His Mother’s Bones by Steve Parker

His Mother’s Bones is the seventh book in Steve Parker‘s Paterson and Clocks Police Procedural series.

Paterson receives a call from his partner Clocks early in the morning. He wants Paterson to come over to a scene of crime immediately. When Paterson arrives at SOC, he’s ‘greeted’ by a grim scene – a man is tied to a post, his lungs ripped out through his back. Paterson realizes this is a ritualist murder and the method used is known as The Blood Eagle. The dead man is someone with close ties to Paterson and Clocks.

Ever since I came across these marvelous police procedurals published by Joffe Books, I have been on a binge reading spree. 2021 might very well be the year of Police Procedurals!

His Mother’s Bones is the seventh book in the series but can be read as a standalone. I haven’t read the first six books but I cannot wait to catch up with the series. His Mother’s Bones is a quirky, borderline dirty and dark humored, completely engrossing and entertaining police procedural by Steve Parker.

The ‘stars’ of the show are Ray Paterson and John Clocks. John grew up in the housing estate while Ray is rich, sophisticated and everything nice. The two make an odd and quirky yet fantastic sleuthing pairs.

It is still dark outside and raining when Paterson receives a phone call from Clocks. Clocks insists Paterson must see the crime scene because this is summin’ like one in a mil, guv! Meanwhile, Christine Lord, a judge, is abducted y her bipolar son and left to die on the court roof – he wants her to suffer for ruining his childhood. She’s executed – Viking style.

‘I believe this type of death is an execution method that, historically, was attributed to the Vikings of old. It’s known as the Blood Eagle and is usually handed out as a form of extreme punishment for some perceived wrong. It has strong ritualistic connotations associated with it.’

Stannard’s eyes narrowed. ‘You seem to know an awful lot about it.’

‘I’m an educated man, Mr. Stannard. I studied medieval history at uni.’

‘An ‘e saw it on the telly’, Clocks chimed in. ‘Vikings. Amazon Prime.’

Who said TV’s not educational? *wink wink* You get to learn a lot of ‘istory from the telly, guv’nor! Aye!

One thing that’s hard not to notice is Clocks’ accent. If you are not used to this kind of language, you might find it a little difficult (initially) to follow the dialogs. By the way, I am really curious about Vikings on Amazon Prime. Maybe it’s time for me to ‘ave a look at it, what say, guv?

Paterson and Clocks are not liked by everybody at the police department. They were formerly accused of murder, harassments and whatnot. Clocks is a little weird – has no respect for personal boundaries and does not think before making racist or sexist remarks. And at times, borderline vulgar. Cringeworthy-ish.

Niggles (Clocks’ behavior) aside, the mystery behind the ritualistic murders kept me guessing till the end. The detectives have no idea who’s murdering people – well, not just any random people though – the victims are connected to Paterson and Clocks. Their ‘enemies’ wonder if the detective duo have a hand in the killings.

Clocks’ ‘witty’ sayings makes you sing pa-pa-pa-poker-face-pa-poker-face. He believes Dark Ages was the era before electricity – well, it used to get really dark after sunset, innit? No light and all, guv. Dark Ages, it is! Clocks finally figured out what CSI stands for… ‘Can’t Solve It.’ *poker face*

The ending is fantastic. Paterson gets a little difficult to handle – never expected this from a calm and saint-like person. I guess the anger had something to do with losing his wife to a killer (in one of the previous books). I am looking forward to knowing what’s next for the detective-duo, after all, as the story ended, they let go of a lucrative offer…

If you love quirky mysteries with a dash of dark humor, you might want to give His Mother’s Bones by Steve Parker a read.

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I received an ARC from Joffe Books in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.

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