T.F. Muir, like several other Scottish crime novelists, writes well. In fact, he writes exceedingly well with this ninth installment in his DCI Gilchrist series being a particular favourite of mine.
The author has a great skill for painting Scotland in winter in emotive tones of grey where the darkness inevitably seeps into his plots.
The plot gripped me from the very beginning with intricate details of a more and more complex plot engaging me and constantly surprising me. This is crime fiction at its very best and I can't wait to read the next in the series.

Fantastic! Another great instalment to this excellent series. Wonderful characters and a great storyline. Can’t wait for the next one.

This is the first book i read in this series and I liked it as it's gripping and entertaining.
The plot is fast paced and it kept me hooked till the end.
Good character development, a solid mystery that kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really enjoyed this book. The story was entertaining as well as intriguing. The personal life of lead homicide detective, Andy Gilchrist , is chronicled as well as his professional life. I highly recommend this book to other police procedural readers.

Another exciting instalment in this series with a cliff hanger of an ending. The characters in the detective team are all interesting and the storyline was intriguing and complex.

This is another very good read in the DCI Gilchrist series. A dead body in a whisky cask sets the scene for this one, with plenty twists and a rising body count. DS Jessie is really beginning to annoy me though with her combative and aggressive techniques! I love the setting and the insights into the personal lives of the officers and would highly recommend the series. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Murder At A Distillery....
When a preserved body is discovered in a whisky aging cask at a local distillery DI Andy Gilchrist and partner Jessie are assigned the case. Set in St Andrews, Scotland, the book has an enigmatic backdrop. A slow moving mystery which does end with a cliff hanger. Not nearly as engaging as others in this series.

On the whole this was an OK read, sadly just a little formulaic, with characters I wasn't overly keen on.

I had never read any of the books by T.F. Muir before, and this isn't the first one in the series, so I had some unanswered questions, ie. what happened between Gilchrist and his son Jack, and Kristen also the relationship between Gilchrist and Dr Cooper?

A body is found in a whiskey barrel that hasn't been opened in 25 years, it's found to be the missing distillery owner who vanished surprisngly enough 25 years ago!

Some of the plot was implausible especially with distance/time taken, characters were not always likeable, especially Jessie and Kathleen, found both of them very aggravating and as Jessie is a major lead in the book, makes for hard reading sometimes as I actually just don't care!

Book ended on a cliffhangar which was annoying, not sure if I would read the next in the series,

DCI Andy Gilchrist and DS Jessie Jane’s make a great partnership ideal police show for television. Both great characters that you can really get your teeth into. When we have an investigation of a body found in a Whiskey barrel a 25 year old murder will lead to a family worthy of Shakespeare. You will follow with great interest if Andy and Jessie really can take all the twists and turns this mystery will take on their lives personally. This is part of a series which will have you wanting more.
I was given an arc of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Having read another book a week or so before about a dead body being found in a barrel of whisky, I was a little uncertain as to how I would find this book. I shouldn’t have worried, as it was totally different, a good read, with a few twists and turns along the way.
I hadn’t read any of T F Muir’s books before, but will certainly make a point of reading more.

Particularly pleased to see the return of Jessie in this series; her attitude and humour provide some much needed lightness to Gilchrist's somewhat dour nature.
This is a series of fairly detailed police procedurals, in this instalment the team believe they know who the killer is but need to work hard to prove it

When a body turns up in the cask of a whiskey distillery, DCI Andy Gilchrist is called out to investigate. The body is that of Hector Dunmore – the scion of the distillery – who disappeared 25 years ago. The only trace of Hector was his abandoned Land Rover, miles away from where he was last seen.

Gilchrist finds that the investigation at the time into the disappearance was butchered, but who would want Hector dead and who ensured that the investigation was swept under the rug?

This is an okay book, but I find myself agreeing with other reviewers when I say that the characters are all a little unlikeable. Jessie especially is too prickly for my taste, and when you find yourself rooting for those who the characters are interrogating who are put off by her abruptness, it’s not ideal!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a review copy of Dead Still, the ninth novel to feature DCI Andy Gilchrist of the St Andrews Police.

When Gleneden distillery opens a cask of malt whisky they find a dead body, who is quickly identified as Hector Dunmore the distillery owner who disappeared 25 years ago, his empty car found on the other coast of Scotland. Gilchrist quickly comes to suspect the then distillery manager, Dennis Milne but he died in an alleged accident one year after Hector. Could he be looking for a serial killer and, if so, will the answer lie in the Dunmore family history?

I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Still which is a different kind of police procedural. Gilchrist has his eye on a suspect almost from the start so the novel is more about piecing together a logical and credible scenario and then proving it. Of course, proving it is the nub of the problem as there is little tangible evidence available in a 25 year old case. The novel is told entirely from Gilchrist’s point of view so the reader gets a full picture of his thinking and decision making. I found this fascinating as he gets involved in a cat and mouse game with the suspect, pushes the investigation in what appears to be tangential directions in an effort to build a better understanding of both his suspect and motives and takes certain investigative leaps of faith based on nothing more than instinct and what makes sense to him.

In the cold light of day there are certain developments that strain credulity a bit, notably a dead body pickled in whisky for 25 years, but during the read they don’t seem so out of place and I didn’t notice them until it came time to review the novel and had to think harder. At the end of the day the novel is entertaining so I got really involved and read the novel in one sitting.

The novel ends with a bang. The denouement scene is action packed and reveals some shocking secrets, shocking as in I didn’t see them coming. Kudos to the author for managing to keep them under wraps and saving the best for last. He even manages an even more shocking cliffhanger in his final few words.

Dead Still is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.