Books: In the Blood By Margaret Kirk (2021)

 

Once again, I mention I happen to know the brother of writer Margaret Kirk.

“Tied to a derelict pier on Orkney, are the bloated remains of a man, just bobbing in the waves, all under the watchful shadow of the 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.”

In the Blood by Scottish author Margaret Kirk shows a lot growth. While her two other murder mysteries featuring DCI Lukas Mahler, Shadow Man and What Lies Buried, reads like a master writer in full control of her talents, this one takes it bit further. The book opens with the grisly (almost Stephen King in nature) scene with a dead man floating in the North Sea for some time. I’ve read many times that bodies found in water are generally the most gruesome to look at.

While I was once a huge fan of this genre in youth, I wandered away because a lot of what I was reading was to paint-by-numbers, with the killers revealing themselves because they made idiotic, basic mistakes. And that the cop, forensic specialist, the little old lady in the village, or some kids, always found out whodunit in less than believable way.

But what I like about this series is all (well, most) of her characters are three dimensional. Lukas Mahler is convincing leader; he’s tough, enigmatic, a man with darkness and light. Kirk delves a bit more into Mahler’s back-story, his guilt over what happened with his mother and father when he was a teenager (we’re bound to run into Daddy sometime in the future). I enjoyed this bit, because the first two books only hinted at the violence in his past. This also ties neatly into Mahler’s time at the MET and his hero-worships of Alex Fleming. It also gives a better understanding of why he suffers from migraines. Yes, his job has him under pressure (though this “episode” has his boss, June Wallace, out on medical leave and replaced by Chae Hunt, your handsome TV cliché Chief Inspector who worries more about budgets and how he’ll look on TV), but it's the guilt that seemly is all his causes. And like like a typical male, instead of seeking counseling, he let's it fester.

The rest of the regulars, especially Fergie and Naz are given more to do and I appreciate the long-running joke about Fergie’s Audi. Even Andy Black is more tolerable.

The book also focuses on legends of Scotland, especially in Orkney and Sandisquoy House (which is probably fictional, but based on something real). It tries to tip a bit into the supernatural, but never fully jumps in, but gets close with the folklore of Celtic and Norse mythology of the selkie, or seal folk, which revolves “around female selkies [seals] being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their seal skin, thus exhibiting the tale motif of the swan maiden type.” 

However, I’m unsure of the epilogue, which has a previous bad guy broken out of jail (just like Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter) and who’ll probably menace both Mahler and Anna in the next book, and the mysterious Mr. Hollander, a wannabe James Bond villain in the making. I can see why this added, as the book ended quietly, which may had given readers the impression the series was over (despite there still being a few loose ends hanging around), but it seems, I guess, out of place? It’s certainly not the typical ending you see in this genre, but maybe Kirk is just upping things a bit?