This House of Burning Bones

This House of Burning Bones is a Scottish crime novel set in Aberdeen during a sweltering summer. The city's police force is severely understaffed, with half the officers off sick and leave cancelled. Detective Inspector Logan McRae must manage multiple cases and lead a major murder investigation with a depleted team while the force deals with a hotel firebombing targeting migrants and a large protest march scheduled for Saturday. Complications mount when Natasha Agapova, a tabloid media tycoon, purchases the Aberdeen Examiner and begins blaming local police for the city's problems, intensifying public pressure. As tensions escalate, the situation deteriorates further, forcing McRae to navigate both the investigation and the mounting crisis with limited resources and increasing external scrutiny.