This is the seventh book in the Scottish crime series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jack Logan.

After all the lives lost and people who were hurt in the previous book, which took place almost a year previously, Jack blamed himself and left the police.

Back in Inverness, Sinead Bell had recently moved to the Major Investigations Team from Uniform and was now a fully-fledged Detective Constable. As the book opens, she shows up in the pub in Orkney where Logan has been working, and tells him they need his help on a case. In fact, on all cases; they want him to come back and be their Detective Chief Inspector again. No one liked his replacement, DCI Sam Grant, or “Snecky,” and in any event, Snecky wanted to transfer to Aberdeen and try his luck there with a different team. But he could not be released until a replacement was found.

The new Detective Superintendent in Inverness, Chucki Mitchell, is gay, black, and a woman, but as Logan finds when he comes to talk to her, she is competent and authoritative, and tells Logan that if he would “decide to grace us with your presence,” there will be no more breaking the rules and turning a blind eye to anything. In fact, he will have to meet with Professional Standards before starting, and worse for Logan, who gained weight over the past year, he will have to pass a fitness test. He does so only thanks in part to the assistance of the pathologist, Shona Maguire, who begrudgingly forgives him for not having been in touch the whole time he was gone.

Somehow he manages both hurdles put in place by the DS (just barely, in the case of the fitness test), and jumps right into the Frey with the discovery in Fort Augustus of the brutally murdered bodies of a woman in her late thirties and her six-year-old daughter.

The team, made up of Detective Inspector Ben Forde, newly promoted Detective Sergeant Hamza Khaled, Detective Constable Tyler Neish, Sinead, and Constable David Davidson helping with Exhibits, soon have a suspect in custody. They realize their error however when a second mother and child are killed in the same way. They know they must hurry and find out who is committing these atrocities before there are more victims.

Evaluation: This book is more focused on the personal developments with the team than the crimes, although there are still plenty of scary moments, twists, and tension. This series is addictive for those who appreciate thrillers. ( )

Thoroughly enjoyed this what a great series this has been. Have preordered the next. Won't be long till next in series ( )