Abduction, theft and fraud… oh my. I admit I sometimes struggled to keep this one straight in my head, which is down to me though and not the writing. It’s another good book in the series, and I’m really enjoying seeing Clare and Al’s relationship develop (though I am starting to worry a bit about Clare’s drinking?). Chris features a bit less in this one due to a personal connection to one of the men who goes missing, but this helps introduce Max into the team, which is a nice refreshing addition. The only slight niggle for me was that it felt like a bit of an abrupt ending which didn’t really wrap all the threads up for me, at least in terms of the Jardines. Or maybe I was just hoping for a bit more detail. A solid 3.75 stars though.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers Canelo, in return for an unbiased review. Apologies for the delay in providing this.

This is book 6 in this Scottish crime series. This book isn’t as exciting as others in the series. Most of the twists are predictable. It’s an average police procedural

Old Bones Lie is number six in the DI Clare Mackay series of crime novels set in St Andrews and the surrounding Fife countryside. Several things happen within a short space of time. Two prison officers and a prisoner attending a funeral all fail to return. The strange thing is their wives seem to have disappeared as well. As DS Chris West is related to one of the officers, he has been taken off the case; to say he is not happy about it would be an understatement. Clare is now working with DS Max Evans, who apparently makes much better coffee. The investigation is going nowhere fast when a young woman is found murdered in her garden shed. She just happens to have been the witness who identified Paul Devine (the missing prisoner) when he robbed the jeweller’s shop where she worked. DCI Ben Ratcliffe is now bought in to oversee the disappearances, leaving Clare and her team to investigate the murder, but is not sharing everything despite Clare believing that the investigations are linked.
This is not an easy case – it involves a lot of good old-fashioned detective work, checking and re-checking the facts just to try and make some progress. They appear to be making some headway, then an unexpected twist turns everything on its head. The story is told entirely from Clare’s point of view. The focus is on solving the crimes, with just enough attention paid to her private life (and those of her team) to make her believable as a character. This series is not about the personal problems of the police officers overshadowing the investigations. The storyline, setting and familiar characters make Old Bones Lie a pleasure to read, and I look forward to the next one. Thanks to Marion Todd, Canelo and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

Another decent instalment in this well established series with the return of several characters, a complex and and a smidgen of Scottish humour

Police procedural,part of a series,featuring Detective Clare Mackay. A well plotted mystery with good characters and unusual story.

*Many thanks to Marion Todd, Canelo, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
Quite an enjoyable police procedural, which I would have appreciated more had I read previous books. It is on the cozy mystery side and reads well.

Old Bones Lie by Marion Todd is an excellent Scottish police procedural. This is the sixth instalment in the DI Clare Mackay series but it reads well as a stand-alone. However, I now would very much like to read the previous novels. The plot revolves around the disappearance of two prison guards and their prisoner as well as the prison van they had been in. It soon becomes apparent that the guards’ wives are also nowhere to be found. Where could five people have gone? The prisoner had been taken to a family funeral and he attended with his guards. No one saw them again after this. DI Mackay and her detectives will work day and night to uncover the reason for the disappearance of five people. The characters are interesting and realistic. The mystery moves along at a good pace. What kept me from rating Old Bones Lie with five stars was the ending. It was so incomplete and rushed that I found myself turning the page to continue reading. Unfortunately, the next page was the acknowledgements! Marion Todd has written an exciting mystery. Highly recommended. Thank you to Canelo,, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is another well plotted and gripping novel in this excellent series. Great characters, solid mystery, an entertaining and twisty plot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Another great book in the Clare Mackay series. This one had a lot going on with 2 major cases intertwined. Some new characters and old favourites. All set in the beautiful surroundings of St Andrews and the east coast of Fife.

I have been waiting for the next installment from Marion and this was worth the wait. DCI Claire Mackay and her team are well developed characters and the plot romps along nicely.

