The Book of Souls: A Detective Inspector McLean Novel

At the outset of Oswald’s engrossing second Det. Insp. Anthony McLean novel (after Natural Causes), the Edinburgh detective is still reeling from the decade-old murder of his fiancée, Kirsty Summers, by a brutal serial killer. Donald Anderson (aka the Christmas Killer), who was apprehended by McLean, insisted at his trial that the Book of Souls, a volume he bought at a house clearance sale, had forced him to abduct and murder his female victims. Shortly after Anderson is knifed to death in prison, someone commits three murders following Anderson’s m.o. Det. Chief Insp. Charles Duguid, McLean’s superior, undermines the new investigation, which McLean heads, while journalist Joanne Dagliesh, author of a bestseller about Anderson, publicly questions the credibility of the original investigation. The pressure escalates when a fourth woman is snatched, and the police must find her before she’s killed. Readers will eagerly await the next installment. Agent: Marc Gerald, Agency Group. (July)