I decided to read Natural Causes after meeting James Oswald at Harrogate a few years ago and having been told by several book bloggers how good this series is and more importantly that I should read more Scottish Crime.  As I am taking part in THE Book Club on Facebook's 2018 reading challenge and one of the 12 books to read is "start a new series and read book 1"  Natural Causes was my obvious choice.

Newly promoted Detective Inspector Anthony McLean is investigating the discovery of a dead girl whose remains have been found in the basement of large house being renovated.  The fact that it appears she was murdered over 50 years ago, her internal organs have been removed and placed strategically in jars around her and there is a dark, foreboding presence throughout the book makes Natural Causes standout from the usual crime/police procedural series I usually read.

I really enjoyed getting to know Tony McLean and reading about his personal life, his relationships with his co-workers and peers, his friendship with Grumpy Bob and his personal issues with DCI Duguid (Dagwood).  I also particularly enjoy a gruesome murder and Natural Causes has so many sick, twisted and gory murders I'm sure the population in Edinburgh reduced significantly during this book.

With a touch of the occult and supernatural, plenty of grisly and violent murders, a cast of interesting characters Natural Causes is a great start to series, which I now have downloaded and would definitely recommend for those looking for something a little bit different.

The supernatural side of the story just fell flat on me. They didn't seem to gel with the down to earth police procedure and Everyday Scottish placement.
The book grabs you with the punchy start and it was clearly well researched but for the reasons above I can only give it three stars.

A confusing read, I wasn't sure if it was a murder mystery or a supernatural ghost hunt, one theme would have worked best, this was an uneasy juxtaposition of two genres and looking at the notes at the end of the book made sense. However, I have read a later book in this series and know that the detective angle is the one to persue. I found it to be full of well researched police procedures and lovely characters, my favourites are Grumpy Bob and Angus Cadwallader, and I am sure we have all had the misfortune to work with a boss like DCI Duguid!! It is also not unknown for police officers to be university graduates and of private wealth and they seem to have more to prove in this job, I'm sure that Tony McLean will continue to impress in this fine series. Set in Edinburgh, these books will necessarily be compared with Ian Rankin and his Rebus novels. These books are a thrilling read in their own right, once the supernatural hocus pocus is dispensed with. I have posted my review on Goodreads.

My first Inspector McLean book and wow am I looking forward to reading the rest. So glad that I started with his first book. Lovely writing style and great nuanced characters. A winner of a book for fans of police procedurals

I have previously visited Edinburgh, and this book seemed like my kind of genre, hence my request. Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I would definitely recommend trying to read it within a short period of time as it may become quite confusing. I felt at some points that I probably should have made some notes to keep up with the storyline as I kept having to skip backwards as I found the story quite intricate, there are a few different plot lines which are quite different. I did enjoy this book, and I would recommend it!

"Natural Causes:Inspector McLean 1", written by James Oswald and published in paperback by Penguin on 9 May 2013. 464 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1405913140

A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room. Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago.For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority - but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death.

Meanwhile, the city is horrified by a series of bloody killings. Deaths for which there appears to be neither rhyme nor reason, and which leave Edinburgh's police at a loss. McLean is convinced that these deaths are somehow connected to the terrible ceremonial killing of the girl, all those years ago. It is an irrational, almost supernatural theory. And one which will lead McLean closer to the heart of a terrifying and ancient evil . . .

The author says that he has previously written a number of fantasy novels set in Wales and was urged by the author Stuart MacBride to write police procedurals similar to the ones he writes about Aberdeen. Oswald has started a new series set in and around Edinburgh and as a tribute to MacBride he names a detective assisting Inspector McLean "Stuart MacBride". He also names a police psychiatrist "Matt Hilton". The story is written in a very charming way and I was very interested in learning about where McLean got his cat from and why it is named so strangely.

I started reading the Inspector McLean books beginning with the third one and whilst the author takes pains to keep the story as self contained as possible there are references that are made which aren't easily explained without reading the earlier books. For example in this book, Inspector Mcleans grandmother is still alive but in a coma and he visits her every evening in the hospital where she is and of course she passes away and he has to deal with her estate and probate and her solicitor and so on.

I thought this book like all of the James Oswald stories truly excellent.

Best wishes,


Terry
(To be published on eurocrime.co.uk)

Wow, what a fantastic book that was to read now I have finally read it! I've come to book 1 late as I have read the other books first (a friend recommended I read this author's books) and now things that happen or are referenced to in further books now make a lot more sense! Not reading book 1 first hasn't been a hindrance but things now make sense.

Albeit a little slow to start I was thrilled with the first installment of this new crime series

Fantastic read. Good characters and great storyline with lots of twists and turns. was not disapointed in this book at all

This is the first in the DI Tony McLean series and it has a supernatural and demons element to the storyline. The novel comprises of several elements, Tony looks into the circumstances behind a dead girl discovered in the basement of a Edinburgh house that is being renovated. The brutal murder occurred around sixty years ago or so according to the evidence. The girl's organs are in jars around the body which suggests rituals were performed where each of the men who acquired an organ is granted immortality. Then there are the present day murders of prominent businessmen and the strange suicides of the perpetrators soon after the murder. In a bizarre turn of events, it appears that there are connections between the long dead girl, the killing of the businessmen and the suicides.

Tony's grandmother, who suffered a stroke and slipped into a coma, dies. A grief stricken Tony also has to handle the burden of considerable conflict within the police hierarchy. Along with looking int a burglar preying on the homes of the recently deceased, Tony's life is not made easy. The supernatural parts of the story may not appeal to some readers. However, I found this an engaging and absorbing read. Thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an ARC.

