The Bone Yard

In Paul Johnston's the Bone Yard, the second installment in the Quint Darlymple dystopian thriller series, this would present a bleak look at the future. In winter 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Quint Darlymple was an ordinary solved mysteries on the side. It's past the Enlightenment Period when Guardsman and Auxillaries rule the various governmental fields and ordinary people like Quint are known as Citizens. It all started when an old friend of his, Roddie Aitken, asked him to find out what's really going on in the Bone Yard, and who were the masked killer was. And when Roddie wound up dead, it was nothing but personal to find out what happened to him and to report everything he knew to the Top Council. Since he wasn't a Guardsman, he had help from Davie, a fellow Guardsman, when they discovered something stuck in Roddie's mouth from his decapitated body: a tape of the "Electric Blues" from a long gone period. Quint didn't know what message that would be. As he went to find out more about what events led to Roddie's death, he kept asked what's so secret about the Bone Yard, when no one dared to speak of it.  Later on, more dead bodies ended up the same way when Quint's ex Katherine Kirkwood returned on the scene to help him with the drug connection. As he kept knocking on doors to look for answers, he didn't expect that it would lead back to the senior boyscout and the truth behind what was the Bone Yard, and the last person he would expect to face on would be someone from his past to make lethal ends meet.

This was a scintillating and intriguing dark dystopian thriller. I did care about Quint and how would deal with such dark things like death and inside political corruption. I did wonder how his relationship would fare with Katherine and how he would tie up everything so nearly. I did like the post-Enlightenment period setting in Edinburgh in winter 2021 and how cryptic the dismal locations were in and around Scotland for the series. This would have you at the end of your seat and shudder with non-stop action, plenty of drama, sparks of suspense and one helping of mystery.

Will you dare take a step inside the Bone Yard today?

The Death List

If you love thrillers set in the UK, you'll love the first installment in the Matt Wells series. Matt Stone aka Matt Wells is a crime writer who's down on his luck. His ex-wife hates him, he lost his publisher and agent, he haven't written anything in a few years. Until now, when someone emailed him, claiming his biggest fan, sending him subliminal messages. Little did Matt know, this same person is a serial killer who's copying the crimes in Matt's books, which puts him in the middle of this mess. Not only is Matt drawn into this message, but everyone he knows is in danger, especially when the victims are personal, moving from one death list to another.  It's up to Matt and his friends, who are after him, and a few good men and the Met Police to stop him, before it's too late. There's a shocking twist in the end I won't dare give away.