Old Bones Lie is another engrossing instalment in Marion Todd's series featuring Detective Inspector Clare Mackay. It features an enthralling and twisty police procedural plot, a great cast of new and continuing characters, and an evocative setting in the rural area surrounding the historic town of St. Andrews, Scotland.

The book opens dramatically, with a scene in which two young women sitting down to share a takeaway Chinese dinner are abducted by gun-wielding balaclava-clad men. Their husbands, who work together as custodial officers at the nearby HMP Perth prison, can only watch on, helpless as their wives are driven away in a van. Two days later, St. Andrews Detective Inspector Clare Mackay and her team are called in when a prisoner, Paul Devine - convicted for the armed robbery of a local jewellery store two years previously, disappears after the van in which he is being driven is hijacked while returning him from a family funeral in Pittenweem, Fife. The two prison officers accompanying him, who also remain unaccounted for, are none other than Alan Carter and Gavin Gates, whose wives were abducted on the preceding Saturday night...

Three parallel but likely related investigations then unfold - the disappearance of Devine, the abduction of Kim Carter and Debbie Gates and the brutal murder of a woman - identified as Margaret White, who happens to work for the jewellery store robbed by Devine - at her rural home north of St. Andrews. D.I. Mackay's investigation is hampered somewhat by the fact that Alan Carter is D.S. Chris West's cousin, and the potential conflict of interest precludes his involvement in the case. D.S. West is moved sideways to run an investigation into a series of robberies of high tech farm equipment, while D.I. Mackay is joined by a new D.S. on secondment, Max Evans. He's a completely different type of officer to West, with whom Mackay has developed a comfortable working rapport, but is redeemed by his ability to produce superlative quality coffee! Before long, another newcomer arrives at St. Andrews, the rather reticent D.C.I. Ben Ratcliffe, who has been parachuted in to take over the investigation into the missing prisoner, custodial officers and abducted women, leaving D.I. Mackay to concentrate her efforts on solving the murder of Maggie White. Ratcliffe's presence and investigative methods, which appear to her to veer from secretive to apparently casual, rankle with Mackay, and she manages to discretely maintain an overall perspective on both cases. The conclusions to the various strands of the mystery are complex, somewhat unexpected, but ultimately satisfying.

This is a series I really enjoy, and this latest instalment was no exception. D.I Clare Mackay is an engaging central protagonist, and the supporting cast of continuing and new characters was also well-developed. The setting in and around the town of St. Andrews is evocative and the intertwining plot threads well conceived and engrossing. My only quibble was with the inconceivably long time it took for D.I. Mackay to follow up on a couple of particularly important leads - I can see that this enabled author Marion Todd to draw out the dramatic tension, but to me these examples didn't fit well within the character of a police officer readers have come to know to be both competent and conscientious.

I'd recommend Old Bones Lie, both as an entertaining standalone read, and as part of an excellent series, to any reader who enjoys twisty police procedurals with strong characterisations.

My thanks to the author, Marion Todd, publisher Canelo, and NetGalley (UK) for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This book started out like all detective stories do. A mystery but with no dead bodies strangely. A prisoner going on a visit for a funeral goes missing along with the two prison officers accompanying him, and the van. Strangely their two wives were abducted simultaneously and returned unharmed a couple of days later. That was stranger then one of the detectives wanders into the precinct unharmed, the other is still missing.
That is the scenario for DI Claire Mackay to sort out and she is now over ruled by the big boss in the form of Ben who turns up, takes over the investigation, leaving a now murder victim to Claire's detecting skills. Ben is secretive, shares very little information seems to be going
over Claire's head.

The story uncovered finally is something else. The murder of one woman was almost an accident, the prison escape was carefully planned and all to solve a robbery of years past worth a good packet of money.

Everyone seems to be linked but it is hard to link them together.

I ordered this in immediately for my bookshop. another excellent example of Scottish crime writing and a very twisty plot which didn't go as I thought it would. Love this series, love the characters, love the writing, love the setting.

This is the 6th instalment in Marion Todd's Detective Inspector Clare Mackay series, set in St Andrews, Scotland.

