This decent little thriller is the fifth in McDermid’s series featuring slightly bloshie, coffee-loving DCI Karen Pirie, head of the Historic Cases Unit in Edinburgh. This time Pirie has a particularly nasty enemy in her superior officer and a lot of grief and gin to get through, but she is as doggedly determined as ever to unmask a murderer when a body is found buried in a Highland peat bog along with two motorbikes. It’s a long and involved story but well worth the ride and attention to detail until the final chapter, when everything is wrapped up in a very abrupt, pat ending where suddenly everything turns out ok. It reads like McDermid was late for a deadline and just dialled it in. Disappointing finale, but still readable.
