Following on from Natural Causes, James Oswald's The Book Of Souls is the second outing for DC Tony McLean and I must admit that I probably enjoyed it more than it's predecessor

Twelve years ago, McLean's fiancée was brutally slain by the so-called Christmas Killer, his tenth victim, one per year and always around the festive season, only on that occasion, he made a mistake leading to his capture, imprisonment and, in the present day, ultimately being murdered in prison!

McLean attends the funeral for closure, however with Christmas fast approaching, a body is discovered, killed in a similar manner to those murdered years ago! Did they get the right man or is this a copycat, possibly helped by the release of a book graphically detailing the murders from the past?

The plot thickens when another body turns up, especially as the Christmas Killer only killed once a year and McLean and his team find themselves with no motive, few clues and a race against time before more bodies potentially pile up. Add into the mix some random fires around the city, seemingly started from nothing, and you have a mystery!

McLean's adversary – Duguid - from the first book is back and there remains plenty of friction between them whilst SOC expert Emma is a welcomed on-off romantic interest for McLean as the book comes to a tense finale and cliffhanger ending. However, some of the descriptions are pretty graphic throughout so dont expect a Miss Marple type whodunnit.

Unlike Natural Causes (which I did enjoy as well) this has fewer characters to remember which helped me no end and I found the storyline more interesting as well. The Book of Souls of the title is an interest concept and adds a slightly supernatural feel to the story as well, although never to the point of turning from a crime fiction novel to anything darker.

A decent continuation of a good series and I'll certainly be catching up with the next in the series soon.