Clara’s Verdict
J M Dalgliesh is one of those crime writers who understands that the best mysteries are built not on gore but on secrets – secrets that have been buried long enough to become dangerous. The Missing Dead, the seventh instalment in the Misty Isle series, announces itself with a desecrated grave and escalates from there with exactly the unhurried menace that fans of DI Duncan McAdam have come to expect. The Scottish island setting remains one of the most evocative backdrops in contemporary British crime fiction. If you have not yet spent time in Dalgliesh’s Skye, this is as fine an entry point as any.
About the audiobook
DI Duncan McAdam is called to a cemetery to investigate a desecrated grave. The deceased was the skipper of a fishing trawler with a distinctly chequered past. Every member of his crew met a suspicious end: one fell to his death, one took his own life, one jumped from a rocky clifftop. Only a single crewman remains alive. When Duncan visits the skipper’s widow for what should be a routine interview, he finds her house ransacked, blood on the floor, and a body in the boot of her car.
The novel unspools around a central mystery – what happened on that trawler, on a stormy night at sea years earlier – while threading in the personal complications that have always given the McAdam series its emotional texture. Duncan’s relationship with his son resurfaces to haunt the investigation, adding a domestic vulnerability to the procedural rigour. Dalgliesh is particularly good at making the reader feel the weight of secrets kept for decades, and the sense that the truth, once unearthed, will prove costly for everyone involved.
Published by Transworld Digital and produced by Penguin Audio, The Missing Dead is scheduled for release in July 2026. The series is published with the full backing of Penguin, and the production quality has been consistently excellent throughout.
The narration
Narrator information is not yet available for this title, as it was forthcoming at the time of listing. The previous Misty Isle books have benefited from narration that handles the Hebridean setting – the accents, the atmosphere – with considerable care, and listeners can expect the same from this seventh entry.
What readers say
As a forthcoming title, reader reviews are not yet available. The Misty Isle series has, however, built a loyal following across its first six books, with Dalgliesh consistently praised for his plotting, his sense of place, and his ability to construct mysteries that feel rooted in genuine community rather than procedural formula.
Who should listen?
Ideal for fans of Scottish crime fiction – Peter May, Ann Cleeves, and Stuart MacBride spring to mind as natural comparators – and for anyone who enjoys a detective series with real continuity of character. You can start here if you wish, but the emotional investment in Duncan McAdam’s personal life will be considerably richer if you have followed the earlier books. Those who enjoy procedurals built around communities keeping terrible secrets will be well served.
