The second book I have read from this author and another excellent mystery, unfortunately I read them out f sequence, but the story was very good. It is about a serial killer copying the murders of a previous serial killer called the Christmas killer. It was not predictable at all, and it takes place in Edinburgh Scotland in December, and the authors descriptions of the icy cold and drabness and measurably to the story. ( )

Swedish review

Varje år under ett decennium hittades en ung kvinnas kropp vid jultid i Edinburgh: naken, med halsen avskuren, kroppen rentvättad. Tio år, tio kvinnor. Det sista offret, Kirsty Summers, var kriminalkommissarie Tony McLeans flickvän. Men Julmördaren begick ett misstag. I en källare under en butik hittade McLean en tortyrkammare och satte stopp för serien av brutala mord.

Tolv år senare har en medfånge just mördat den inspärrade Julmördare. Men när julhelgen kommer dyker en kropp upp. En ung kvinna: naken, rentvättad, med halsen avskuren. Är det en copycat-mördare? Har fel man suttit bakom galler alla dessa år? Eller finns det en ännu mörkare och otäckare förklaring? Kommissarie McLean måste återuppta sitt livs otäckaste fall och komma på vad han har missat innan mördaren slår till igen...

Själarnas bok är uppföljaren Flickoffret, den första delen i Inspector McLean serien. Jag läste Flickoffret några veckor innan jag läste Själarnas bok så jag har handlingen från första boken i färskt minne. Jag gillar denna serie, jag gillar speciellt det övernaturliga inslagen som präglar böckerna. det gör att serien känns lite annorlunda att läsa jämförelsevis med andra kriminalare. Men, det är inga vampyrer eller zombier i handlingen, det är mer som om det onda i världen faktiskt kan ha demoniskt ursprung osv.

I första boken fick man reda på lite of Tony's flickvän Kirsty som blev mördad av Julmördaren. I denna bok får man reda på mer vad som hände och hur mördaren togs fast. Men för Tony innebär det nya fallet med unga döda kvinnor en smärtsam påminnelse om Kirstys död. Jag fann denna bok inte lika bra som första boken, handlingen är intressant. Men jag fann vissa delar av boken lite segare att läsa än första boken, och jag saknade spänningen från första boken. Och, jag hade en misstanke rätt tidigt om vem det kunde vara som låg bakom morden, så jag var var inte jätteöverraskad när det visade sig att jag hade rätt.

Dock var slutet riktigt bra, med konfrontationen mellan Tony och mördaren. men vad som verkligen fick mig att haja till är vad som hände i det sista kapitlet. Wow säger jag bara, det hade jag inte räknat med!

Tack Pocketförlaget för recensionsexemplaret!

English review

Each year for ten years, a young woman’s body was found in Edinburgh at Christmastime: naked, throat slit, body washed clean. The final victim, Kirsty Summers, was Detective Constable Tony McLean's fiancée. But the Christmas Killer made a mistake, and McLean put an end to the brutal killing spree.

It’s now twelve years later. A fellow prisoner has just murdered the incarcerated Christmas Killer. But with the arrival of the festive season comes a body. A young woman: naked, washed, her throat cut. Is this a copycat killer? Was the wrong man behind bars all this time? Or is there a more frightening explanation? McLean must revisit the most disturbing case of his life and discover what he missed before the killer strikes again . . .

The Book of Souls is the second book in the Inspector McLean series. I read the first book, Natural Causes a couple of weeks ago and that's nice to have the first book in fresh memory. I like this series very much, I especially like the paranormal aspects, it makes this series a bit different from other crime series. It's not like it's vampires, or zombies running around, it's more like it's a darkness in the world with things like demon possessions, etc.

We got to find out some things about Tony's girlfriend that died in the first book, but here we get the whole story. How she was killed and how the murderer was caught. For Tony is the new case a painful reminder of Kirsty's death. However, I did find the book not as riveting as the first book, don't get me wrong it was still good. But, I just found the book a bit less thrilling to read. And, I did have a suspicious feeling quite early of whom could be behind the new killings, so I wasn't that surprised when it turned out I was right.

Though, the ending was really good with the confrontation between Tony and the killer. However, what really got to me was the last chapter. Wow, I never expected that in a million years!

ThanksPocketförlaget for the review copy! ( )

This is the 2nd Inspector Tony McLean novel.
Set in Edinburgh there is a copy cat Christmas killer on the loose.
Mclean has a personal interest as the Christmas Killer now dead murdered his fiancée several years ago.
Mclean is getting pressure from his Superiors to solve a drugs problem there is also issues with arsonists and Mclean's home is burned down.
He then moves into his Dead Grand Mothers house.
The Copy Cat killer has killed 3 woman and abducts Emma who is McLean's new Girlfriend. Right in the nick of time McLean and his colleague Kirsy Ritchie save Emma.
The new killer was a Policeman called Needham who was obsessed with the original killer.
OK book. ( )

James Oswald continues his popular Inspector McLean crime series with The Book of Souls. In this novel, Detective Inspector Tony McLean of Edinburgh CID is thrust into an investigation that resurrects troubling events from the past. More than a decade earlier, McLean apprehended Donald Anderson, or the “Christmas Killer” as he came to be known, but not before Anderson claimed one final victim: McLean’s fiancée Kirsty. Over a ten-year period, once a year during the Christmas season, Anderson abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered a total of ten young women in horrific fashion and left each body tethered in a stream or culvert where the water washed it clean of evidence. At the beginning of The Book of Souls, Anderson has himself been murdered in prison. But shortly after his death, new murder victims start to turn up: young women who have fallen prey to a killer mimicking Anderson’s abduction-assault-murder pattern and whose bodies are left to wash clean in moving water. The tragic difference in these cases is that the killer is apparently not limiting himself to a single annual victim, and McLean and his colleagues soon find themselves looking at a murder spree that’s claimed three lives. At the same time, police are dealing with a major drug operation that’s drained manpower from the murder case, and McLean is also investigating a series of arson fires, one of which—midway through the book—destroys the building where his apartment is located, forcing him to relocate to his aunt’s house. To McLean’s intense annoyance, speculation appears in the press that Anderson might not be responsible for all of the Christmas murders and that the real killer is still at large. James Oswald has quickly established DI Tony McLean as an appealing protagonist with a tragic past, a brooding, solitary, impulsive nature, and a stubborn streak that often lands him in hot water with his superiors. What saves him from being fired or seriously disciplined is his uncanny ability to decipher a tangle of seemingly unconnected bits of evidence into a meaningful pattern, and thus crack the case and prove his unique value to the force. The story is knotty and swiftly paced. Oswald’s prose is more than serviceable, crackling with wry observations about human nature and Scottish life and customs, and taking every opportunity to wring atmosphere from the shadowy and vaguely menacing Edinburgh setting. The Book of Souls is gripping and unfailingly entertaining from start to finish and a worthy successor to Oswald’s first McLean novel, Natural Causes. ( )

Police procedural set in Edinburgh. An improvement on the first book, supernatural elements were present but didn't detract. The final victim was a little predictable. ( )