M2D4 Toe Tag: Bastard Verdict by James McCrone

Bastard Verdict is a Political Thriller. FBI Special Agent Imogen Trager is on sabbatical. She’s taking a break from the fall out of her last cases to dive into the safe world of academia. At visiting fellow at Scotland’s University of Glasgow, she’s diving into the data behind referendums in the US, Scotland, and Sweden. But then a question is raised about the validity of the 2014 Scottish referendum on independence. And that quick, Imogen is back in the thick of it.

Bottom line: Bastard Verdict is for you if you like sophisticated, intricately woven political thrillers steeped in real historical events.

Available from select booksellers and Amazon

Listen to the first chapter here or wherever you get Mysteries to Die For podcast

Strengths of the story. The strength of the story is the premise: the exploration of a fascinating “what if”. What if an election was stolen…that the victor would have won anyway? Was a crime committed? Where is the accountability? How high does it go? What would the victors do to stop the story from coming out?

This is Imogen’s 4^th case so she is an established and well-developed character. As this book is set in Scotland, not the US, there are no continuing characters from previous books. This makes it an easy choice to pick up, even if you haven’t read the previous books.

Thriller lovers should be aware this is a political thriller, so the tension and action are more intellectual and less physical. The pacing is strong with the storyline continuously moving forward. Interestingly, the story is largely driven by the “villains”, forcing the heroes to act and react throughout the book.

Where the story fell short of ideal:

I had two minor challenges reading the book. First centers around point of view. Bastard Verdict is told from multiple points of view, as is common with thrillers. But occasionally, the change in point of view happened within a continuous scene, often subtly. It was enough that I had to stop and re-read to understand the narrating character changed.

The second challenge centered around logic and sequence. Once the story gets rolling, the actions of the characters are consistent, even if driven by fear, greed, or paranoia. They are bad guys, after all. The starting premise that gets Imogen going on the research isn’t the strongest and a coincidence regarding one of the characters strikes as convenient. Small detractions for an otherwise enjoyable read on an intriguing premise.