The Skeleton Road

Terrific read bringing in a diverse collection of characters that seemingly have no relationship. The back drop of the Balkan cultural and political differences that produced a modern day genocide provide a fascinating theme. My only hesitation in giving it 5 stars is that the ending was abrupt and did not allow for the resolution amongst all the characters. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it.

Val McDermid is excellent when she's is good, but this book is not one of those occasion.
The background setting (reminesence of the Balkan war) is interesting though unfortunately Ms. McDermid is joined by a number of writers lately coming up with the same idea.
When as a reader having figured out the motive/villain after finishing maybe half the story, it's just one long haul in an unexciting landscape.

Skeleton Road
Different from the other books I have read from Val McDermid. However, I did enjoy it although at times I felt the plot was a little disjointed. I was, however, disappointed in the ending.

A great read, contemporary issues of Croatia conflict are incorporated to make this a great mystery based on political juxtapositions. The pace is great, the characters clearly denoted. Much enjoyed.

Storyline was interesting and liked the main character Karen Pirie however the killer was predictable and I was half way through when I realised who it was. There were also several characters whose story running a parallel investigation didn't seem relevant. Whilst I enjoyed it I wouldn't say it was my favourite

i remember very little of this book as, plodder that I am, I just couldn't finish it. Characters just never seemed real. The thread of the story seemed to get snagged too often for me. i purchased this because I had read a good review. Just not for me.

Val McDermid's latest offering, The Skeleton Road, is a tour de force. In a brave and striking departure from her 'series' stories, this is a standalone psychological crime thriller. It's an excellent murder mystery which draws together a number of seemingly disparate threads.

DCI Karen Pirie heads up the cold case unit in the new Police Scotland. Strapped for resources and cash, she and her likeable sidekick have to deliver. A long dead corpse is discovered in a disused and inaccessible tower in Edinburgh. A man dies as he enters his apartment in Crete. Add an Oxford professor, war crime investigators, the Balkan conflict with themes of revenge, retribution, justice, loss and love, mix well and you have something of the flavour of this extraordinary story. I was absolutely gripped from start to finish.

A murder mystery moves seamlessly to an exploration of geopolitics and genocide; the breadth of this canvas is simply breathtaking. The plot moves back and forth between Edinburgh, Croatia and Oxford. A fascinating first person backstory is used to dramatic effect to both explain and keep the plot moving. I was reading rapidly with no idea how the threads could possibly be drawn to conclusion. And what an ending; I was left literally open mouthed at the final page. The great delight in this book is the empathy that builds for a central character. The minor players in the story are well fleshed out so people have a real feel to them. Ms McDermid knows what makes people tick. Her characters are strong and the psychological insights are perceptive and enthralling. I was left wondering who was capable of what and was wrong footed at every turn. There's a great sense of place too. I could visualise a fraught journey down the Queensferry Road and the war ravaged village in Croatia had me close to tears. Some very powerful writing!

This is a truly skilful and well crafted tale. I'd love to see further stories featuring Pirie, but maybe that's part of the skill. Knowing when to walk away leaving the reader breathless and wanting more. Gripping, thought provoking and just downright bang on story telling. This is one that'll stay with me for a while.

My thanks to publishers Little Brown for an early copy via Netgalley.

Publication Date: Available Now.

Source: Publisher Review Copy

When a skeleton is discovered hidden at the top of a crumbling, gothic building in Edinburgh, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is faced with the unenviable task of identifying the bones. As Karen's investigation gathers momentum, she is drawn deeper into a world of intrigue and betrayal, spanning the dark days of the Balkan Wars.

So a standalone book this time,(No Tony Hill) an excellent and very involving read showing once again that Val McDermid is pretty much in a class of her own when it comes to Crime Fiction.

Here we find Karen Pirie (A Darker Domain), on the cold case squad and tasked with discovering the identity of some remains discovered on the roof of a long abandoned building - as the case progresses she becomes embroiled in a vendetta with its roots in the Balkan Conflict.

