I’ll tell you what I didn’t need. I definitely absolutely positively thoroughly did not need another series of books to read. But dammit if I haven’t found one anyhow.

A Litter Of Bones — A Litter of Bones

JD Kirk

Zertex Media, 2019

Some books appear on my TBR (physical or kindle) with me having no apparent recollection of adding them. I tend to add only books I really do want to read, so someone I trust must have recommended this to me - anyone want to own up? I’m bloody glad they did, whoever they were.

DCI Jack Logan is called to the Highlands when a child disappears. There are many similarities to a previous series of abductions and murders which Logan investigated, so he’s best placed to help. The only problem is, the murderer is safely locked up in Carstairs - isn’t he? It’s a race against time to figure out what’s going on if there’s any chance to save the missing boy.

There’s a tangible sense of the Scottish Highlands throughout the book; the author grew up in Fort William and his knowledge of, and fondness for, the area shines through. While it’s not the most remote part of the country, it’s still a long way from bright city lights, and DCI Logan is frequently wrong-footed by the different ways of life and the interactions of the locals.

A Litter Of Bones is a total page-turner, and the characters jump off the page. They feel like people I know already, in a way that often takes several books to achieve in other series. There are a couple of strong female characters - not always the case in police / crime books in my experience. There are also plenty of signposts in this first novel for storylines and character arcs to develop over further instalments. The tension builds consistently towards a hold-your-breath conclusion. The author has been writing kids books, sci-fi, and comic books under his own name of Barry Hutchison for some time (JD Kirk is a new pen name for this series, I believe), and A Litter Of Bones certainly reads like you’re in the hands of an experienced and competent writer.

I bought A Litter Of Bones in September 2019, which was just a few months after it was published. Since then Kirk has published another 9 instalments - yes, nine, with #11 due out in May. So either he’s been writing these for a long time and keeping them in a (big) shoebox, or he’s LJ Ross-level prolific. I finished A Litter Of Bones in a day, and immediately afterwards bought the second - Thicker Than Water. Think that’ll be getting bumped up the TBR pretty soon.

If you’ve already read any of the DCI Logan books, or if you go read it now, do let me know what you think in the comments below.

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