I unlike many people who read this, just didn't connect with Christine Caplan. I liked the idea of fulfilling a last wish of a cop, finally solving and unresolved case but something was lacking. I couldn't connect with any of the characters and I found it hard to stay connected to the story. I didn't get to the last chapter so I don't know how it ended but that was okay for me as there are so many other similar books out there

A young girl goes missing in a park on a Saturday afternoon and Caplan's team is drawn in. Meanwhile Caplan is asked to visit a former colleague who is dying of cancer. This woman is convinced that a series of unexplained deaths are related, and interestingly, Caplan has recently been involved in the recovery of a body under similar circumstances. Now there is a race against time to find young Bethany and maybe the answers are a little too close to home.
This is an evolving series set in the more remote parts of Scotland and the landscape definitely plays a big part in this tale. The plot is a little far-fetched but the procedural element is strong. I particularly liked the inter-twined plotlines that juxtaposed the search for the vulnerable with the domestic violence aspect.

Out Of The Dark is the third book in the DCI Christine Caplan series by British author, Caro Ramsay. DCI Christine Caplan is heading to the van and husband Aklen at Kilnlorn after attending a scene at Balloch that could be a natural death and suicide of gay lovers, except that something doesn’t sit right.

She’s asked to stop on the way at Glen Douglas where the naked body of an unidentified young man has been spotted in a forest near MoD land. The attending pathologist quickly dismisses any notion of a hillwalker falling from a height. The state of the body, and the injuries suggest the body was dumped recently, but some time after death.

Soon after, Caplan is reminded of her promise to visit a woman with whom she, Lizzie Fergusson and Sarah Linden trained for police service. Rachel Ghillies is in a hospice and she only just manages to communicate to them her barely-intelligible dying wish that they find a certain person or persons.

Some smart searching by both Fergusson and Caplan’s IT whiz, Mackie uncovers the details of one Nikolas Ardman, found in an isolated forest site, in circumstances and with injuries uncannily similar to those of the body at Glen Douglas. More extensive searches reveal others that match, perhaps not exactly, but the circumstances have too much in common to be ignored.

But while results of post mortems on the Balloch dead are awaited, and attempts are made to identify the Glen Douglas body, Caplan’s priority suddenly becomes, at the request of a former DCC (and, coincidentally, the husband of Rachel Ghillies), the search for the twenty-one-year-old daughter of William Robertson. Bethany left her volunteer stint at The Revolve charity on Saturday afternoon but never arrived at home.

She doesn’t quite fit the victim profile, but they feel a sense of urgency, soon convinced she’s not off on a lark with a friend.

Meanwhile, one of her team, PC Callum McPhee is distracted enough by his new girlfriend for his colleagues to be concerned at his out-of-character symptoms and behaviour. And throughout, Caplan finds her resources restricted, and thus getting results, hampered, by the need for approval from the Fiscal, although when she’s able to convince Linden, the ACC goes in to bat for her.

One of the major challenges is that these victims are difficult to track due to their chaotic lifestyles and vulnerability. The picture that begins to emerge, even as it becomes apparent that top brass are stonewalling their investigation, is a shocking one. No wonder the dying former DC wanted Caplan to follow it up.

Aklen later tells her “There’re no such thing as evil people. Just dangerous people. We are all products of our environment and our nature, the moral compass and all that”, but when the truth is finally revealed, Caplan wonders if this is true.

This is an excellent police procedural with Caplan’s team, who are becoming favourites by this third instalment, doing truly outstanding work. And even as the tension builds towards a nail-biting climax, there are moments of laugh-out-loud humour. Readers will have fingers crossed that Ramsay has more of this exceptional series up her literary sleeve. Caro Ramsay’s best yet.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Severn House.

Out Of The Dark is the third in the DCI Caplan series which I have followed since the beginning.

The writing is detailed and atmospheric, it builds like a case would with the tension building upon the way.


A gritty intense Scottish police procedure.

