REVIEW: Deadly Still by Keith Moray (ARC)

Deadly Still (Torquil McKinnon #6) by Keith Moray

Genre: Crime fiction, police procedural, noir

Read: 24th March 2020

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(publication date: 20th January 2020)

★★★★ 4 stars

I have read just one in the Torquil McKinnon series "The Gathering Murders" but I really enjoyed it that I didn't mind so much jumping ahead and reading the latest one. DEADLY STILL is the sixth in the series but honestly, the books can be read as standalones. There is some background story going on in each but the reader is given enough information to be kept up to speed and in any case it isn't the main focus of the books...which is, of course, whatever the current investigation is.

The locale for this series is the Scottish isle of West Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Sergeant Morag Driscoll is out for a morning run when she hears a scream. In the mist, she comes across teenager Catriona McDonald in serious distress by the old WW2 pillbox. Screaming hysterically that she cannot see and reeking of alcohol, Catriona claims that she cannot wake her friend Jamie. What's more...there was a third teenager, Vicky Spiers, who had been with them but is nowhere to be found.

With one teenager dead, another in a critical condition in hospital and a third missing, Morag needs to contact Detective Inspector Torquil McKinnon but her phone is dead. When the local Royal Mail driver is passing and stops to help, Morag borrows his phone to call for assistance. But Torquil, who is down in the caves on his early morning ritual of playing his bagpipes, does not get Morag's frantic messages until he returns to his motorbike. But once help is summoned, Torquil jumps into action immediately attending the scene when he should be meeting the ferry from the mainland with their team's new DC.

And then, another body is found. An adult male also reeking of alcohol. All have been poisoned with homemade "peatreek" whisky laced with methanol. Are the incidents related? And where did they get the deadly "peatreek"? Then the police station is burgled with some of the search evidence disappearing along with some petty cash and PC MacPhee's "murder shoes" he had just received for the traditional hammer throw in which he takes part.

Torquil and his team have their hands full trying to locate the missing girl and tracking down this deadly still. With the help of the community, everyone bands together to find Vicky Spiers, while others have secrets they would prefer to keep hidden.

A solid police procedural without the cockiness or arrogance found in other books, the Torquil McKinnon series is easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable. The picturesque Scottish isles of the Outer Hebrides, along with the mist and the rain, is painted in such a way that it adds a noir-like atmosphere with an air of menace. It is in vast contrast to the cheerful characters which I have come to love.

Known as "Piper" to the locals, due to his finesse on the bagpipes, Torquil McKinnon is a thoroughly likeable character. He is nothing like the arrogant, sexist detectives with a penchant for too much alcohol and a need to bully those below their rank. He is fair, analytical and resourceful and treats all his colleagues as friends. The cast of characters are an enjoyable bunch who all become real in your imagination. Alongside Torquil, there's his uncle "the Padre", Morag Driscoll, Ewan MacPhee, the Drummond twins (Wallace and Douglas), the new DC, Lorna and of course Calum and Cora from the West Uist Chronicle.

As with the the rest of the series, DEADLY STILL is easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable. It doesn't need the complexities of other books as Keith Moray brings the story to life through the atmosphere he's created with the scenery and the weather.

I look forward to more of Torquil McKinnon and his team in this unique and beautiful setting of West Uist.

I would like to thank #KeithMoray, #NetGalley and #SapereBooks for an ARC of #DeadlyStill in exchange for an honest review.