Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I love this series of books, so was thrilled to receive a copy, but then found I wasn't up to date and felt I needed to read the previous two episodes before exploring this one! Some other reviewers have said that this novel stands alone well - personally I would recommend starting at the beginning and reading all seven books.

Inspector Mclean has been on a three month suspension and on his first day back at work a man is dropped out of the sky and dies high up in a tree. A young boy is witness to this and believes the man has been dropped by a dragon. That surely can't be possible?

The investigation that follows sees Mclean pulling together a new team of both experienced and inexperienced officers. They dig deep and have to approach the investigation in different ways - they even look into the background of the boy's long dead father as a possible link. Along the way they uncover drug connections, police corruption and a link to Mrs Saifre.

This book is full of old relationships and links to the previous novels. There are familiar characters - Acting DI Richie, Grumpy Bob, Duguid to name a few, plus personal friends Emma and Phil and Rachael are all back in the storyline. Sadly DS Macbride has moved on - hopefully he will be back. But there are also new characters - acting DC Harrison seemed to do particularly well I thought and it seemed as though Mclean took her under his wing.

For readers of the series, this book has a particularly brilliant ending - he crashes the Alfa again, but it's not that! It made me want to read the next one straight away, but it hasn't been written yet, so I guess I will have to wait.

I knew I had read two books in the Inspector McLean series. When I checked back I couldn't believe I read the first two back in 2012. Somehow I have managed to miss the ones that followed until now. Written in Bones is the seventh in the series and I was very happy to re-acquaint myself with Tony McLean and his colleagues.

The story starts with the discovery of a body in The Meadows, in Edinburgh. The problem is it is found high in the branches of a tall tree and the young boy who discovered it had heard something crashing into the trees was clearly very frightened. He was convinced he had seen a dragon.

The victim is identified as an ex-police officer turned criminal, then philanthropist. Tony McLean has to dig deep into Edinburgh's criminal underworld however he is up against it. There are those who would prefer him just to wind up the investigation without digging too deeply.

But Tony can't let it go. He spends hours and hours on the case and it starts to affect his home life. He suspects the case may be linked to an older case but files are missing. A reporter who usually hounds him for information, Jo Dalgliesh, also suddenly seems to have disappeared,

It's quite a dark tale, full of intrigue and red-herrings. There is also perhaps a hint of the supernatural, or at least that is how it seems. The story is well written and fast paced. I enjoy books that are set in familiar locations and this is no exception.

My only criticism is that it got just a bit over the top towards the end and I got a bit lost. I felt as if a piece was missing. I realise it might have been because I hadn't read all the previous books. That having been said I still enjoyed the story. I was torn between giving it 3 stars and 4 stars however I've decided to give it 4 – and I'll probably try and catch up with the earlier books I missed!

When Detective Inspector Tony McLean is called out to a body in a tree, the only witness says it was dropped there by a dragon. McLean identifies the victim with reasonable speed, but ascertaining why he was killed and indeed how he ended up in the tree takes somewhat longer.

This is a police procedural and the investigative process drives the narrative, but the story doesn’t get bogged down in detection detail, largely because the protagonist is a developed character with a plausible if fairly complex personal life. The city of Edinburgh in winter has a strong presence, too, and all this combines into a well-written, likeable novel.

I wasn’t familiar with the previous six books in the series, but that really didn’t matter and I had no problem staying with this to the end. However, despite some imaginative and quirky plot elements, Written in Bones didn’t quite grip me and, although it passed the time pleasantly, unfortunately it wasn’t good enough to compel me to seek out McLean’s earlier outings.

A new Tony McLean novel from James Oswald is always met with great anticipation here at Grab This Book. I am a big fan of this series and love the balance that the author finds between cracking police procedural but with a dark, and sometimes supernatural, edge to the stories.

Written in Bones is the 7th title to feature Tony McLean, knowing the back story helps but is not essential – new readers can easily pick up the series without worry of too many spoilers and will not be overwhelmed with confusing links to past events. One of the things I enjoy most about James Oswald’s books is how accessible they are, the stories all flow really well and are nicely paced.

From the very first pages of Written in Bones I was hooked. A body is discovered in The Meadows, a pleasant park in Edinburgh city centre. However, the body is stuck high in a tree and it appears to have fallen out of the sky. The only possible witness to the crime is a young boy who was walking his dog around The Meadows early in the morning. Unfortunately for McLean and his colleagues he does not appear to be the most reliable source for information as he maintains that he saw a dragon flying over the park at the time the body would have fallen into the tree.

Further investigation will reveal the young witness is the son of one of Edinburgh’s more notorious characters – someone very well known to the police. Could this simply be a coincidence or does the child’s presence link to crimes committed by his father? This element of an investigation could prove potentially tricky to some of McLean’s colleagues and Tony will be required to play politics around the station.

Although McLean can be a bit of a loose cannon at times, in Written in Bones there are new colleagues in the station and McLean will have to spend some of his time managing a team. The interaction between McLean and the younger, less experienced officers added a fun new angle to the story and I hope that we get to see a bit more of Tony in “mentor” mode.