Extremely gripping throughout, with a multi stranded story and some very haunting and evocative details about the atrocities in the Balkans, this was really part murder mystery and part history lesson, whilst still being highly entertaining. Some great characters (lets hope Karen returns one day) and a truly compelling tale of violence and judgement that was at times truly chilling, I found myself more interested in the past than the present, our victim being rather enigmatic I was really keen to find out the truth.

The mystery element is extremely well constructed as always, even though the murderer was fairly obvious I think that this added to the tale rather than took away from it - because the heart of the story was not "whodunnit" but a real opportunity to explore themes of loss and revenge. Ms McDermid as always does not pull any punches in her descriptive prose and this brings to horrific life the details of war and the atrocities that can occur, often unnoticed. I particularly liked how the focus was not on the "Headline" making events but rather on the smaller, violent occurrences that were going on daily and not always talked about.

Overall another brilliant read, some of the best crime fiction out there.

Happy Reading Folks!

I haven’t read anything by Val McDermid before (shock, horror!!) so didn’t really know what to expect but I have heard many good things about her previous books so took a punt and requested a copy via NetGalley and was approved by the publisher, Little, Brown Book Group UK to receive it in return for an honest review.

Set in Scotland, England and Croatia, the book follows the investigation into the murder of an unknown male found as a skeleton at the top of a derelict building in Edinburgh. The murder is put in the hands of the Historic Cases Unit and DCI Pirie who, with the help of her colleagues, discovers the identity of the body which leads her on a trip to Croatia and the discovery of secrets from the Yugoslav war of the 1990s. Running alongside Pirie’s investigation, we enter the world of two lawyers who work for the International Criminal tribunal who are attempting to find a killer who is assassinating war criminals. In amongst all this, we are transported into the world of Professor Maggie Blake, her relationship with a Croatian General and work in the underground universities in the former Yugoslavia.

This is a complex book with complex characters, interweaving timelines and historical events with the present. For me, it’s not particularly fast paced and it took a while to get into it but once I did, it held my interest to the end. The characters are believable and the locations are expertly described.

Would I recommend this book? In the main, yes but although it is described as a crime thriller, for me it lacked the “thrills” but is a great example of crime writing and story telling.

This is a standalone novel but chronologically it is the third novel featuring DCI Karen Pirie and published after The Distant Echo and A Darker Domain.

Val McDermid is one of my favourite authors and (along with another favourite of mine Stephen King) has that uncanny gift of being able to build up the plot slowly while introducing us to the characters and drawing us in so that we enjoy reading about the personality and background of each character before the story moves on and other characters are introduced and interwoven skilfully into the narrative. This is an intelligent, thought provoking and initially complex novel that moves effortlessly between time periods and the present day and also various different locations.
DCI Karen Pirie is head of the Historic Cases Unit for Police Scotland in Edinburgh, so when a skeleton with a bullet hole in the skull is found in a tower at the top of a deserted building in Edinburgh the case is assigned to her unit. The search first for the identity of the victim and then finding out why they were murdered, by whom and for what motive, takes her to Oxford and then to the Balkans where the atrocities of the Serbo-Croat War of 1991-1995 have some bearing on the case.
Meanwhile, the atrocities of the Balkans have not been forgotten by an Oxford academic, Professor Maggie Blake, an authority on the Balkan wars and a published author who in the present day is writing a memoir about her time during the siege of Dubrovnik when she chose to stay in the city with the love of her life, a General in the Croatian Army, giving the reader another perspective into the unfolding case with a book within a book.

There are more killings and another trail with different characters under pressure to solve cases that maybe connected to the skeleton in the tower.

I did guess the identity of one character towards the end before the denouement but not the whole story. The ending is a shocker!
Val McDermid must have undertaken a staggering amount of research on the Balkans to write this book and I see from the Acknowledgements at the end that some expert friends were consulted.
At times I just stopped reading this and hugged the book, as you do when you know you’re reading a good book. I read this for one of my, soon to be a regular feature on my blog, Switch Off Day, where all devices were turned off, social media went unchecked and I read a physical book made of paper. Bliss! That practice and this book are highly recommended?