D.C.I. Christine Caplan is settling into her post at the rural location of Cronchie in the Scottish Highlands. She still harbours hope of clearing her name and getting back to the Major Incident Team in Glasgow, but for the moment her small team is coming together and her husband, architect Aklen, is showing signs of recovering from his depression. Christine and Aklen are living in a caravan while their cottage undergoes substantial repairs and renovation.

Caplan is called to a murder-suicide. Roderick Taylor and Peter Todd are both found dead at their Balloch home, but there’s something about the scene that niggles at Christine; it just doesn’t make sense to her. When she learns from the pathologist that Roderick Taylor, who was terminally ill, died at least two days before his partner Peter Todd was found hanged inside their home, she knows this is not what it seems..

Leaving Craigo in charge she has to leave to attend the discovery of another dead body. A young man has been found in Glen Douglas on MoD land; beaten so badly he is unrecognisable. That’s a lot for a small team to take on, but even at that, it doesn’t take long before Christine’s plate is heaped with more to concern her.

Rachel Ghillies was a former colleague of Christine’s back in the early days of their careers. Rachel married Rory Ghillies, formerly a Chief Inspector and now retired with many charitable interests. Now, in a hospice with terminal cancer, she has got in touch with Christine to ask her and Lizzie Fergusson to visit her. Christine is curious; she and Rachel were never great pals but she can’t ignore a request from a dying woman. Rachel, who appears to be in the end stage of her disease, isn’t terribly coherent but she is clearly very concerned to point Christine towards a cold case. Though the names she mutters mean nothing to Christine or Lizzie, it is clear that Rachel needs this to be investigated and she is adamant that she doesn’t want Rory involved.

Rory Ghillies crops up again as he intervenes to make sure that Christine takes a personal interest in a missing girl. Bethany Roberts was on her way to volunteer at the Revolve Centre. Though she hasn’t been gone long, William, her over anxious father, is distraught and has turned to Ghillies to ask him to use his contacts to get the police to treat this disappearance seriously from the start.
Bethany’s friend, Shivonne McDougall is also missing but her disappearance is much less out of character and she has no-one to be concerned about her.

Caro Ramsay does a great job of demonstrating how few resources are given to a tiny team who are simply overwhelmed by the amount of serious crime they are having to deal with. At the end of her tether and with a one team member down in very difficult circumstances, there’s not much help for what turns out to be a series of utterly horrendous killings and which has the potential to add Bethany Roberts to the list.

In these circumstances I’m always tempted to think of Cronchie as ‘crunchy’, because these murders are very crunchy indeed. Ms Ramsay’s propensity for the gruesome comes out in spades here and the race against time to save Bethany becomes a vicious fight for survival.

Verdict: Jam packed with action, full of tension and a good helping of pure evil, Caro Ramsay has given us a crime thriller with many layers and one in which the perpetrators share a common theme. If you’re looking for murder, kidnapping, abuse and corruption all wrapped up in a tense and thrilling police procedural, then this is your book!

