balance exactly right with The Book of Souls, giving little glimpses behind the veil, just enough to make sure you're never comfortable about the outcome. As a straight crime novel it works perfectly. We have an engaging central detective in McLean - damaged but determined to survive - and a team of well-defined officers around him and plenty of sparky internal politics. The pace is fierce, the plotting tight and there's not a slack word anywhere.

Put aside any reservations you may have about self-published authors, The Book of Souls is as good as, and in fact better than, much of what the major houses have on offer. I'll be amazed if James Oswald doesn't find himself being courted by them very soon.

It might have been the exotic foreign locations that kept me reading long after my eyes begged me to rest, but it was more likely the gripping storyline that pulled me along. I really wanted to know the outcome.

I often suspect nearly everyone of being the killer, until more evidence is revealed, but this time I struggled. In desperation I even considered Dagwood's constant meddling was for a more sinister reason than his sheer incompetence and jealousy. Lucky I wasn't a policeman then.

The characters are becoming real people for me and I feel I can see them as they go about their working lives. This can cause some disappointments if the series is ever televised, but so few are that it probably won't matter. What's for certain is that I'm really looking forward to episode three.

I sung the praises of the first novel and said I was looking forward to the second coming along. Often you end up disappointed but not with this.

I would strongly recommend reading the books in the right order as many hints and backstories from the first are brought through into this second book. Genre wise, the book has moved closer to a full on Police Procedural with the "other" aspect being more subtly applied to this one and this will mean it will appeal to more. Again, we are left wondering where next for Insp McLean as many side stories are left open which means we are again asking the author for more.

Really enjoyable. I normally read the American authors like Connelly and often find stories based in Britain a bit dull. Not the case with this book though. I liked the characters and the plot was excellent. Well done!

I have read and loved all Stuart MacBride's Sgt Logan series set in Aberdeen and I have to say that I have derived equal pleasure from James Oswald's two Inspector McLean mysteries set in Edinburgh, "Natural Causes" and "The Book of Souls". James Oswald himself acknowledges that he has been influenced by MacBride and as an expression of gratitude, actually names one of his characters after his fellow author.
What sets apart the two crime novels James Oswald has so far written from those of his contemporaries is the supernatural element that features in both. This is not overdone and even McLean is reluctant to accept wholeheartedly any influence from 'beyond' in the cases under investigation in these books. Likewise, this does not to my mind adversely affect the believability of either the plots or characters.
Finally, I confess that I can be irritated, and distracted from enjoying what might otherwise be a good 'read', by the use of bad English and sloppy grammar. Happily, there is no such problem here. Either James Oswald takes due care in how he uses the English language or he is blessed with a very good editor.
I look forward with anticipation to Inspector McLean's next outing onto the streets of Edinburgh.

This is even more enjoyable than the previous book and it is a terrific piece of writing. There are so-called well known writers whose work is unreadable and I don't understand why James isn't so much better known. I speak as somebody whose favorite piece is A Dolls House. Buy this and tell your friends.

Bought this after reading Natural Causes which I liked a lot. Possibly a bit better but it's just well written, I live in Edinburgh so I know a lot of the places. Good characters, good plot, storyline, twists in the tale (sic) etc. So, that'll be recommended then...!

I enjoyed this book and the first one by James Oswald very much indeed - I really liked the character of Tony McLean and also the way the other characters were sketched in with varying degrees of detail. I'm really looking forward to any subsequent novels in the series. The background of Edinburgh seems very authentic (I live there) and I think James Oswald is a worthy rival to Ian Rankin and the rest!