Disappointing. As a huge Val McDermid fan any time I come across one of her books I haven't read I'll always put it on my "to read" pile. However, "Skeleton Road", was a very dry yarn that jumped all over the place in a 30 year time frame. From the early war years in the Balkans to current day life at Oxford. This one begins with local workman Fraser Jardine having to go onto the roof of the John Drummoned school building. The building vacant for some 20 odd years is going to come down. Jardine discovers an old skeleton in his walk through. Protagonist DCI Karen Pirie and her trusty sidekick DC Jason 'The Mint' Murray are called into investigate. DCI Pirie runs the "HCU", (Historic Crimes Unit- aka cold cases). Quickly forensic anthropologist Dr. River Wilde is called into run tests on the old skeleton. Dr. Wilde and DCI Pirie are best friends and have worked a few cases together. Meanwhile Professor Maggie Blake 50, an Oxford chair teaching geography at St. Scholastica College wonders what ever happened to her long lost boyfriend General Ditmar "Mija" Petrovic of Croatia who disappeared some eight years ago mysteriously. Blake's best friend Tessa Minogue a human rights attorney with many years in Croatia and other war torn places tries to to keep Maggie's spirits up Petrovic may return one day. Also Alan Macanespie and Theo Proctor lawyers for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sure would like to find Petrovic themselves.Even though this one was barely over 400 pages (Paperback), it read like it was 4,000. Seemingly it felt like it took forever to get this one into any type of gear. the 'Protagonist'- DCI Peirie was entirely too weak. disappearing for long periods in the book didn't help. The Pirie character wasn't crafted nearly well enough to get a sense of what she was like. Her relationship with Phil and the ending of the book were just silly. From the half way point on I kept thinking I'd just read the last couple chapters and be done with, "Skeleton Road", but I stuck it out to the the conclusion. I'd recommend to leave this one on the shelf, even if you're a big fan of Val McDermid as I am. Just two stars out of a possible five stars for, "Skeleton Road".........A dud.

I tend to like Val McDermid's plots while disliking her characters. That pattern held true with The Skeleton Road, which is either a stand-alone novel or (more likely) the first in a series.

As has become common in a certain kind of crime novel, DCI Karen Pirie is quick to tell everyone that she cares about crime victims and their grieving families more than anyone else in the police, or possibly the world. Pirie is a self-righteous, judgmental, self-important bully, which makes her a realistic police detective but an annoying character. Pirie is a clone of Paula McIntyre from McDermid's Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series, another character I find it difficult to stomach. Fortunately, while Pirie's personality never improves, it becomes more tolerable late in the novel as she encounters the kind of misfortune that builds sympathy for even an unsympathetic character.

McDermid follows the fashion trend of adding a forensic anthropologist to the story. The third woman who takes a leading role is Oxford Professor Maggie Blake, who is haunted by memories of the Balkans and is pining for Mitja Petrovic, a Croatian who disappeared from her life eight years earlier. The fourth central female character is a human rights lawyer who is Blake's best friend. In contrast to the brilliant women who carry the story, male characters are lazy dullards, officious a-holes, or murderers.

While I wasn't fond of the characters, I enjoyed the two intersecting plotlines. The first requires Pirie to solve the mystery of a skeleton with a bullet hole in its skull, found on the roof of an abandoned building. The second involves Balkan war criminals who are being assassinated before they can be hauled into international court, leading some to suspect that there is a leak in the office that investigates and prosecutes the crimes. They also suspect that Petrovic might be the assassin. Two bumbling and bickering Foreign Office lawyers are assigned to track down the leak.

Early chapters generally alternate the development of the separate plotlines, with interludes narrated by Blake as she recalls the romance with Petrovic that began while she was teaching feminist geopolitics in Croatia. The romance (which leaves Blake "weak in the knees") is too predictable and cheesy to be interesting. On the other hand, various scenes that take place in the Balkans give McDermid the opportunity to showcase the power with which she is capable of writing.

Substantial parts of The Skeleton Road are slow moving. That doesn't bother me when a book's setting, characters, or prose capture my attention, but some stretches of the novel struck me as being dull and unnecessary. Had this been a tighter novel, I would have been a happier reader.

