McBride & Tanner Books in Order

McBride & Tanner moves Rachel McLean’s crime world to Scotland and builds a series around a new police unit, the Complex Crimes Unit. It brings together DI Jade Tanner, forensic psychologist Dr Petra McBride, and DS Mo Uddin, who readers may already know from the Zoe Finch books.

The setup is not glamorous. The unit is supposed to investigate Scotland’s most complex crimes, but it starts life in a dingy office outside Glasgow with uncertain support from senior officers. Jade has been given responsibility for the team, Petra has lost her university job in Dundee, and Mo is trying to adjust after leaving Birmingham behind.

Their first case is big enough to test them.

In Blood and Money, an American tech billionaire is shot on the shore of Loch Lomond, and Jade sees possible links to an old shooting that still troubles her. The series then moves through murders tied to Macbeth, deaths at a high-level summit, and bodies found on the Isle of Arran. The cases are unusual enough to need both policing and psychological insight.

Petra is one of the series’ main draws. She is clever, prickly, and often better at reading other people’s behaviour than managing her own life. Jade has her own trauma and family pressures. Mo brings steadiness, but Scotland is not an easy adjustment for him. Their personal struggles are not side decoration. They shape how the team works.

The series has a stronger psychological and puzzle element than some of McLean’s other police books. It also uses Scotland well, from Loch Lomond to Dunsinane Hill, Birnam Wood, luxury hotels, and island digs. Start with Blood and Money, because the team’s first case explains why this unlikely group might be worth backing.