In The Blood by Margaret Kirk
Ritual murder and ghosts from a chilling past haunt DCI Lukas Mahler in his latest case, set on the ancient Orkney Islands.'
Tied to a derelict pier on Orkney, the bloated remains of a man bob in the waves, under the shadow of forbidding Sandisquoy House. The locals know him as William Spencer.
But DCI Lukas Mahler identifies him as Alex Fleming - his former boss.
Unable to step away from the case, Mahler tries to piece together why Fleming would retire to such a remote location. But the deeper he digs, the more disturbing the investigation becomes.
Seal bones, witches' salve, and runic symbols appear everywhere he looks, ushering Mahler towards Fleming's most notorious unsolved case: the 'Witchfinder' murders. And towards a dark and uncomfortable truth someone has gone to great lengths to bury...
About the author.
Margaret Kirk writes ‘Highland Noir’ Scottish crime fiction, set in and around her home town of Inverness.
Her debut novel, Shadow Man, won the Good Housekeeping First Novel Competition in 2016. Described as ‘a harrowing and horrific game of consequences’ by Val McDermid, it was published in 2017 by Orion. Book 2 in the DI Lukas Mahler series, What Lies Buried, was published on 13th June 2019. Book 3, In The Blood, will be released by Orion on 29th April 2021.
Margaret is also the writer of several award-winning short stories, including The Seal Singers, which has been published in translation in Germany. She has contributed a short story, Still Life, to the Noir From The Bar anthology, which has been compiled to raise funds for NHS charities.
Review
I was so pleased to be asked onto this book tour as I am a huge fan of Margaret’s work.
‘In The Blood’ is the third outing for DI Lukas Mahler but it can be read as a standalone. I would recommend reading the previous two books as it is a fantastic series. I think I raved about them enough on here for you to get the gist! ‘In The Blood’ was atmospheric and haunting from the get-go. The locus of the introductory murder site stood as a marker for the quality of this book and the author’s writing. The mythology and Viking history, interspersed with the hauntingly beautiful backdrop of Orkney meant that this is a story that entices the reader and once you are hooked, well. It's a dark novel but it is punctured with light and hope for the main characters.
I loved how this outing looks at the background of Lukas and his time in England as a police officer. Lukas is a complex character and it was illuminating to see how some of his personality had been formed. Especially, the relationship with the victim, the reasons behind his new name and the cases that they worked on together.
Margaret has managed to produce the best outing in the series so far, it's dark, gritty, has a multi-layered narrative that is tense and gripping and showcases her love for the north of Scotland. I honestly can’t wait for the next in the series.