Despite its flaws, The Skeleton Road's plot threads eventually cohere into a strong, engaging story. Some aspects -- particularly the willingness of Police Scotland to send Pirie to Croatia in pursuit of a cold case that has generated no particular suspect -- struck me as wildly implausible, but that's common in modern thrillers. The resolution to the novel's key mystery is telegraphed early and I didn't quite believe the killer's motivation for the killings (much less the killer's ability to commit them, a detail that McDermid ignores). Still, I got caught up in the story during the final chapters and that, together with McDermid's fluid prose, is enough to earn my recommendation.

Painful page-turner of a police procedural, wrapped around the horrors of the long war in the Balkans during the 1990s, especially focused on Croatia and the people who lived through them and who give the human-drama view of the whole thing--Maggie, the British professor, expert in geopolitics and lover of Mitja, the Croatian intelligence expert wrapped tightly in all that happened in his home village and his country, and their close friend Tessa, also entangled in the whole dreadful drama. Unsolvable assassinations of war criminals and the central murder that left a skeleton on a roof, the solution sought by both Police Scotland (Karen Pirie, one of my favorite DCIs) and the Department of Justice plodding pair of investigators driven by a new and ambitious boss. The ways the backstory is revealed bit by bit is done in the cleverest ways I've ever seen backstory woven in to the main plot. So smooth, never a diverted pathway in a mystery I was eager to see worked through! I am so glad I started the Karen Pirie novels and after this second one I've read, cannot wait to get on to all the others. Spectacular read!

The brief prologue of Val McDermid’s newest book describes the brutal murder in Crete of a man whose throat is cut, the first of many killings, both old and new, described in this fascinating novel. The second one becomes evident when a skeleton is found on the roof of a building in Edinburgh that was about to be demolished. The case is assigned to DCI Karen Pirie and her second-in-command, DC Jason Murray, of the Historic Cases Unit (as cold cases in Police Scotland are called), aided by Karen’s best friend, Dr. River Wilde, forensic anthropologist “the nearest thing Karen had to a best friend. Cursed by her hippie parents with a name nobody could take seriously, River had worked harder and smarter than any of her colleagues to earn respect beyond dispute.

We are soon introduced to Professor Maggie Blake, self-described geography professor at Oxford, turning 50 as the book opens and a distinguished academic, prolific author, beloved tutor and efficient snapper-up of research grants.” Maggie is still trying to get past the fact that her significant other, a man she’d met in Dubrovnik in 1991 when he was 32, a retired Croatian general who was a NATO security advisor in Bosnia and a UN monitor in Kosovo, had gone of the grid and disappeared from her life eight years ago. She too has a best friend, Tessa Minogue, a lawyer “who dealt in the thorny moral dilemmas of human rights,” involved in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The book’s over-riding theme is that the world was more complex than it was comfortable to admit, as this book makes clear in its own complexities. There is much here about the massacres in the Balkans in the later years of the 20th century. Maggie has written a book about the consequences of the siege of Dubrovnik, but is now working on the story of “how she came to be there [and] the convoluted journey that had led her to Kosovo with its massacres and rape camps.” Interspersed through the tale are chapters of that work-in-progress. There are ongoing investigations of eleven instances of ICTFY targets being assassinated in what is believed to be someone’s idea of vigilante justice, and all of the investigations of these murders, old or current, converge in a fascinating plot with great historical detail, leading up to a suspenseful and jaw-dropping denouement, and the book is recommended.

The old Victorian John Drummond School in historic Edinburgh had been abandoned for the last twenty years – it had had its share of squatters and the like, but now the building was being checked for stability; the old battlements, turrets and pinnacles needed to be assessed before it could be converted into flats. The unexpected shock of finding skeletal remains in one of the turrets would haunt the young man forever, he just knew it.

Cold case detective Karen Pirie was called in to start the investigation – the forensic people assured her this wasn’t a recent death; the vicinity of six to ten years was what was likely. Karen wasn’t sure where to start as identification would be a problem given the state of the skeleton. But as she dug deeply, she discovered something unsettling – could this death be connected to the terrible wars in the Balkans?

As Karen bounced her thoughts off her detective husband Phil, she realized that as usual using him as a sounding board was effective. But suddenly there were more people involved in this case than she had wanted – a spate of murders across the continent was hovering at the edge of her investigation as well. What was going on? Who had this enigmatic person been? The depth of the deep, dark secrets were soon going to be uncovered – but at what cost?

