Prayer for the Dead by James Oswald (Inspector McLean, Book 5)

Prayer for the Dead is the fifth book in the Inspector McLean series by James Oswald. Anthony (Tony) McLean is a Detective Inspector in the City of Edinburgh. He tends to get the more challenging cases and even those that should be straight-forward – he “makes complicated” as his DCI likes to say.

In this story, Tony has been asked by Jo Dagliesh, his nemesis at the press, to look into the disappearance of one of her fellow reporters. Not long after, Tony is called to a murder scene deep inside a series of caverns beneath the City and discovers the body of the missing journalist. The body shows signs of a ritual “purification” but there is a surprising lack of forensic evidence. Another murder – and then another – both with some similarities to the first murder, lead Tony to believe that there is a serial killer loose in the City.

While Tony is dealing with these various murders, Madame Rose comes to him for assistance. She appears to have been targeted by a hate group that is trying to drive her out of her home. Tony does what he can to help her get to the bottom of the attacks.

The story was interesting and moved along at a decent pace but there were several storylines working at the same time and none were especially exciting. For the general lack of excitement, this entry in the series lost half a star from my typical rating for the series.

Rating: 3.5 stars