Oscar de Muriel

Oscar de Muriel was born in Mexico City in 1983, in the building that now houses Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum (some people claim to see a connection there …). He had a very happy childhood even though he did not try refried beans until he was six (he refused to eat anything brown and gooey).

He came to the United Kingdom to complete a PhD in Chemistry, working as a freelance translator to supplement his earnings (he was responsible for some Johnnie Walker ads for Colombia). During this time Oscar produced a handful of academic papers, and the idea of a spooky whodunit started to take roots in his head.

After several visits to Edinburgh, the city struck him as the perfect setting for a crime mystery. The entire concept of Nine-Nails McGray came to Oscar’s head while eating pizza with a couple of friends (guys, do you remember Cantina Los Perros and the sea monster?) For years Oscar had been meaning to write a story about the Devil’s Sonata (he’s a violin player himself) and it fitted perfectly as McGray’s first case.

Oscar currently lives in Lancashire in a lovely house that overlooks Pendle Hill, a field of limping sheep, and a very creepy-looking manor that he aspires to own one day.

Books by Oscar de Muriel

The Dance of the Serpents

Paranormal investigators Inspectors Frey and McGray find their lives under threat by Royal order in a Gothic world of blood, bats, folklore, superstition and murder.

Reviewed on 19 December 2020 by John Cleal

The Darker Arts

Paranormal investigators Inspectors Frey and McGray face a race to save McGray’s trusted clairvoyant Madame Katerina when she is condemned to hang after being the only survivor of a séance involving three of Edinburgh’s wealthiest families.

Reviewed on 21 December 2019 by John Cleal

Loch of the Dead

Paranormal investigators Inspectors Frey and McGray, lured to a lonely Highland manor by a promise of a cure for the mad sister of ‘Nine-Nails’ and a threat to the estate’s young heir, enter a Gothic world of blood, bats, folklore, superstition and murder.

Reviewed on 04 August 2018 by John Cleal

Mask of Shadows

London’s top luvvies bring the Scottish Play – and its curse – north of the border and create a scene of chaos and corpses for paranomal investigators Inspectors Frey and ‘Nine Nails’ McGray.

Reviewed on 27 May 2017 by John Cleal

A Fever of the Blood

Mismatched detectives ‘Nine Nails’ McGray and Ian Frey, on the track of a patient who has escaped Edinburgh’s asylum where a nurse has been murdered, follow a psychopath across the border to the shadow of Pendle Hill, home of the Lancashire witches.

Reviewed on 28 May 2016 by John Cleal

The Strings of Murder

Victorian Inspectors Ian Frey and ‘Nine Nails’ McGray must solve the gruesome killing of an Edinburgh violin virtuoso. Their inquiries take them into a world of music, madness and devil worship.

Reviewed on 20 June 2015 by John Cleal