A gritty Scottish police procedure story. DCI Christine Caplan has many investigations to juggle but seems to be hindered at every turn with no money for extra hands.
A dying friend also a police officer puts her on track of a series of murders that might be connected.
The story is a through attention to detail investigation that occurs to get the single break that can bring the big results.
Book 3 of this series will have you searching for more of DCI Caplan.
Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I am a big fan of this author's Anderson and Costello series so it was a no brainer that I would also pounce on this, a series featuring DCI Christine Caplan. This book being the third and, usual series rules apply...
So, in this, her third outing, we start with Christine being called to the scene of two dead bodies that are probably suicides, maybe murder-suicide, or even natural death-suicide. Found in a quiet neighbourhood with no witnesses, but something appears to be a bit off with the whys and wherefores. But Christine has to leave Craigo there as she is called to the scene of another body. This time definitely suspicious. The body appeared between MoD patrols but had been dead for longer than the gap. A definite body dump.
Meanwhile, an old ex-cop friend of Christine's who is on end-of-life care in a hospice, summons her and their two other friends to ask that she re-examine an old cold case... Interesting...
Now does all this sound like something I'd like to get my teeth into - you bet your life I do! It's all a bit disjointed and convoluted and interconnected and frustrating - but all in a good way! Until, eventually it all starts to come together after the disappearance of Bethany, a young woman vanishing after a volunteering shift... Which throws another cat amongst the already flapping pigeons!
Honestly, you just have to get on a read this book, preferably with all you wits about you. And discover all the shocking secrets that eventually start to pour out. Christine is one formidable woman, with her challenges at home with partner Aklen, and an unfinished house, and those at work mostly around budget and resources. But she juggles it all well.
Pacing is good and matches the narrative all the way through. Slow and steady initially as all the pieces are placed, ramping up with each revelation and shock delivered along the way.
There are a lot of characters. Maybe too many... but they all have their parts to play, even the smallest is well described. Could be useful writing a cast list if you struggle.
But the occasional confusion and frustration is all worth it when the truth is finally laid bare. In all cases. Shocking though it is. And brutal. But a mostly satisfying conclusion is delivered.
All in all, a cracking addition to what is now a well established series. Roll on next time.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I hadn’t read the first two books in the series, so maybe that was why I found it hard to connect with Christine Caplin and her colleagues. Decent enough plot but not easy to follow. Too much back tracking to previous cold cases. Sometimes I couldn’t decide who was speaking to whom, very confusing.

Ramsay's third novel featuring DCI Caplan is another thrilling police procedural race through some dark yet compulsive and thrilling territory. Ramsay is one of the best crime writers in contemporary fiction and readers will not be disappointed with this latest offering. Although there are two previous books in this series you can read this as a standalone.

I want to thank Netgalley, Caro Ramsay, and Severn House for letting me read Out of the dark in advance. Caro Ramsay is a brand new Author for me. I found that the way you found out what was happening and how one of the characters is doing really made a difference in the book. The main character Christine Caplan was extremely thorough in how she was in her job. Her supporting characters really helped making the story. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for one of the characters. If you want to be deceived and left wondering how some one you thought was one way but turned out to be a totally different person. Then this is the book for you. It is a must read. I am looking forward to reading the other books in this series.

If you want a book where you wonder what you would do in the situation of one of the supporting characters then this is the book for you. It made me think what I would do and I decided I would do exactly the same thing that was done. The ending to this book was a totally different ending than what I thought it would be. I was left in shocked by how it ended and what the people do in certain situations.

A young woman doesn't return home when she should. Her over-protective father reports her missing. But she's not the only one who's gone...

A terminally ill office asks DCI Christine Caplan to take on a cold case she's never been able to shake, because senior officers dismissed it.

Caplan soon links this death to other similar deaths, all of which have gone under-investigated. Why?

An excellent addition to this series

In this latest from Caro Ramsay, we return to the life and work of DCI Christine Caplan with the third book of the series. This is an intense police procedural involving multiple layers of police personnel, in a missing person case with ever increasing ramifications. What begins with the dying wish of a former police academy classmate to come to her hospice bedside leads to a confusing hunt for potential victims of a sadistic killer or group. And then another person goes missing.

This is a complex procedural which portrays police as individuals with personalities and characteristics that make them part of this successful, though eccentric, team. Caplan herself has an interesting backstory which continues to develop in each book.

I recommend this series and Caro Ramsay’s books in general as all I have read have been well written and engaging. This book could be read as a standalone but I would recommend starting with the first two in the series, The Devil Stone and In Her Blood, in order to follow the development of the personal and professional relationships.

