It's
quite safe to read Carofiglio's novels before going to sleep but that may be
less advisable with my next book [Deadly Code]. The world of Glasgow based forensic
scientist Rhona MacLeod is rather more gory and I'll probably read
Lin Anderson's latest during
daylight hours. Incidentally, Ms Anderson lives in Merchiston in Edinburgh
near Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and JK Rowling. Rankin calls this
neighbourhood the "Writers' Block"...
I've already enjoyed the
two previous Lin Anderson books - Driftnet
(after reading a favourable review by David McLetchie, the former Scottish
Tory leader) and Torch in which the Glasgow scientist spends an amount of
time in Edinburgh that would have horrified
Jim Taggart.
David Farrer -
Freedom and Whisky Blogspot
30th December, 2006 Female forensic pathologists
(stay with me - this gets easier) have become in recent years an
astonishingly successful
sub-genre of the detective thriller.
This is entirely the
result of Patricia Cornwell's
Kay Scarpetta books ('Postmortem',
'Body of Evidence') and
the Dr Temperance Brennan novels ('Deja Dead',
'Death du Jour') by Kathy Reichs.
I read these two
giantesses of American popular
fiction avidly. I have
cheerfully contributed to their paperback
billions. But they would not
normally feature in this column.
They are here this week
because Scotland now has a
fictional female forensic
pathologist all of our own.
Her name is Rhona MacLeod. She
is a Gaelic speaker from
Skye. And her latest, third adventure is set in
Raasay.
Sitting - as I do most
days - looking out towards
Braes from the south side of
Churchton Bay, I can
hardly believe I just wrote the above lines. But I
did, and I stick by them.
Luath Press - an
increasingly lively Scottish
independent house - has now
published three Rhona
MacLeod books by Lin Anderson. The third, 'Deadly
Code', is set in Glasgow (Ms
MacLeod's base),
California, Sleat and Raasay.
I am moderately familiar
with the first, have never
been to the second, used to live
in the third and
presently live in the fourth. Whoever else reviews Lin Anderson's
latest, they are unlikely to do
so with a more personal sense of genuine
intrigue.
I have just finished
reading 'Deadly Code'.
Thrillers, like most books, normally transport their
readers elsewhere. There is
something inexplicably
baffling about immersion in a novel which brings
Glasgow gangsters, FBI agents
and American racial
puricists - not to mention forensic pathologists from
Skye - together in a gory
shoot-out in the usually
quiet village and woodlands of one's own
neighbourhood. It's a little
like having Indiana Jones
step off the Sconser ferry with
a bull-whip, having
refused to pay the five-day visitor return fare. I
suppose you just have to blink
and accept it.
As one quite happily
blinks and accepts Lin
Anderson's plot. She has rather cleverly latched onto
the link - highlighted almost
uniquely in these pages
over the past few years - between some American
far-right genetic racists and
their version of Scotland
and the Gaels. This leads
her from Glasgow to the Californian part
of the story, where Rhona
MacLeod finds herself
attending a US Highland Gathering which is nurturing a
rather nasty neo-fascist True
Gaels movement. From
there it is a short hop and a skip back over the Atlantic,
and all parties converge by boat
on the north coast of Raasay - where
several dismembered body parts
have been brought up in fishing nets.
Rhona's journey leads her
from Mallaig to Armadale,
and up through Sleat, where she
stops to look fondly at
her old family home. This is now rented to a
distinctly sinister Canadian
Gael who is teaching at
Sabhal Mor Ostaig. I will at this point refrain from
further comment, except to
suggest that future
novelists who choose to dabble in this theme should
pay serious attention to the
libel laws.
She crosses to Raasay and
there (here) takes a B & B
with the local postmistress. Lin
Anderson's narrative is
by now so close to home that this reviewer feels he
ought to declare an interest and
leave the room. But I
cannot. Held like a rabbit in the headlights, I can
only read on, drop-jawed, as the
Inverarish postmistress's
home is invaded by a Raasay exile who
has become a Glasgow street kid,
an abandoned baby and the
aforementioned pathological drug-dealing gangster,
who has a longstanding grudge
against Rhona MacLeod.
In reality, this train of
events would of course have
been handled with calm and
aplomb, and this, sensibly,
is how Lin Anderson chooses to
direct her
fictionalisation. The Raasay postmistress takes care
of the infant and the exile
(while still selling
stamps and newspapers) and is utterly unperturbed by
the gangster. What's more, she
manages to hide the whole
shenanigan from her neighbours.
In the face of such
superhuman composure the violent
action of 'Deadly Code' has no
option but to move to the
semi-deserted north of the island. There is a
generally satisfactory
conclusion, in that most of the
baddies and only one goodie come
to a sticky end in the
woodland between Brochel and Hallaig.
And so concludes the
first ever female forensic
scientist thriller to be based
largely in Raasay.
Anderson holds her plot
together well, ties up all the
loose ends, and keeps things
bouncing along at a
decent lick. I just hope that next time she visits the
carnage on somewhere a bit more
deserving. Broadford,
perhaps.
Roger Hutchinson
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