I thoroughly enjoyed this stand-alone novel by Val McDermid – gripping, suspenseful and full of tension, it was everything I love in a thriller. Though I worked out the killer around half way through the book, it certainly didn’t spoil the enjoyment of the story for me. I have no hesitation in recommending The Skeleton Road highly.

I had completely forgotten that I had read a previous book in this series. And, I'm actually pretty grateful for it when it was not a book that I found particularly interesting. I'm a big fan of Val McDermids Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, but I have not really found time to explore her other books so I found it interesting to read this book and to some extent did I think it was really good. However, was quite easy to figure out who was behind the murder of the man, who was found shot, on the roof of a building. I just felt quickly that I knew who was the killer and it turned out I was right.

But, I found the story interesting, despite that, I especially liked the story's different point of views. First, we have Karen Pirie trying to solve the murder, then we have Professor Maggie Blake who is linked to the case, in some way. We also get Maggie's past as she writes down her memory from the Balkan War and how she met a man there that she came to love and loose. Finally, we have two lawyers who are assigned to find a person who kills the criminals before they are brought to justice.

Personally, I could have lived without the two lawyers from the International Criminal Tribunal. They were very ridiculous and their chapters were the least interesting to read. If they had been more serious and not so silly they might have been much more interesting to read about.

The case itself was interesting, I liked the connection to the former Yugoslavia and I personally liked Maggie's story the best, both her past in Yugoslavia and her present life in England. And I can honestly say that thanks to her story did this book turn out to be quite good!

Thanks to Alfabeta Bokförlag for the review copy!

This review was originally published on my blog: Fictionophile

Much, much more than a mere police procedural "The Skeleton Road" is actually three simultaneous narratives. Didactic in nature, the novel is meticulously researched and enlightens the reader in an entertaining way.

When an eight-year old skeleton is found atop an abandoned Edinburgh school - the case falls to DI Karen Pirie and her Cold Case Squad. The skeleton, with a single gunshot in his skull, was jammed into a pinnacle on the roof. He proves to be a middle-aged man of Eastern European descent. When Karen and her squad attempt to discern the identity of the deceased man things begin to get complicated.

With myriad characters, the narrative shifts from Scotland and the murder inquiry, to Oxford, England and professor Maggie Blake, a geopolitical expert. Maggie was in Croatia during the siege of Dubrovnik and has written and lectured on the subject of The Croatian War of Independence. She met her husband there, as well as her best friend Tessa Minogue. Her husband, Croatian General Dimitar "Mitja" Petrovic, vanished without a word eight years ago... She always assumed he had returned to Croatia.

Meanwhile, the third narrative features The Department of Justice employees who are investigating the vigilante killings of war criminals. Their research has led them to believe that General Petrovic is the vigilante they seek and they aim to bring him up before a tribunal for his offenses.

I can understand how some readers might despair of keeping the many characters and plot clear in their minds. But rest assured, seasoned novelist Val McDermid turns them into one cohesive whole with strong characterizations and a firm grip on her subject matter. The third novel to feature Detective Inspector Karen Pirie and her Historic Cases Unit, "The Skeleton Road" can easily be read as a stand-alone. Perhaps this is because in this particular novel the police procedural aspect is secondary to the other story lines.

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Skeleton Road" though it does not follow the regular formula of a mystery novel. Laced with elements of history and politics, it served as an enjoyable way of educating myself on the recent history of the Serbo-Croatian conflict while also retaining elements of a traditional police procedural. The ending packs an emotional wallop and induces the reader to follow Karen Pirie's exploits in further novels.

What I liked about the book - good writing with a somewhat good plot. 'Somewhat' because I easily guessed who dunnit, although for a different motive than I thought (plus to the author for that small twist). Dialogue was well written - it was very clear who was speaking at all times and it seemed natural (with exception - see below).