Thanks to Severn House and NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

DCI Christine Caplan has a lot on her plate and multiple crimes to solve in this taut and complex procedural. Those who have read the earlier books will enjoy this visit with Caplan and her team while new readers should be fine with this as a standalone because Ramsay provides background on Caplan and her family. It's twisty and atmospheric with a lot packed into a slim volume. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read,

This is the latest from Caro Ramsay in a favourite Scottish crime series, featuring DCI Christine Caplan, her life more settled as she lives in a caravan with husband, former architect Aklen, who seems to be recovering in the beauty of the more rural surroundings, whilst the building works continue on their dilapidated cottage. Caplan is surprised when a former police colleague she had not kept in touch with, Rachel Ghillies, a dying cancer patient in a hospice, married to former senior officer, Rory, asks her and Lizzie Fergusson to visit her on her deathbed. A barely coherent Rachel, clearly in a lot of pain, asks them to look into a cold case she had been investigating below the radar, the names are not familiar and barely make sense, but what is clear, Rachel does not want them to let Rory know.

Caplan finds herself at a murder-suicide, Roderick Taylor and Peter Todd at their home, but something about the scene does not feel quite right. This is followed with her making her way to Glen Douglas and MOD territory, where there is the nightmare sight of a horrifyingly badly beaten body of a young male, unrecognisable, with a missing tooth. It is going to take some work to identify him as no such person has been reported missing. Why? An anxious and fearful father, photographs his daughter, Bethany, on her way to volunteer, but she never returns home, abducted it would seem from a park. Rory, using his influence, contacts Caplan, persuading her to mount a hunt for her. Could there possibly be any connection between what happens to Bethany, and the missing cold case victims, identified by Rachel?

Caplan is supported by her small, determined, and hardworking police team, but the workload generated by the cases is overwhelming, and despite what help Sarah Linden gives, she is being starved of resources, are there powers keen to see her not succeed? However, nothing is going to put her off, in what is the most complex and gruesomely horrendous of cold cases with numerous victims, and the urgent need to locate a Bethany who is thought to be in grave danger. This is a brilliant addition to Ramsay's moreish crime series. I cannot wait for the next book! Highly recommended to fans of Scottish crime and other readers new to the author. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

In this third book of the series, DCI Christine Caplan is now content with her move to Conchie in Scotland and her small team of three are working well. She and her husband Aklan are restoring an old cottage, while living on a caravan onsite. Aklan’s mental health is improving as he gets involved in the project and her two kids are busy leading their own lives.

Caplan is involved in two cases – one investigating the apparent suicide of a man after the death at home of his partner, supposedly from a terminal illness and the other a series of cold case murders she was alerted to by a dying colleague. When the body of a badly beaten, naked body in the woods is found bearing similarities to the cold cases, Caplan realises someone has been killing people for a long time. The disappearance of a young woman makes her fear that she has been abducted by the same killer or killers.

The plot builds steadily as Caplan and her small team try to investigate multiple cases on their own without additional funding from above. The darkness of the plot and the sense of pure evil is served well by the settings in the remote, deep, dark woods as the plot boils to its horrifying climax. I like Caplan’s character as a practical and capable detective who gets things done very much, although felt there was less development of her three team mates in this novel. While I mostly enjoyed this one, especially the development and twists in the plot, I felt the motives behind the killings weren’t strongly elucidated and there were some elements that I felt needed more explanation, such as why the victims had to have their left canine tooth removed and their left leg broken.

OUT OF THE DARK is Book #3 of the DCI Christine Caplan thriller series and it moves at a fast pace. I have not read the first two books in the series, and so I wasn’t sure whether I was missing important background by starting with #3. Information about Caplan’s family situation was explained early in the story, so I felt I had a good grasp of that. There was less information provided about her investigation team, and I floundered when trying to unravel their strengths and weaknesses. Many team members were named but their backgrounds left blank. To me, they were like pieces moving on a chessboard, just names with no personality.

However, the main thrust of the novel is a series of cases being investigated by Caplan and her team.

(1) It begins with a case that appears to be either a double suicide or one suicide and one naturally caused death. Peter Todd had committed suicide while his long-term partner Roderick Taylor laid dead in his upstairs bed. Taylor was dying, according to the neighbour. It seems straightforward but Caplan leaves DS Craigo to ensure that it was.

