United Kingdom – It's All About the Book

Description

The new installment in the “relentlessly engrossing series” (Wall Street Journal) finds Karen Pirie and her team investigating the murder of a journalist paved under a motorway—but was it his work or his private life that put him there?

Scotland, 2025. When torrential winter rain causes a landslide on a motorway, it dislodges more than mud and asphalt – it reveals a skeleton, concealed when the road was built eleven years prior.

Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist who’d been poking his nose into the murky politics of the Scottish independence referendum, had become the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his girlfriend when he vanished. Now he’s reappeared, buried under the motorway. It’s the perfect cold case for DCI Karen Pirie, chief of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit. What was Nimmo investigating that was worth killing over? Or was it revenge for murdering his girlfriend? Meanwhile, an allegation of murder has surfaced over the supposedly accidental death of a hotel manager. It may have links to another accident on a remote Highland road. It’s a series of puzzles that tests Karen and her team to their limits. And possibly beyond . . .

A darkly propulsive thriller of secrets hidden at the core of a Scottish Highlands town, Silent Bones reaffirms Val McDermid as a crime writer of inimitable power.

My Thoughts

Val McDermid is one of the very best crime fiction authors writing today and with Silent Bones she has produced another intricate, brilliant story. I was late to the Karen Pirie series, but have recently gobbled up every one of them. I so enjoy McDermid’s chatty, real style with delivering dialog and her ability to weave a plot with multiple strands that are all resolved by the end.

The story here is fascinating and somewhat tragic. The Sam Nimmo story is very sad, and the drive exhibited by Pirie’s team to solve this cold case mystery is gripping. The secondary plot involving what is supposed to be a book club is also fascinating, although I twigged that plot resolution pretty early on. Who knew a book club membership could be so hazardous?!

If you haven’t read the Karen Pirie series, you can drop into this one and still follow the plot, but I recommend reading them all.

Recommended.

Publication Date: December 2, 2025
Published By: Grove Atlantic, Atlantic Crime
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Description

A vanished body. A deadly bookshop. A country house party full of suspects. Can a living gargoyle and an alchemist decipher the clues before poisoned pages claim another victim?

Dorian Robert-Houdin is used to living his life in the shadows, his existence only known to a few trusted friends. When a dangerous book from his past resurfaces, he follows his closest confidante, alchemist Zoe Faust, from Oregon to England to investigate.

Before he can examine the magical book, Dorian witnesses a murder amidst the foggy lanes of Oxford. But when he takes Zoe to the scene, there’s no body—and no evidence a crime has taken place. Using his unique skills as a gargoyle, Dorian sets out to solve the baffling crime nobody else believes occurred.

When Dorian and Zoe discover a dead man in a bookshop filled with arsenic-laced books, the victim isn’t a stranger—he’s connected to the vanishing crime scene. The trail leads to a country house party where a group of bibliophile suspects have gathered and a storm is brewing. Could the killer be the mercurial Agatha Christie scholar? The prickly literature professor? The secretive rare books expert? With an unscrupulous book thief lurking, can sleuths Dorian and Zoe unmask a murderer before the next page brings them to a perilous end?

A Gargoyle’s Guide to Murder is the eagerly awaited new installment in the award-winning cozy fantasy mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Gigi Pandian. Perfect for fans of the quirky charm and found family of Only Murders in the Building and books by Ellery Adams and Travis Baldree.

My Thoughts

Gigi Pandian’s books just keep getting better!

I have been a fan of the Accidental Alchemist series for years so was thrilled to get an early copy of this one. I was not disappointed. My favorite characters are back – Zoe, Max, and of course Dorian! This time, they are in London checking up on Non Degenera Alchemica, the horrible backwards alchemy book that nearly killed Dorian in a previous book.

As Zoe and Co. get more and more involved with the current iteration of the book, the reader is treated to some wonderful storytelling. I also appreciated the added “country house murder” trope part way through the book, which added a comical element to the story given Dorian’s project of writing a handbook on investigating murder. And the surprise twist at the end? Wonderful!

Overall, this is a solid mystery – well-plotted and paced with good descriptive narrative. I do recommend reading the previous books in the series before you open this one, but this could be a stand-alone read and a nice introduction to the series.

Publication Date: October 7, 2025
Published By: Gargoyle Girl Productions
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy