Today, I’m reviewing The Murder Tree by Caro Ramsay
Blurb
Individually, the deaths of three elderly people aren’t suspicious. But when DCI Christine Caplan discovers the victims are linked and the truth of their identities twists the investigation ever darker, one question haunts Caplan’s every step: who needs these people dead… and how many names are on their list?
Four siblings. Three dead bodies. One twisted bloodline.
DCI Christine Caplan should be celebrating her daughter’s wedding. Instead, a journalist gives her a lead on a potential murder case with four whispered words: Witness protection. Suspicious death.
The dead woman is Juniper Greene — a recluse found alone in her cottage, the doors locked from the inside. Officially, nobody cares. And since Caplan’s team is days from being shut down, she has nothing to lose by following the faintest trace of evidence.
What surfaces is a family that shouldn’t still exist. Four estranged siblings—two buried, two vanished or living under names that aren’t their own. One by one, these relatives are being picked off.
It isn’t a family tree.
It’s a murder tree.
And someone is chopping it back to the roots.
Caplan has to save the survivors. But can she find them before the killer?
Book Links
| Goodreads | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/258599440 |
| Purchase Link | https://mybook.to/murdertree-zbt |
Book Info
| Publication Day | Thursday, October 15, 2026 |
| Publisher | Severn House (Imprint of Joffe Books) |
| Genre | Crime Thriller |
| Page Count | 272 pages |
| Series / Standalone | 5th standalone book in the DCI Christine Caplan series |
My Review
This isn’t the first book by Caro Ramsay I’ve read, but it’s the first in her DCI Caplan series I’ve had the pleasure of reading. The Murder Tree is the fifth book. So it looks like I have some catching up to do.
DCI Caplan and her team find a body washed ashore. But that’s not the only one they’ll find as the case progresses. This one was likely a drug mule, having been disembowelled.
From that point on, the death count rises. People aren’t who they claim to be. This is where it gets interesting: Caplan and her team begin piecing the case together.
The pacing suited the story and came together neatly in the end. I wondered who the murderer was right until the point where the author revealled the identity.
I’ll be getting the first four books in this series. Well done, Caro!
About the Author
CARO RAMSAY is the Glaswegian author of the critically acclaimed Anderson and Costello series, the first of which, Absolution, was shortlisted for the CWA’s New Blood Dagger for best debut of the year. The ninth book in the series, The Suffering of Strangers, was longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize 2018.@CaroRamsayBooks | caroramsay.com
Follow Caro at these links:
| https://www.facebook.com/CaroRamsayAuthor | |
| https://www.facebook.com/CaroRamsayAuthor | |
| X / Twitter | https://x.com/CaroRamsayBooks |
| Website | https://www.caroramsay.com/ |
