Natural Causes - James Oswald
As a newly-minted Detective Inspector, Tony McLean tends to get the leavings in the homicide department, a tendency made worse by a poor relationship with the department's top cop, "Dagwood." That's probably why he's been handed a case so cold it's glacial; the mummified, mutilated body of a young girl decades past its sell-by date. Edinburgh is in the middle of a crime spree, however, and Tony somehow keeps stumbling over the latest victims. They are of a type: elderly men, socially prominent and wealthy. That's the crowd his grandmother ran with in her youth. Poor Gran, in a coma after her stroke more than a year ago...
Although the grisly murder count of prominent octogenarians mounts, McLean is drawn to the mysterious young girl who died so horrible a death. There is something strangely… evil about the circumstances. Even as his caseload mounts and his calendar fills, his personal life spins out of control with the death of his grandmother - and his inheritance of her substantial estate.
Undeterred by good fortune and his increasing unease about a crime spree that seems to spiral about him, McLean delves into the circumstances of the mystery girl's death. What he will learn could change his life…