Away from the mysterious body in a tree, Tony is also finding himself at a number of properties which have been subject to a break-in. He is pulled around the city and his investigations will leave someone unhappy – powerful people will not want the police sniffing around their operations. Back to that political pressure – Tony’s bosses will try to clip his wings and restrict his resources…can he find a way to make his already stretched team focus on more than one investigation?

I had great fun reading Written in Bones, it’s nice to be able to pick up a book which I know will entertain me and it did not fail to deliver the thrills and excitement that I look forward to in James Oswald’s writing. This has been a richly rewarding series thus far and Written in Bones only enhances the Tony McLean collection.

enjoyed the latest in the series and felt the darkside fall over Edinburgh again as the team looks for a the murder of an ex policeman found impaled in a tree but so many red herring until it becomes clearer what it is all about. felt that the series is getting better with each book.

I loved this book,it's the first one by this author,but I have bought other ones now,I couldn't put it down,the writing flows very well all the way through,I didn't get bored like I do sometimes,very good book.

Seriously one of my favourite series!! I enjoyed this so much and urge everyone to pick it up and read it.

So, so good.

Currently waiting, not so patiently, for book 8!!

This is the first title by this author that I have read and is the seventh in his series of Inspector Tony McLean novels. I’ve heard a lot about the author James Oswald and have intended to read his books for a while, not least due to his interesting publishing journey. I read that he found it hard to get an agent or a publisher because his novels crossed genres. Their crime novels but with a supernatural bent and that apparently confused people in the industry. So eventually he self-published Natural Causes and The Book of Souls (the first two Tony McLean novels) and to cut a long story short, they succeeded and the traditional publishing houses came calling. It’s a great story and for an aspiring writer like myself, an inspiration.

So anyway, I’ve had both Natural Causes and The Book of Souls on my Kindle for a while now and for various reasons never got around to reading them. Written in Bones came up on NetGalley, the review website I use, and accepting that I was diving in to a series at book seven and thus things might go over my head, I requested it. I’ve now read it and, simply, wow. I can now see what all the fuss is about.

Written in Bones finds Tony McLean having to deal with a corpse that’s fallen from a great height into a tree. How did it get there? Was it dead before it fell to become impaled in the tree, or did the fall kill him? Things are complicated by the fact that the young son of a murdered gangster was the first person to find the body. Was this pure coincidence or is someone trying to send a macabre message? Furthermore, the dead man is a former cop, imprisoned for corruption, before apparently turning over a new leaf to found a successful drug counselling charity.

As I say, this is my first taste of James Oswald’s work, but it certainly won’t be my last. While Written in Bones is number seven in the series, it can be read as a standalone. Reading the novel, it’s clear that there is back story that one is missing out if one hasn’t read the previous volumes, but the author explains what’s necessary when needs be without overburdening the newbie reader with voluminous explanation. That said, if you like Written in Bones as much as I did you’ll be snapping up the author’s back catalogue.

One of the pleasures of being a book reviewer is discovering a new author. I’m late to the James Oswald party but now I’m here I intend to indulge! I already have the first two volumes to read, soon I’ll be buying the rest.

An excellent read, 5 out of 5 stars.

I felt slightly at a disadvantage when I realised it was book 7 of a series but it can be read as a standalone and certainly encourages me to read the rest of the series. I liked the Mc Lean and Harrison duo. Loved the slick and dark humour that helps the detectives deal with the horrific things they see. Seems like they are sleep deprived and undernourished too! I frowned at the references to stretched resources and staffing levels. A bonus point for me was the inclusion of forensics and pathology. It's a very complex case which gets tougher. It's elaborately staged seemingly without motive and significance. I did think they were slow to join the dots after the boy's statement and appeared to work backwards with their enquiries. Thank you for letting me read it. I shall post this on Amazon, Facebook and my blog.

Another Great Crime Thriller from James Oswald:
DI Tony McLean returns to duty and is forced to hit the ground running to solve a murder which none of his superiors want to get involved with. The main plot involves the peculiar murder of a well known charity promoter.
Tony soon suspects that the murder may have wider implications than would appear at first.
Emma, his partner, also plays a prominent part in an emotional sub-story.
James Oswald's strength is in his characterisation and he doesn't disappoint in this novel. The use of nicknames serve to deliver a visual picture of the individual so successfully: Lofty and Grumpy Bob being but two examples. The on-going vendetta between McLean and Mike Spence shows no sign of abating.
Great plot, I was immersed in the book from the first page and recommend it without reservations to other readers. I have read other novels in the Tony McLean series by James Oswald and "Written in Bones" meets the same standards. A great series of crime thrillers.

Book is very readable but stretches credulity to the limits. The build up is good but the conclusion bears all the hallmarks of the author either getting bored towards the end or not having a fully thought-out ending.

Having read a previous James Oswald book I was keen to read this one. I have loved it all and would be very happy to read more. More than a little similar to Stuart MacBride....is it the same person I wonder?

