Impolitic Corpses

It’s 2038 in Johnston’s exceptional eighth Quint Dalrymple mystery (after 2016’s Skeleton Blues), and Scotland is in its third year as a new republic following decades under a corrupt dictatorial regime. Former police detective Dalrymple, who had to testify before a truth and reconciliation commission about his complicity with the regime, has started a new chapter in his life, juggling PI work, writing, and a family. Dalrymple’s former police partner, who’s now working for the national public order organization, brings him in to assist with a bizarre near-fatal strangulation. A young man was attacked by someone wearing a costume that was part-tree, part-fish, which Dalrymple believes was modelled after an image in a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Soon afterward, he learns that a high-level official, Angus Macdonald, has vanished from his locked bedroom, unseen by his valet sitting outside the door, with a severed finger left behind. The inquiries overlap after Dalrymple finds that Macdonald was supporting an art exhibit inspired by another Bosch painting. The plot twists frequently, building up to a jaw-dropping climax. Series followers and newbies alike will be hooked. (Dec.)