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Book Summary and Reviews of Loch of the Dead by Oscar de Muriel

Loch of the Dead by Oscar de Muriel

Loch of the Dead

by Oscar de Muriel

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  • Published:
  • Apr 2019, 448 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Edinburgh's most famed detective duo - "Nine-Nails" McGray and Inspector Ian Frey - face their most metaphysical mystery yet, as they investigate a series of crimes surrounding the miraculous waters in the remote Loch Maree.

A mysterious woman pleads for the help of Inspectors Are and "Nine-Nails" McGray. Her son, illegitimate scion of the Koloman family, has received an anonymous death threat - right after learning he is to inherit the best part of a vast wine-producing estate.

In exchange for their protection, she offers McGray the ultimate cure for his sister, who has been locked in an insane asylum after brutally murdering their parents: the miraculous waters that spring from a small island in the remote Loch Maree.

The island has been a sacred burial ground since the time of the druids, but the legends around it will turn out to be much darker than McGray could have expected. Murder and increasingly bizarre happenings will intermingle throughout this trip to the Highlands, before Frey and McGray learn a terrible truth.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Excellent. De Muriel keeps the twists coming in the series' best entry to date." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. A fine addition to this outstanding historical-mystery series." - Booklist

"Steeped in history, myth, and medical lore, murky as the deepest loch, miles from the remotest civilizing forces, this provides all the thrills of an amusement-park concession for grown-ups who want to test their limits." - Kirkus

"Properly creepy and Gothic." - Ian Rankin

This information about Loch of the Dead was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Oscar de Muriel Author Biography

I was born in Mexico City, in the building that now houses Ripley's Believe it or Not museum (some people claim to see a connection there…). I had a very happy childhood even though I did not try refried beans until I was six (I refused to eat anything brown and gooey).

My first attempt at writing stories, aged seven, was a tale about a triceratops and a stegosaurus battling a very hungry T-rex. Their three-page, ten-line long adventure was profusely illustrated by the author. Stegosaurus was extinct millions of years before the first T-rex hatched, but I still consider it a milestone.

When I was ten, Jurassic Park (the novel) scared the Jesus out of me – reminiscent of that Friends' episode where Joey Tribiani hides his books in the fridge (I blogged about that ...

... Full Biography
Link to Oscar de Muriel's Website

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