Book 1 in the Inspector Anthony McLean series and this has become a series I know I need to read all of!

It's a police procedural with a twist, it's different to the others I typically read and that makes it stand apart from the others. Tony McLean is a good MC, the humour is funny and lightens the situations at times which is nice to see and you're pulled into the mystery of the book, finding the clues to help you work out the players and solve the case.

Now onto book 2!!

I read Written In Bones, the latest in this series, and thought it pretty average with some serious flaws. I decided to give James Oswald one more go just to see whether I'd missed something. I hadn't.

I'm afraid I didn't get on with this book at all. Oswald's propensity for cliché in language plot and characterisation is well to the fore, I found the story pretty unconvincing and the whole thing just failed to engage me. One of my biggest problems with Written In Bones was the ridiculous ending, and frankly, Natural Causes puts it in the shade; it's not just silly, it's plain bonkers in a supposedly serious crime novel.

So, James Oswald is not for me, it seems. Plenty of others obviously enjoy his work very much, but personally I can't recommend this.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

My kind of book. A real page turner. I was sorry when I read the last page. Will definitely lookout for this author in future.

Inspector Tony McLean is a detective in Edinburgh. A body is found in a derelict house - the murder has taken place over fifty years ago and seems to be a ritualistic killing. At the same time some very high profile Edinburgh residents are being killed and there is a spate of unusual suicides. Tony also has to investigate a series of burglaries at the homes of people who have recently died and who had burglar alarms fitted by the same company. While all this is going on he's also dealing with the death of a loved one. Can he solve the cold case? Are all the cases linked? Can he stop sticking his nose in everybody else's cases and upsetting his superiors? Great thriller with a touch of the supernatural thrown in.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to review this book.

Having read the more recent books in this series it was good to go back to the beginning. A very twisted plot where history catches up with modern day in some intriguing, gruesome crimes.

A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room. Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago.
Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean has recently been promoted & this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority, but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death.
Meanwhile, the city is horrified by a series of bloody killings. Deaths for which there appears to be neither rhyme nor reason, and which leave Edinburgh's police at a loss.
McLean is convinced that these deaths are somehow connected to the terrible ceremonial killing of the girl, all those years ago. It is an irrational, almost supernatural theory, & which will lead McLean closer to the heart of a terrifying and ancient evil.
This is the first book I’ve read by the author & I found it very hard to put down, the more I read the more I became engrossed & need to read to the end to find the solution to the cases. Tony is well portrayed & the other characters are also believable & certainly not two dimensional. The opening chapter isn’t pleasant but certainly drew me in. Tony also has to deal with the death of his Gran who raised him & there’s a photo which intrigues him. Detective novels aren’t my favourite read but I’ll certainly be reading more of the McLean series

Liked a lot about this book but the supernatural backdrop to the story is just not for me. The story and the characters were good so I would read another of this authors books unless the supernatural element was there again

I have had James Oswald on my radar of authors to read for some time so when I was offered the opportunity to read the first novel in the Inspector McLean series bu Net Galley I jumped at the chance. After reading the opening chapters accustoming myself to the main characters etc. I fairly quickly got into the flow of the novel and had the main characters fixed in my head. Towards the end of the book I was already planning to read the second book and looking forward to it. At the time of writing this review I have already started the second book and enjoying it.
For no other reason than the quality of the writing I seem to be drawn by the writing of Scottish Thriller writers such as Ian Rankin, Peter May, Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid and now it looks like I will be adding James Oswald to my growing list. There must be something in the water up there that gives us such good thriller novels.
This series of books features Edinburgh based Detective Inspector Anthony McLean who has the handy ability of been able to sense danger. In the opening novel in this series ' Natural Causes' the Edinburgh police find the killer of a prominent city elder less than twenty-four hours after the crime and they are justifiably pleased. The murderer had killed himself, so when a second murder occurs just days later and bears haunting similarities to the first, even though once more the murderer swiftly confesses and kills himself, heads are scratched.

Detective Inspector Anthony McLean is investigating the discovery of a dead girl, walled up in the basement of an old Edinburgh mansion. She has been brutally murdered, her internal organs removed and placed around her in six preserving jars. The evidence suggests this all happened over sixty years ago, an attempt to re-enact an ancient ceremony that by trapping a demon in the dead girl’s body would supposedly confer immortality on the six men who took one of her organs each.

McLean’s grandmother, who had raised him after his parents were killed when he was a young boy dies after months in a coma following a stroke. This piles more troubles on to McLean who is investigating a series of unusual, violent suicides and a cat-burglar who targets the homes of the recently dead. But as another prominent Edinburgh businessman is killed, he begins to suspect that there may be a connection between the murders, the suicides and the ritual killing of the girl found in the basement. The same names keep cropping up. He just can’t find a rational explanation as to how that connection works. This all leads to an entertaining read and an excellent start to the series. This novel equipped me with a good grounding of the main characters and has already made me plan to read all the novels in this series (7 at the time of writing).

I would like to thank Net Galley and Penguin UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I have read both versions of this book, with opening chapter at the front and back. I think I works both ways.
Really enjoyed reading this book again, I have been a fan of the author since reading this when it first came out in print.
Would recommend this book to anyone

Natural causes by James Oswald is a mystery and thriller and general fiction (adult) read.
A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room. Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago.
For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority - but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death.
Fantastic read with brilliant characters. I loved the story. Tried to guess who it could be but I was wrong. Highly recommended. 5*. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book from netgalley.