Well, this was a very bizarre book, and I can’t say I enjoyed it all that much! The first ten chapters are just about DI Westphall travelling to Estonia with random stories from his history thrown in. When they do discuss the case of the re-appearing man and what he says happened to him over the last 12 years, it is just a few paragraphs. This is the story I signed up for, with the DI as the interweaving character. However, the book appears to be mainly about the DI with the case being in the periphery; this makes it is really slow going and quite boring. You keep expecting it to jump to someone else’s perspective, but it doesn’t, it just carries plodding on.
The action scenes are quite gripping, but the in-between bits just feel drawn out and unnecessary especially the random stories that come out of nowhere about smaller characters. I kept expecting these stories to tie in somehow, but they didn’t. They were merely random stories about random characters that had nothing to do with what should have been the main story.
The premise of this book had potential but it wasn’t executed very well, it was as if the author had all these other elements that he wanted to ram into a book, and this one was as good as any.
Fortunately, the investigation did pick up towards the end, and this element was quite interesting and had some twists that I wasn’t expecting. However, it was ruined by the very bizarre supernatural element that had been included in the book. The DI seemed like a raving lunatic for what he was prepared to believe. This element lost the story any credibility.
This was the first in a series, and I won't be reading the follow-ons!

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the book in exchange for an honest review.
This was book 1 in the DI Westphall series and I found it a very gloomy and introspective book, which was very long and drawn out. I kept thinking something would happen at the end to make it worthwhile carrying on reading to the end. I don’t think I will be reading book 2 in the series, although other readers may like the slow pace of the story.

A man walked into a police station in Estonia. He told a tale of having been held prisoner, used as a donor for organ harvesting and sperm donation. X-rays and medical examination bear out this part of his story, but this man, or the man he says he is - John Baden - died twelve years ago. His body was identified by his partner, Emily King, and by his parents - and then the body was buried. So, who is this man? DI Ben Westphall is sent to Estonia because of his background in MI6, but that brings some baggage with it too. Westphall cannot, will not, get on a plane. His last experience of flight was more than enough for one lifetime.

It's an intriguing story and I warmed to Ben Westphall. He's single, not necessarily from choice, but because the job - both the current one and the one he did before - doesn't lend itself to building romantic relationships. He doesn't have a problem with authority, but authority does have a problem with him. Life would be so much easier for the hierarchy in Dingwall police station if Westphall would just get on a plane when he needed to get somewhere instead of taking cars, trains and ferries I mean, how can it be that difficult? And surely it's the obvious way to get back from Estonia when there's a murder in the Highlands?

As well as being intriguing there's an almost supernatural element to the story. A woman with whom Westphall shared a car journey shortly before she committed suicide returns afterwards to talk to him, to give him advice. I can cope with 'what would so-and-so (deceased) have said or done in this situation?' but this goes beyond that and I had to restrict the impulse to throw the book against the wall at that point. I also had to stop shouting instructions to just look at the facts logically and stop wondering whether something that was physically impossible had happened.

Was I surprised by the reveal of the murderer? Yes, I was. It wasn't that I had someone else chalked in, but rather that I'd been too busy getting annoyed about things which I couldn't change. It was a good story and despite my reservations I'd be interested to see where the series goes next. I'd like to thank the publishers for making a copy available to the Bookbag.

#SongOfTheDead #NetGalley As always, I was excited to be reading book one of a crime series but sadly, on this occasion, it didn't really do it for me. The story itself was intriguing and when the action happened it was really gripping but I felt there was too much description and not enough action particularly in the first part of the book. I also found the 'supernatural' element to add nothing to the book and, for me, it spoilt the whole realism of the story. It seemed odd the way that Dorothy appeared in the book to tell her time travel story and then appear in dreams to give Ben clues as to how to solve the crime. I also couldn't work out whether the style of writing was annoying to me - leaving out the I at the beginning of sentences! Probably not, on the whole, but I did find it a little distracting. Would I read more in this series? Not sure which is a shame because I had high hopes for this after reading the description.

Excellent book! Loved the characters and it was a great storyline. I would highly recommend this book.

Completely wonderful .. an empathetic detective with traumatised past looks into an old car when a man thought dead re-emerges in Estonia .. our DI seems to have extra sensory perception, and despite an autocratic style chief, gets on with it . Then a colleague commit suicide. So, okay, it's not light but the characters are so deeply thought through and the gruesome crime very plausible if complex. Really recommend, and I'll be looking for other titles by this author.

Song of the dead was a brilliantly written, dark and twisting read.

Whilst after starting Song of the dead I realised that it was not my usual genre and found it was complex, with well formed characters. It was a step above the usual crime thrillers that I often devour quickly and due to that it was far more gripping and memorable.

The book starts with a man turning up claiming to be the same man who was found dead many years earlier.

A British policeman is sent out to investigate and to come back shortly after. The man who has turned up has a terrifying tale and he is missing some organs. With a slow build up this becomes a gripping and thrilling read with whilst a predictable ending, a realistic ending

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a review copy of Song Of The Dead, the first in a new series featuring DI Ben Westphall and mostly set in the North of Scotland.
At the start of the book Ben is sent to Estonia to investigate the curious claims of a man who says his name is John Baden and has been kept in captivity for 12 years by an illegal organ harvesting organisation. His body supports this claim with a few parts missing but John Baden was found dead 12 years ago in Estonia, identified and buried so who is this man? Then some of his old friends start getting murdered in Scotland.
Song Of The Dead has a good, interesting plot with plenty of unexpected twists. Fortunately for the squeamish (including me) it doesn't go into great detail or linger on the body harvesting element but concentrates on the Scottish murders and the John Baden conundrum.
Ben Westphall is an interesting character. He has a morbid fear of flying due to an incident in his Service days when he was a field operative so he goes overland to Estonia and gets disciplined when he refuses to fly home. He seems quite a boring guy with none of the usual copper vices, he doesn't smoke and drinks in extreme moderation but he can go off piste with calamitous results.
There is a hint of the supernatural in this novel. Ben shares a car and the drive back from Talinn to Brussels with a depressed embassy worker, Dorothy. She tells him some kind of time shift story about her past which I couldn't grasp but Ben thinks is possible, kills herself after he leaves her and then visits him in his dreams. The title of this novel, Song Of The Dead, refers to a novel which may or may not exist. I'm not overly fond of the supernatural, preferring to deal in facts and tangibles so I found these elements unconvincing, confusing in parts and superfluous to the main thrust of the plot.
I think Song Of The Dead's biggest asset is the clever plotting which kept me turning the pages until the end so if you want a good read without overtaxing the brain then this will do nicely.

This is a thinking book. It’s a book that your always second guessing about who is who- who has done the deed!!
An okay book,
Thank you to both NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review