Edinburgh's underground, bent coppers, criminal kingpins what's there not to like in Oswald's 7th Inspector McLean story. Although following on from The Damage Done you don't need to have read previous books to enjoy this one. Inspector McLean gets right into the action when a naked body is found skewered on a tree branch. With antagonists at every corner, McLean struggles to get an angle on this case but knows the answers lie higher up in the force. Is it linked to police corruption? Read it to find the answer. Enjoyable.

An interesting and well thought out read, was not expecting the ending but was a really good book and I'd recommend it to lovers of crime fiction. It's also nice that would can read this book without having to read any of the others, you don't need to know the background of the story.

Firstly, I'd like to make a recommendation. You should probably read the first six books in the series before reading this one. I didn't and I found myself confused by references to the other books. There aren't any major spoilers for the other books in Written in Bones so I'm really excited about going back and reading them but some little bits of info included in this book would make more sense if you read the other books first.

I really enjoyed the writing style in this book. I loved the use of Scottish phrases and pronunciation because it really adds to the sense of place and atmosphere of the book. The phonetic spelling used isn't off putting to people from other countries because it is easily readable. I have encountered phonetics before, especially for my own Yorkshire accent, where they'd genuinely be unreadable to people from other countries, or even other counties. That isn't the case with this book because the use of phonetic spelling enhances the reader experience.

The plot is fantastic too. James Oswald really knows how to weave a mystery and it kept me guessing until the end. The mystery continues to unravel right until the end of the book. I'm not including any spoilers in this review but it's a thrilling plot and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally, I thought that the characters were really well written. Inspector McLean was obviously my favourite character because he's intelligent, resourceful, but also not a cliché. I did like the side characters too including Deputy Chief Constable Steve 'Call-me-Stevie' Robinson, Grumpy Bob, and PC Harrison. Every character is well-rounded and believable.

I'd thoroughly recommend this book. It's a fantastic read which will keep you gripped until the end. I plan on reading the first six books before buying this one for myself.

A good well paced Crime procedural with robust characters and a good dose of intrigue. I find myself on the heroes side against internal authority and senior stupidity. Sometimes a bit too neat and tidy but a good read and the essential ingredient of wanting to know more rates the book a potential success. Enjoyable and worth the time investment.

I was looking forward to reading this book, was gripped from the first page.
When a body is found in a tree in The Meadows, Edinburgh's scenic parkland, the forensics suggest the corpse has fallen from a great height. Detective Inspector Tony McLean wonders whether it was an accident, or a murder. Just what he needs on his first day back after suspension.
The dead man Bill Chalmers had led quite a life: a disgraced ex-cop who reinvented himself as a philanthropist after leaving prison.
As McLean traces the victim's journey, it takes him back to Edinburgh's past and a murdered night club owner, With Tony on a case nothing is straight forward, he visits Chalmers charity head office. The place is trashed and the receptionist is found dead. Both Chalmers and the receptionist had a dragon tattoo which leads Tony to his friendly tatooist Eddie , then Eddie’s tattoo parlour is trashed. The deeper Tony delves the more people are involved , then Mrs Saifre’s name is linked.

Another gripping page turning novel. with many twists and turns. This could be a standalone but I’d recommend reading from the beginning as there are threads running through the series. Emma is now back but her health is cause for concern. Tony’s team are all there apart from Stuart MacBride who ‘has moved on. Also there are new members of the team , . I thoroughly enjoyed the book & now wait for the next in the series,
A recommended read.

This was the first book by James Oswald I had read. I am already thinking about going back to the start of the series and reading the rest. I am also compiling a mental list of library users who I know would love this book and presumably the series - one of the hardest things as a librarian is keeping crime enthusiasts in new books so this was a find. I love the setting. Oswald really evokes the feel as well as the physical attributes of Edinburgh. The mystery itself was unusual, a twust on the norm. I usually find with crime novels I either know 'who dunnit' right at the beginning or I don't know at all. Oswald did a slow dawning conclusion that unfolded beautifully. This was a great book and a series I will add to my slim list of favourite crime writers.

Another fantastic instalment in James Oswald's outstanding Inspector Tony McLean series. These books just get better and better with every one and 'Written in Bones' is no exception. Beautifully written as always, with all the characters we've come to know and love, this is a strong addition to the series and is my favourite one so far. With the usual mix of crime thriller and the supernatural, this is a book you do not want to miss. Can't wait to see what will happen next! A fabulous 5 stars.

One cold morning a dragon flies over Edinburgh and a man falls from the sky to his death. Of course things are not what they seem at first, the dead man is a former cop and current philanthropist, and dragons don't exist. Recently returned to work after traumatic events in his last case, Tony Maclean is keen to see that the crime is solved. However investigation leads down many paths, uncovering corruption in the force and bringing him closer to his nemesis, Mrs Saifre.

I was drawn to read this book as Oswald had been flagged up as a writer who was developing a niche for gritty police procedurals, in that respect I was not disappointed. Having not read the previous books in the series I was at a disadvantage with regards to characters and references to to previous events but that did not spoil the enjoyment of this book. At its heart this is a standard crime novel but the main protagonist is well realised and the plot is sensible, it doesn't have slightly unrealistic twists that sometimes accompany this genre.