Cause of death by Peter Ritchie.
DCI Grace Macallan's career has hit a serious roadblock. When a covert police operation in Northern Ireland goes badly wrong, she's faced with a painful decision: lie to save a young officer's career, or tell the truth and ruin her own reputation. For Grace, there can be only one answer. Reassigned to the newly formed Lothian & Borders Major Crime Team.
A very good read with good characters. I liked the story. 3*.

Cause of Death is the first installment in the Grace Macallan series by Peter Ritchie. Ritchie spent years on the police force in Scotland, working in numerous departments and getting a first-hand look at what actually goes on in crime in that country. The books in the series take place in Edinburgh, and rules in that country differ from police departments in the US. Grace Macallan is a unique character and has made a few bad decisions that have gotten her a reputation and some enemies. She transfers to Edinburgh from Belfast where she had previously messed up.

While the characters are interesting, they are not particularly well-developed and readers may not feel that they are real. Hopefully, as the series continues, readers will get more information and learn more about them so that they can relate to them. Readers will find that the characters do more drinking and have more sexual encounters than investigating the crimes they are supposed to be solving in the task force, and it is a miracle that they get anything done. The characters seem to be from the lower classes and their language and mannerisms prove it.

Unfortunately, at the beginning of the novel, the prose goes back and forth from real time to the past to let readers know the history of Grace Macallan, and the book is difficult to get into. The foreign setting gives the book an intriguing twist, and, while sometimes hard to understand, makes for educating readers on the differences between the culture in Scotland and the culture in the US.

Readers who enjoy police procedurals will most likely enjoy this series; the setting adds some charm, and the plot is good.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

*thank you to Netgalley, Peter Ritchie and Black & White Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*


3 stars.

This was off to a slow start. I felt that there was not enough interesting inforand it was a bit of a struggle to push through. There is also quite a bit of swearing which turned me off this but I eventually ended up skipping those words. I can handle the odd swear word here and there but this was a bit much.

The story did pick up though and once it got going it was enjoyable enough. I quite liked Grace and would like to keep reading more about her in the rest of this series. I think I would have like this more if it was trimmed down a bit. I felt that the first half of this book was just too much details that weren't all necessary.

Very strong central female cop - newly arrived after a bout of difficult cases in Northern Ireland- shefits into the importantcrime team,meeting old timers anda new ambitious head - an attraction if struck up - but the old timer is hidling something and perhaps what seems like a renewed lease of life and love with the head is not what it seems - she's better and the narrator tells us he probably cannot handle it. Lots of intelligent ruminatinosabout characters but commentary intrudes. All very effective but in some ways it's all too smooth, too predictable - but I like Grace, the woman headed for the heights - and I hope this is the beginning of a series. Very effective.

Oh wow this book was brilliant.
DCI Grace Mccallan has a decision to make. Should she lie to protect a colleague or tell the truth and ruin her own career?
Grace has left Northern Ireland and does not know what to expect when she joins a new team. She is partnered with DS Mick Harkins and he is a old school police officer. You can see that there is a relationship beginning between them it was a nice added touch that I didn't see coming

Their first case is to solve the murders of Mr and Mrs Yip.. Can they solve the case?
A great read that keeps you guessing, a brilliant book.
I really thought that Grace was a really strong female detective who has been through so much and I loved it when the book went back to her past so you could really feel for her .
A great new book and I really think that this series has so much more to look forward to. I hope that we get to see the relationship bloom in the future between them both.

Absolutely fantastic, first rate police procedural that I enjoyed very much. I liked the story line, the characters, the setting, I don't think there was anything about this book that I didn't like. I picked this book up and didn't put it down until I had finished it, I just had to keep going I literally couldn't put it down. A very well deserved big fat 5 stars. An excellent book that I highly recommend.

This is the review I posted on goodreads:

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great start to a new detective series featuring Grace Macallan. She seems to be a perfect balance of naughty and nice. She’s also been hardened by her experiences in Ireland which only served to add to the depth of her character. She’s open, honest and for the most part, unapologetic. In short, I love this chick.

The introduction and setting for the other characters is fantastic as well and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the stories unfold beyond this book. I really want more of Mick as well.