What I didn't like: Way too long - the interspersed Balkan narrative shortly became a bore and, along with other padding, made the book at least 50 pages longer than necessary. The feminist framework of the novel is ridiculous. All the living male characters are idiots outside of the heroine's mate, who, we are reminded, realizes he is not as smart as her but he's ok with that. What a laugh. Lastly, the novel immediately reminded me of a BBC crime drama: mandatory academic setting, professors with worthless degrees who try to save the world (or at least the Balkans in this case) and the attempts to be edgy with token lesbianism and bi-sexualism (heterosexual characters would have sufficed). Oh, and of course the obligatory "f**k" thrown in when the going gets a wee bit tough. Since I gave up on BBC detective dramas a long time ago, this will be the last time I read something from this author. I'm glad I picked the book up at the library and didn't purchase it.

The good thing about this book, as with all McDermid's, is that it's a great page-turner. Despite the complex subject matter - the aftermath of war in the Balkans - she keeps the narrative flowing. Inevitably there's a certain amount of exposition, especially at the beginning, but she keeps us interested in the three strands of the story - the investigation of a murder in Edinburgh, the disappearance of a Croatian general from Oxford and the assassination of Serbian war criminals across the world.

However, the book was not as good as it could have been. Firstly, there are some weaknesses in the plot and I guessed the ending from quite early on.

Then there are some issues with voice and structure. The voice is a constant in McDermid's work. She writes in a very plain, almost journalistic style. This is a positive in most cases, in that it makes for an easy and engaging read. But it is shown up short here because part of the story is supposedly told in the first person account of Professor Maggie Blake, the Oxford academic who was in love with the Croatian general.

Blake conveniently decides to write about their time together under siege in Dubrovnik, just as the book begins and her life is thrown into crisis. However, Blake's voice is exactly the same as that of the main narrative. There is none of the close observation and insight you would expect from an academic writing about the most intense period of her personal and professional life. Her account feels like a device to move the story on, rather than a serious effort to get inside the character, which is never fully developed.

The third strand of the novel concerns two employees of the International Criminal Tribunal. They never come alive for me. They are apparently junior enough to be intimidated by a boss in a designer suit, but so senior they are tasked with travelling round Europe to investigate a high-level mole. They're not quite funny enough to be comic characters, and not serious enough to be convincing.

The book is at its best with recurring character DCI Karen Pirie and her investigation of the Edinburgh murder. I love her doggedness, her awkwardness, the mixture of exasperation and affection she feels for her hapless DC. I think that McDermid is strongest in these sections of the book because she has really taken the time to know and understand her characters and their setting. With the other characters too often she's telling us how they feel rather than conveying it through their actions or dialogue.

I sometimes wish Val McDermid wrote less. We know she can write great books. In novels like Wire in the Blood and The Last Temptation there was a real complexity of characterisation and a strong emotional involvement which I haven't felt in her recent novels. This is an entertaining read but it could have been much better if she'd invested more time in getting to know her characters and developing the plot.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

First up, some clarification. THE SKELETON ROAD is being marketed as a stand-alone work. It is not. While Val McDermid’s latest novel certainly stands well on its own, it is the second of her books (after 2009’s A DARKER DOMAIN) to feature Karen Pirie, a Scottish cold case detective. This is important because 1) those with long memories who have been reading McDermid’s work might think they are experiencing déjà vu all over again when they encounter Pirie again for the first time, and 2) those who read THE SKELETON ROAD will want more of Pirie, and immediately.

McDermid, as is the case with the majority of her novels, gives the reader more than a standard whodunit. THE SKELETON ROAD has elements of a classic mystery, but also, at least for the first half of the book, creates a “whoisit” puzzle and incorporates a “whydunit” angle into what follows on the way to solving the mystery. The main story kicks off nicely with the accidental discovery of a long-decomposed body concealed on the rooftop of an abandoned building in Edinburgh. McDermid gives us an interesting look at police procedural in general and forensic science in particular as Pirie, utilizing resources at her disposal that Dick Tracy could only dream of, slowly but methodically establishes the age of the deceased at the time of death and, with a bit of computerized legerdemain, links the remains to a (somewhat) dormant bank account and a hotel room.

