Review by Frank Plowright

For most people losing a husband in horrific circumstances would be tragedy beyond their capability to cope. It happened to paramedic Ruth Saran, and several years later she discovered her husband’s killer and only just escaped with her life after confronting them in the Scottish Highlands. It was no ordinary killer, but a being infected with a parasite whose life spanned centuries, requiring cannibalism to sustain it.

That was Flesh and Blood, but we’re not long into Skin and Bone before it’s apparent the parasite still exists in some form, and has now reached Glasgow. Three months have passed. Police detective Dan Mountford has now transferred to the city to live with Ruth, but her own attempts to return to work have been blocked by an assessment panel. Things rapidly turn worse for her.

Despite the eventually revealed supernatural horror to the first work, Simon Lewis maintained a realism, and that’s elevated in the city, not just with locations, but with political expediency and restrictions. Underlining that is Dan’s new commanding officer referring to his failure to follow procedure during the events of Flesh and Blood. It’s also notable that Ruth has become more capable and resourceful following her earlier experiences, and that’s going to be necessary as it turns out the entire situation is murkier than anticipated.

Events may begin in Glasgow, but they move somewhere less populated, which is good news because a real strength of artist Chris Geary is displaying the beauty of the British countryside in surprisingly few lines, and then shattering the serenity with atrocity. As before, this is delicately portrayed rather than displayed in stomach turning fashion. New characters are as easily distinguished as the old, and when the full threat manifests Geary delivers it horrifically in two different ways.

Lewis could have taken the easy option and just re-run a version of the previous horror, but he’s smarter, and supplies something connected, but unexpected. The ending is too understated in emphasising the mundanity of evil, a tidying up prioritising reality at the expense of the real punch the air moment needed, but this is another fine thriller exploring a different type of horror.