My only real issue with the novel was that I personally felt I was getting too many characters and completely different cases/plot lines thrown at me right out of the gate and it was very confusing at first. As the book progressed though, I began to see how it all tied together. And the great thing was, that the author managed to keep me guessing about who the culprit was right up until the end.

After I hit about page 50, the pace of the book just took off and I was totally hooked. I’d recommend this to others and I can’t wait for the next instalment to the series.

This book seems to fall into two half’s. I felt that the first half of the book was setting up the characters and the relationship dynamics. The second half of the book was engaging and I really enjoyed it. My feeling is that the first half was worth it to get to the second half.

4 stars

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book in the series of Det. Grace Macallan. Grace was a detective in Northern Ireland during the "troubles" and after an incident must leave the City and her job in disgrace. She is hired as a detective in the newly formed Lothian & Borders Major Crime Team, where she hopes to rebuild her life, career and reputation. After getting the team up and running, they are assigned to investigate a series of brutal prostitute assaults and murder. As the team digs deeper into the mystery, tensions rise and secrets are revealed.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more books in the series. The story unfolds at a good pace and most of the plot points are not predictable, which is always a good things for these typ of books.

I enjoyed the main character Grace and thought that overall, this was a good story. I was glad that it did not go down the common route of making one of the police officers the killer. I liked the interwoven back story and how we found out more about this as we went through. Overall, I would be interesting in reading further books in the series to find out how it develops.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting. I really liked the characters and how the book is written. I like the fact that every character has a back story and that police procedures were explained. It made everything seem more real. This is a fast paced gritty thriller. DCI Grace Macallan is an interesting complex character. Her honesty and integrity have earned her a lot of enemies. Her first case in Edinburgh adds to that list. I hope that there are more Grace Macallan books to come.

Cause of Death introduces DCI Grace Macallan, a compelling investigator with integrity and an uncommon mix of instinct and humanity.  A talented officer in Northern Ireland, Macallan leaves under a cloud after testifying against a fellow officer responsible for the death of a suspect.  With a background in investigations and covert operations and an otherwise sterling record, her only choice is to move to the mainland.  Assigned to the newly formed Lothian & Borders Major Crime Team as it’s second in command, and paired with a streetwise detective, Grace’s career is back on track.  But it’s given a major challenge as an attack on a prostitute becomes one of a series of violent murders.  If they can’t find the killer quickly, someone is going to take a fall.

Cause of Death stands strong as a one off, but I hope it will be the start of a series as Peter Richie’s heroine is a fascinating mix of determination and vulnerability.  Her capability and her willingness to go against the grain makes her friends as well as enemies in a world where getting results and playing politics is often more important than the truth.  Cause of Death focuses predominantly on the central characters, the investigators and the victims.  It’s the people that matter, far more than the culprit.  I look forward to seeing where Peter Richie takes DCI Grace Macallan, and I think other readers will feel the same.

4 / 5

I received a copy of Cause of Death from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review

--Crittermom

Thank you Net Galley. This was a new author for me and I am very pleased to share how much I enjoyed the book. I will be looking for the backlist and also looking out for future instalments. I am glad that as a member of net galley I get to discover new authors and try new genres and books. Strongly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a great police procedural, with strong characterisation. The main character, Grace, is a forthright, principled woman, who has to leave Northern Ireland to start again in Edinburgh, having committed the ultimate crime of not turning a blind eye to an assault by another officer. The book also gives a good insight into life in Northern Ireland after the troubles. The relationships, both friendships and romantically, between the officers, develop nicely as the book goes along. I'm hoping for many more in this series.

The first book in what is promising to be a great new series. DCI Grace Macallan takes the lead in this book. Set in Lothian and Borders, this has interesting characters, is well written and a plot which sucks you in from the start. I did not guess who the killer was.This is a cracking first book and I can't wait to see where the characters go in the next one. Many thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads and Amazon.

Excellent book. I adored the storyline and the characters. A real page turner. I would this recommend this book.

DCI Grace McCallan is leaving a trail of destruction in Northern Ireland. An operation gone wrong, a person killed and her lover lost to her forever. She has no choice but to start anew at Lothian & Borders and hope that her bad luck hasn’t followed her. She’s been paired with DS Harland, a good cop with a little too much fondness for alcohol. She doesn’t have time to settle in before a high-profile murder case puts Grace and her team under the spotlight of public scrutiny. She has to solve this case or risk losing both her career and herself. Ritchie obviously knows his way around a police station and an investigation. It shows in the details and his flawed and troubled heroine

An enjoyable but slightly outdated read for me.
Very detailed with complex characters and an absorbing plotline.