(2) Then Caplan is sent to Glen Douglas and another crime scene—this one the dead body of a man with horrendous injuries and his face smashed to a pulp. The first challenge will be to identify the dead man.

(3) Then Caplan visits a former colleague (Rachel) who is dying of cancer in a hospice and has asked her friends (Caplan and Fergusson) to carry on with a cold case investigation she had been surreptitiously carrying out. Rachel is barely conscious and can’t explain clearly what she was investigating.

<i>Caplan said: ‘Rachel Ghillies wasn’t a stupid woman, and it’s bothered her enough that it’s still on her mind as she’s dying. People don’t use the last piece of energy they have for something that doesn’t bother them.’</i>

(4) Finally, the POV is briefly changed and we are witnesses to the kidnapping of Bethany Robertson. Soon afterwards, Caplan is asked to look into why she has disappeared, even though she hasn’t been missing long enough for it to become an official case. Bethany’s father is worried and has links to a former senior officer (Rachel’s husband who is now retired).

The middle part of the novel involves chasing all the clues and connections.

<i>It was the small things that would solve the case. The devil was in the details.</i>

By the 65% mark, Caplan is quite sure that she knows who the villains are, but the challenge is proving it, and finding the missing Bethany.

This is a fast paced thriller with an emphasis on unraveling the interconnections among several different cases. The only problems I had with it were: (1) keeping track of all the members of Caplan’s team, and (2) understanding how the Rod-Todd case fit into the overall picture.

“Out of the Dark” Will be released in North America on August 6, 2024.

Thanks to Severn House for providing an electronic copy of this book via NetGallry. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinions.

I absolutely loved this, such a well crafted storyline.....fantastic!!! cannot recommend it highly enough.

Sadly, Out of the Dark didn’t work for me. This was my first book in the DCI Caplan series, so maybe I missed some things in the first books. The plot had so much potential and was interesting, but the execution fell short for me. Overall it didn’t feel very cohesive. It opens with two dead bodies and an investigation starting, but then that investigation is only mentioned a few more times. And it still wasn’t clear to me what happened to them or why. I might have overlooked that part, but it just felt disconnected to the main storyline. I also struggled at times to follow the writing. There were parts with dialogue where it wasn’t clear who was speaking, or being spoken about. Pronouns were used but without specifying which he/she/him/her was being referred to.

I did really enjoy the police procedural aspect of this book. The most interesting parts were when Caplan was reviewing old cases and trying to connect the dots with her current case to past incidents.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

This is book 3 in the series featuring Christine Caplan and I think it is the best yet! I would recommend reading the series for background information but it can be read as a stand alone. I really like the solid plotting, interesting characterisation and the insight into Caplan's personal life, for once it is pretty settled without too much turmoil. Although the pace is steady, I found it worked really well as there are quite a few revelations along the way in the investigation of a young woman who has gone missing. The Scottish setting is beautifully described, as always, which takes the reader right to the heart of the action. I highly recommend the author, one who never disappoints. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Thanks to Caro and NetGalley for allowing me to read Out of the Dark before the publication date.
I won’t try to precis the book as that would involve spoilers.

This is the 3rd book in the series and definitely the best to date.
Although DCI Caplan’s family are involved in the story, it is in a smaller way. In the previous books, I found her husband Arklen to be an irritating distraction. Caplan’s character has a huge amount of patience.

The characters in the small team are now much better developed, possibly because Caplan has had time to get to know them and they are given more scope to work on their own instincts.

In the 2nd book, In Her Blood, DS Craigo demonstrated that his knowledge of the community and the vast area which they cover was invaluable. Now we get a bit more insight to the man who takes everything literally and has no filter, saying exactly what he thinks.
While Caplan and ACC Linden have been friends since their training days, there is no doubt that Linden would shop her granny for a promotion.

The politics of policing comes very much to the fore in this book with the bean counters unable to see beyond the spreadsheets to the service which Police Scotland should be providing. (Prove the case and then we will think about releasing the funding to investigate the crime).
Overall, it is a well spun story with a devious plot.