The narrative is not all police work, however. Pirie’s investigation dovetails nicely into a separate investigation by two government attorneys who are on an odd couple do-or-die mission. They have been tasked to discover who is systematically killing Serbian war criminals who are delaying the ultimate justice they have earned or avoiding it altogether. They suspect that it is the work of Dimitar Petrovic, a Croatian army officer who may be exacting a strong measure of long-delayed revenge over atrocities committed during the Third Balkan War. Petrovic, who abruptly left his paramour --- a college professor regarded as an expert in the conflict --- some eight years before, has seemingly returned. But why now?

Pirie gets drawn into the investigation when the identity of the long-decomposed corpse is ultimately revealed. Her quest to identify the killer takes her to an all-but-abandoned village in Croatia where a somewhat unexpected source directs her back to Great Britain. Here, a long-festering secret is played out even as revenge continues to take its toll.

McDermid defies expectations and stereotypes throughout THE SKELETON ROAD, touching briefly on such contemporary issues as Scottish secession and war crimes. She keeps things moving quickly, switching points of view on a regular basis while never allowing any of the plot threads that she so skillfully weaves to become tangled. What is perhaps most noteworthy about the book, though, is its unpredictability. Even if you guess one or more elements of what lies at the foundation of this mystery, you will never predict them all, or the shocking ending, where everything goes bottoms up while creating the possibility of a sequel or two. This is a work that should please McDermid’s army of stalwart fans while attracting a legion of new ones.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

I had mixed reactions to Val McDermid's cleverly titled novel, a murder investigation which leads to exploring the deep issues within global conflict, and how love, in its widest reaches, and revenge, are not by any means in opposition to each other, but bedfellows.

Karen Pirie, a remarkably and satisfyingly well-functioning DCI, (not a dysfunctional `maverick'!) who heads up the `Cold Cases' Unit is investigating a dead body found in a rather surprising location. The case leads her to a meeting with Maggie Blake, an Oxford professor of geopolitics. Blake was involved in underground liberal/radical feminist education programmes, and war relief programmes in Croatia, during the Serbo-Croat and wider war taking place after the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Pirie and Blake are both strong, extremely likeable, plausible intelligent complex women, well-functioning, both have strong friendships, and either have, or had, good supportive relationships with their respective other halves. Neither are dysfunctional.

Meanwhile, during the wind-up of the war crimes investigations unit, a couple of lawyers are involved in another enquiry, as their brisk and dynamic new broom of a boss tries to uncover the reason why so many war criminals, with lengthy cases prepared against them, appear to meet underground rough justice and be offed before the slow legal wheels bring them to trial

The narrative effectively unfolds in 4 voices, and the book constantly cuts between them Blake has a third person voice in the present, though her history throughout the 90s is a first person narrative. It took me a little time to work out what was going on here, and why. Pirie's voice (third person narrative) is the other major strand

The two `buffoons' from ICTFY, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Macanespie and Proctor, are almost like a world weary, seedier version of those beloved characters originally appearing in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, Charters and Caldicott, who then recycled into other films and even a TV series of their own. They add humour in their bumbling, often rather inept investigation and love/hate rivalry. Without these two, the story would be unremitting in its bleakness.

So - in effect, there are 3 investigations, plus a fourth, run by Pirie's partner, also a cop, heading up a different division investigating domestic violence crimes.

My `with reservation' reactions to The Skeleton Road, which did not really abate till around half way through the book, were caused by the problems of marrying excellent research and explanation into the novel form. In order to give the reader the information needed to understand the background, McDermid uses the device of having characters deliver lectures to each other, even when both of them know the same facts, and have drawn similar conclusions. This tricky, clumsy device is for our edification, and is not part of `narrative and character in relationship'

I was absolutely drawn into `being clearly taught complex information and the history of the conflict within former Yugoslavia', (McDermid's journalistic background and ability to explain complexity clearly much in evidence) but aware that there were sections which were breaking the back of the needs of a novel . The narrative and the psychology of character were ring-fenced and to a certain extent on hold as these were forced to carry the burden of reader instruction.

And then, finally, came a tipping point. Pirie and Blake eventually connect and pool their knowledge, skills and professional abilities, as for different reasons they are drawn to uncover something in the very dark history of that `former Yugoslavia' and the conflict after (and before) Yugoslavia came into being. From that point, the novel as a novel, where the `about', the narrative, and the psychology of believable character and action work beautifully together, held me fast.

