Close to the Bone

In Scottish author MacBride’s predictably grisly but cleverly twisted eighth thriller featuring Det. Insp. Logan McRae (after 2011’s Shatter the Bones), the Aberdeen cop looks into the case of a man found strangled and stabbed with a burning tire around his neck, suggesting a gangland execution. The local filming of a popular fantasy novel, Witchfire, makes Logan realize that the horrific manner of death is straight from the novel’s story of an alt-universe Scotland. Suspecting a crazed fan of turning fiction into reality, Logan revisits a neglected missing persons case, the disappearance of teenagers Agnes Garfield and Anthony Chung, uncovering disturbing connections. Saddled with an over-eager new underling, Det. Sgt. Lorna Chalmers, Logan must stay one step ahead of a killer whose crimes are becoming even more horrific. MacBride’s humor is as dark as his plot, and Logan continues to impress as a scarred but persevering hero. Agent: Philip Patterson, Marjacq Scripts. (May)