This is a ripper read! Detectives George and Richie, who featured in Laura McCluskey’s debut novel The Wolf Tree, make a welcome return in this gripping crime thriller, this time set in the Scottish Highlands. Smartly paced and totally addictive, the reader is thrust into a murder investigation when a victim’s body is found on ‘the cursed road’. The case morphs into something far bigger when a connection between the murder and a long-standing unsolved missing person’s investigation is revealed. With a cast of intriguing characters, and the rugged landscape serving not only as a backdrop but also a crucial component of the story, this is escapist crime fiction of the highest order.

Central to the book is the fantastic Inspector Georgina Lennox – George – whose sassy nature and quick wit, as well as her astute intelligence and at times hot temper, endear her to the reader. Along with her more experienced policing partner Richie, together they negotiate and argue about how to get answers from a sometimes-reluctant community unwilling to spill all its secrets. Still recovering from the fame they achieved in solving the case central to The Wolf Tree, the two detectives are nursing injuries – physical and psychological – as they embark on this new investigation.

Set largely in the (fictional) town of Kirkcree, the clashes between villagers over contested versions of history are a strong feature of the book, along with the town’s ambivalence about the prominence of deer hunting as a tourist attraction. As wealthy visitors seek to secure their own ‘trophies’, activists try to prevent the gruesome hunts. There is also a journalist sniffing around, trying to get a big scoop; a bumbling colleague; a shady character seeking refuge; and good-hearted, ordinary people just trying to make a living and get by.

A truly fantastic and engaging read and, dare I say it, even better than her debut novel, I can highly recommend this terrific book which will transport you straight to the highlands. I can’t wait for the next instalment of George’s adventures. (I hope there is one!)