4 and 1 / 2 stars

DCI Grace Macallan was transferred from Northern Ireland to Lothian and Borders Major Crime Team of Police Scotland. She is partnered with DS Mick Harkins.

DCI Macallan and her team take on the murders of Peter Yip and his wife while their three young children were locked in a cupboard upstairs. The thieves were looking for cash and Mr. Yip didn’t keep any in the house, but the thieves didn’t believe him.

DS Harkins checks with his informers. Jack Forbes, another team member, selects someone to watch Frank Drew, one of the three n’er-do wells who are suspected of doing the Yip murders. Frank works with his brother Billy who is the brains of the gang and Colin Jack who is a good friend of Billy’s. Billy is beginning to lose the plot following the death of his wife, and Frank is a half-wit who drinks and talks too much. Forbes also has someone bug Billy Drew’s latest car.

Following a cleverly thought out plan, the police manage to nab Billy Drew and his team. When the forensic team finds evidence that Frank didn’t completely burn, the game is up for Billy and his pals.

Another case to watch is an escalating case of someone beating prostitutes. The man (we know this from reading about his attacks), is escalating because the attacks are getting more savage. The team turns their attention from the murder case to the beating of prostitutes. Only this time the woman is dead.

The police take an interest in advocate Jonathon Barclay rather quickly. He admits to knowing two of the women. When forensic evidence leads to his arrest, the story becomes riveting. When he is convicted, he knows he faces a very tough time in prison and sinks into depression.

So, did Jonathon Barclay really commit the crimes?

This book is an exciting police procedural. The reader knows from the outset the identity of the bad guys, so that is not at issue. The book is more about the police and how they go about capturing their targets. While the psychology of the first case is rather simple – Billy and his team just want to rob and hurt people, the psychology of Jonathon Barclay is complex. He loves leading the police on a merry chase and intends to drag it out for as long as possible. But he also suffers from self-doubt and fear and the examination of his mental state is, for the reader, a fascinating study.

This book is very well written and plotted. It starts out a little slow, but the tension picks up rather quickly from there. It is filled with exciting scenes of how the police go about doing things. Piece by piece, they build their case. The writing is literate and intelligent. The book is without errors and there are no wasted words. Sufficient background is given on the major characters to make them interesting, but not so much that it intrudes on the story. I truly enjoyed the novel. I am very much looking forward to reading more of Peter Ritchie’s work.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Black & White Publishing for a review copy of Cause of Death, a police procedural set in Edinburgh feature DCI Grace Macallan.

Grace spent many years successfully working for Special Branch in Northern Ireland until an incident forced her out and she has transferred to the Lothian & Borders service. Unsure of her welcome she is delighted to be made second in command of the newly established major crime team under Superintendent John O'Connor. Their first cases are a baptism of fire, catching a violent gang who are robbing immigrant restaurateurs and a man who is battering prostitutes.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cause of Death although my enjoyment was slightly marred by advance knowledge of the plot as I had already read the novel in its previous incarnation under the title Noble Cause, which I was unaware of when I first picked it up. Nevertheless it is a good read. Without any boring detail it provides a good insight into police thinking and procedure, obviously including the politics. The plot is well thought out and compulsive with some good twists at the end.

Grace Macallan is an excellent protagonist, smart, capable, likeable and hurting. There are flashback scenes to her time in Northern Ireland which illustrate her character and courage - it would be easy to say she was hard done to, as she was, but it's more an object lesson in self interest and the way of the world. Fortunately this is not overegged, which was my main complaint about the previous version. I won't say she shrugs it off but she immerses herself in her current investigations showing herself to be more than capable.

I like the relationships between the characters which are complicated and come down to personalities. The 3 main characters, Grace, John O'Connor and their sergeant Mick Harkins are all well drawn, flawed but essentially good. They are realistic, likeable and easy to spend time with. In fact, I think that these relationships are the real strength of the novel.

Cause of Death is a good read and I'm already looking forward to the sequel so I have no hesitation in recommending it.