It's a Saturday night and Alan Carter and Gavin, both prison officers, along with their wives, Kim and Debbie, are having a takeaway. DI Clare Mackay is at her cottage home with DCI Alastair Gibson and their English bull terrier, Benjy. When police receive reports of a missing prison van and Paul Devine, a jewellery robber prisoner, as well as two guards, Clare is put in charge.

Once again, I was completely and thoroughly hooked by this compelling story right from the start. I think Old Bones Lie would be fine as a standalone, but I recommend reading the first ones in the series as you'd be missing out if you didn't! I fell right into this well-crafted and absorbing tale and I felt as though I was shadowing Clare as she worked with a new team member, DS Max Evans, chasing her leads and following her instincts. Marion Todd's writing style continues to be impressive and noteworthy. Clare is a more than competent DI who normally strives to look after her team and cares about getting justice. This is a Scottish crime series that I have found highly appealing and engaging, and I look forward to reading the next instalment.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Canelo via NetGalley and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

TERRIFIC thriller, drawing you in right off the bat with good characterization & enough intrigue to keep you guessing. Enjoyed & RECOMMEND fully for a very entertaining read. Thanks to #NetGalley & Bookouture for this ARC in return for my honest review.y

Old Bones Lie is the 6th D.I. Clare Mackay procedural thriller by Marion Todd. Released 5th July 2022 by Canelo, it's 358 pages and is available in ebook format. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a strong entry in a strong Scottish crime procedural series. The characters and settings are well established at this point and the whole plot is well constructed and flows unencumbered to a surprisingly exciting climax and satisfying (twisty!) denouement and resolution. The dialogue is gritty and rough in places, exuberantly peppered with rugged Anglo-Saxon monosyllables throughout. Roughly R-rated. The established team in the earlier books in the series is disrupted in this book due to a conflict of interest of the case with one of Clare's team members.

I was pleasantly surprised by the intricacy and how well engineered the plot devices and twists were written. I did not manage to guess all the twists on my own. The mystery is self contained and there are not really any major spoilers in this book, so it could be read as a standalone. It's a consistently solid series, however, and would make a great selection for a summer binge-reading weekend.

Four stars. highly recommended for fans of the genre.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Enjoyable police procedural - a bit heavier than cosy crime but not as intensive as a gritty thriller.

This was a good story but did not engage me as much as previous book in the series.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

This is Marion Todd's 6th book in her St Andrew's based crime series featuring DI Mackay. In the opening scene, 2 friends Alan and Gavin, enjoy a Saturday night in with their wives. When their takeaway arrives, armed men force entry and abduct the wives!

Mackay soon finds herself in charge of this complicated investigation but as DCI Ben Ratcliffe is brought in, it is clear she is being kept in the dark.

As a fifer, I’ve read all 5 of Marion Todd’s previous books in this series. I’ve enjoyed them all but I actually think this one has been my favourite! From the beginning, I was hooked. It is a page turner and it didn’t take me long to finish! There are some twists, the familiarity of the team we all love and their banter and some new characters too! I really liked the opening scene, it set the fast pace for the rest of the story and had me playing detective!

When friends & prison guards are enjoying a Saturday night get together & takeaway with their wives the last thing they expected was for men in balaclavas rushing in taking the women away. The men are warned that if they want to see them again they will co-operate. The next day they are charged with taking a jewel thief to a funeral. At some stage he will escape. Clare Mackay is left without her usual sidekick who is related to one of the guards. He is not happy at being put in charge of investigating agricultural thefts! The operation is also seen as being part of another operation & the detective in charge does not seem to be telling them all he knows. When the woman who identified the jewel thief is found dead in her garden Clare wonders what is going on.

I have enjoyed this series from the beginning, but this one fell a little flat for me. It was a good read & I enjoyed it but the break up of the usual team spoilt it a bit. I hope the next one will be back to 'normal'. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Another great story in the DI Mackay series, Marion Todd knows how to keep you hooked in with a story and keep you there till the very end