I do, strongly, recommend this, even if the earlier parts of the novel, though excellent, are not quite `excellently a novel'

I received this as a copy for review purposes, from the publisher, Little, Brown via NetGalley. My digital review copy had quite a lot of awkward typographical errors, which I assume will have been eradicated in the paid for download

Very unusual investigation of the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans. I would have said "in the 1990s" except the author convinced me that they were merely a continuation of the same conflicts that began many centuries ago (and continue in a barely under the surface today). Turning these conflicts into a spy/mystery story filled with perfectly drawn characters was exceptionally well done. I am considering reading more of this author's works soon.

This was my first experience with DCI Karen Pirie, but it will not be my last. At the beginning were too many characters and events that seemed totally unconnected. The author brought everything together by describing some historical events that involved all. The ending was extraordinary and unexpected, but was very logical because of the way the situation was built up.

A Scottish murder mystery with Balkan roots. DCI Karen Pirie as the Historical Crimes Unit are sent to investigate a skeleton found in an old Edinburgh building. Short of immediate clues they call on forensics to aid with identification and start an investigation that takes them to Oxford and beyond. They quickly establish the victim from Croatia but with no apparent connections to the house in Edinburgh but an important General in the Balkan wars of the 1990's. The story is good however it good have been improved by omitting some of the background flashbacks which were overdone. It is also easy to see the author is Scottish and with the impending referendum appears to be insecure, as all things Scottish are also unnecessarliy overdone.

The twining of past and present along with the intersecting goals of two sets of characters made for an Interesting read. The story raises many questions about the nature of justice and who should administer it.

I was fortuante enough to receive a proof copy of this book via Netgalley. I have been a fan of Val McDermids for years but this is a new departure in psychological suspense. I really enjoyed the back story set in the Balkans as well as the dramatic prologue. I did manage to guess the ending but only just before the denouement and to be honest this book had me gripped as it’s cleverly written. As usual, the author’s skill is revealed in the development of the characters who are superbly portrayed. There’s a lot happening with plots and subplots but personally that appeals to me.

The Balkan Wars of the 1990's --- also labeled the Yugoslav Wars --- took place over a period of 8 years and featured a battle for the ethnic identity of the territory formally known as Yugoslavia. It involved specific battle between Serbs and Albanians. Like all wars, there were moments of deep horror and war crimes that left scars not easily healed over time.

This conflict is at the heart of Val McDermid's latest novel, THE SKELETON ROAD. A stand-alone novel that starts out as a simple cold case murder and develops into something much deeper. In Edinburgh, Scotland, DCI Karen Pirie catches the case that involves a group of bones discovered atop a crumbling, gothic building.

The old building was about to be torn down and converted into luxury flats when the bones are discovered. Initially, the thought was that the bones must belong to a thrill-seeker who was participating in the high-rise scaling of abandoned buildings. Pirie can only hope it is something so easily explained as the death of a foolish daredevil. Unfortunately, further examination traces the origin of the bones to as far away as Yugoslavia.

Pirie insists on seeing this cold case closed and finds herself traveling to a small village in Croatia to physically unearth further remains that will help her identify why foreign bones were found in her Scottish town. She will get more than she bargained for as she comes up against a nation of people who have endured terrible horrors in their lifetime and the mysterious death of one person is not taken as seriously as Pirie would like it to be.

War crimes are at the center of this mystery and DCI Pirie will quickly learn that there are many different types of justice administered in this world and what she is now involved in does not at all resemble her own experience with it. THE SKELETON ROAD is a very serious novel and moves quickly away from mystery into political and social commentary. McDermid is a terrific writer and I respect the statement she is making with this novel --- I just didn't find myself nearly as interested as I've been in her terrific prior work (particularly the Tony Hill series).

Reviewed by Ray Palen for New Mystery Reader

I enjoyed this book, and also felt like I learned more about the Croation and Serbian war than I had known previously. I love this author, she engages my interest to the end of the story. The characters are strong and interesting.