"Dark is the grave" by T.G. Reid

An audio book set in/near Glasgow.

Prologue: Hazel Garvey is tied up. She recalls a pub, Fiona's birthday party. She's buried alive.

DCI Duncan Bone suffered brain damage in the Peek-a-boo case - the main suspect John Mickeljohn caused an explosion killing himself and injuring Bone. His wife Alice and son Michael have left him because of behaviour issues - PTSD. He's on sick leave.

He's sent a memory stick with a video on it showing a copy-cat scene from the Peek-a-boo case, with details never made public. The woman on the video is identified as Hazel Garvey - a police officer, wife of McLean, the state prosecutor. She might still be alive. Bone's boss wants him to lead the search. He starts work. The location in the video is identified. They dig there and find Garvey's body.

Garvey had talked to a friend about problems in her marriage. Her husband is cross rather than sad. He has a mistress and a child. He accuses Bone of unprofessionalism. He's investigated by Tenison. He gets angry.

A man with records is strangled. Turns out he's Harper, a policeman with something to hide. Bone's framed (video evidence) and suspended. He tells Alice to send Michael away to her mother. He suspects Tenison. He searches her house, works out where a missing policeman is being kept, saves him. Tenison drives away. He follows her to his ex's mother's farm. Tenison is holding his ex captive. His wife escapes.

Tenison was Mickeljohn's girlfriend while he was in jail. She wanted to make Bone pay for Mickeljohn's death. She had access to police records, and had army training.

It's all too linear for me. Too little use is made of the secondary characters.

Other reviews

• betweenthelines (My pet peeve. Non speech based dialogue tags such as sneered and smirked and especially those that are equivalent to animal sounds such as snarled and barked. They always pull me right out of a story and make the dialogue and speaker seem unnatural and forced. Other than that the plot, although gruesome in parts, was good. I didn’t have the slightest idea of the perpetrator until well into the story which is always a bonus. There’s a diverse group of characters, both in Bone’s team and generally—most likeable, others not so much, so a good mix. And I always enjoy short chapters when they build tension and suspense.)