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DRIFTNET
by Lin Anderson introduces forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod and is a vivid
and exciting thriller set in Glasgow. Spare, cinematic and a real
page-turner.
Maggie
Craig BookCrossing.com
Website:
This is a book about the police forensic support department in Glasgow. I
used to work for the police forensic support department in, you guessed it,
Glasgow. I can happily report, that apart from one exception, it is
gleefully true to life. The exception was the location of the lab, which is
10 times more interesting than it actually is. Everything else is so
accurate, i had to wonder who had consulted on it. even the background
scenes, addresses and landscapes. I killed the book in a day, which doesn't
happen often! ... Kate
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I picked it up and could only go
to bed at 3.30 because I had to read it through in one go!
It's a great book, and the graphicness didn't disturb me, but what I found
really hard to swallow were the feelings of the poor boys - although they
did make it an even better read. I had never heard of Lin Anderson before,
but with character descriptions, storyline, Scottishness (I looooove
the way they talk) and all the little bylines she's right up there with Ian
Rankin, my absolutely favourite Scottish crime author. ... Soleille
~
This was a good book and I couldn't put it
down! Luckily I had the day off today and could read it all in one go! I
liked the characters and the story was good. I don't think that some people
could read this kind of book because it was quite graphic in some places.
Even though this was graphic at times, I believe it was better to add that
aspect to the story to make it more realistic. I hate reading these mystery
books where you are left to decide by yourself exactly what happened.
I am glad I bought the other 2 books in the series when I took home this
one. I would have been kicking myself now if I hadn't. ... Amberkatze
Superb thriller dealing with a paedophile ring in Edinburgh. A woman
forensics expert gets up to her neck in trouble. You can't put it down,
as it is so relevant to what's going on in the USA in regard to kids
going online and getting reeled in by sexual deviants. Lin Anderson, the
author, writes with a hearty panache typical of today's Scots authors. |
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RHONA MACLEOD
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DRIFTNET REVIEWS |
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Lin Anderson is a new but
very welcome addition to the growing ranks of Scottish crime writers.
Her book DRIFTNET will be Ottakar's Scottish Book of the Month for
August 2003and will appeal to fans of Ian Rankin, Patricia Cornwell and
Kathy Reichs. |
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One of the 20 Scottish books
everyone should read
... The
Scotsman
A cracking
page-turner
... News of the World
In
DRIFTNET the very dangerous worlds of paedophilia, politics, and the
Internet are skilfully linked together .... It simply makes your
skin crawl. Ms Anderson's brilliant debut leaves you hoping for
a sequel soon.
... The Independent
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Lin Anderson - a
new addition to the ranks of Scottish detective writers, but it is
already evident that she is a worthy addition.
Cosmopolitan
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Glasgow based forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod's
past is back to haunt her in the form of a brutally murdered university
student. A successful lawyer and budding politician (and ex-lover of
Rhona's) is anxious to keep details of their past relationship secret. Is he
covering up a link to the murder?
DRIFTNET combines the disturbing and sinister worlds of paedophilia,
politics and the Internet. In a brilliant debut, Lin Anderson has created a
complex character, and we look forward to her subsequent cases in what
promises to be a gripping series of crime novels.
David Gracie (Ottakar's)
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Lin Anderson has a rare gift. She is one
of the few able to convey urban and rural with equal truth. The fast
moving plot of Driftnet gives licence to explore more than a series of
murders. Forensic scientist Rhona Macleod is forced, in the course of a
gruesome investigation, to examine more than is comfortable about her
own past. Long-buried personal and political issues return to haunt her
in this quest for truth at all its many levels. Compelling, vivid stuff.
I couldn't put it put it down. Anne MacLeod
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY graduate Lin Anderson dives
right in at the deep end with her first novel. The tale begins with a murder
in a downtown Glasgow tenement and swiftly moves to the darker, and highly
topical matters of internet child grooming, paedophile rings, and corruption
in high places.
A gripping and tightly plotted affair, Driftnet is
uneasy reading in parts, but a page-turner nonetheless. The book's main
character, Dr Rhona MacLeod, a forensic scientist with the Glasgow Police
force, whose interest in the initial murder becomes personal when she
notices similarities between the dead boy and the son she gave up for
adoption seventeen years before. Such a human interest side of the story is
vital with such a grim subject matter, and this, along with the adept
portrayal of the supporting characters, help flesh out the story into
something more than your average murder mystery.
Crime thrillers by Edinburgh writers will always
draw inevitable comparisons with Ian Rankin, and in this case the comparison
is justified. In Dr MacLeod, like Rankin's Inspector Rebus, Anderson has
created a compelling lead character: likeable, yet with enough faults to
make her believable. If you're a fan of the Rebus books, you will
undoubtedly enjoy this. The only minor niggle is that, as in Rankin's
novels, all loose ends are tied up - every character is somehow connected to
everyone else, which can feel a touch contrived in places.
That said, Rebus has now featured in more than fifteen novels, many of them
bestsellers, and if this book is anything to go on, Dr Rhona MacLeod may
similarly be around for quite a while yet.
Jude Roe
Glasgow forensic scientist Rhona
Macleod is called from her comfortable bed and Irish boyfriend Sean
to a seedy flat where a teenage boy has been murdered. The murder
scene is bad enough, but she can't take her eyes off the lad -- he's
the spitting image of the son she gave up for adoption many years
before.
The case really upsets Rhona, and brings back memories she thought
she'd buried. So she is determined to track down the boy's killer
and to find out if it really is the son she gave away 17 years
previously. But the search drags her and others associated with the
case into an internet paedophile ring -- and it soon becomes
apparent that there are some big names with a vested interest in
keeping it all quiet.
DRIFTNET is grim and gritty, but utterly absorbing. Lin Anderson is
a natural and confident storyteller. She writes sharp, slick prose
and handles multiple point of views very confidently and better than
most writers I've come across. She structures the book in sections
so you always know where you are and who you're with. I wish she'd
give classes to those writers who think it's OK to swap around
within paragraphs!
If you've read anything by Louise Welsh or Denise Mina you will know
that Glasgow is a city that seems to lend itself to crime fiction.
And Anderson uses it to great effect as well as she moves from art
galleries and university buildings through to run-down housing
estates.
She's strong on characterisation as well, although you may have to
grit your teeth if you don't like main character love life angst in
your books! I think it's a tribute to Anderson's writing that so
many of the characters got a reaction from me as I was reading --
this varied from "dump him!" when it came to space cadet Sean to
"grow a backbone and tell the lot of them to push off!" for Rhona's
much put-upon colleague Chrissy. I did find the drunken hack a
tiresome stereotype, though, and I have doubts as to the legal
standing of his front page scoop.
The whodunit isn't hard to guess but it didn't matter to me -- I was
just keen to see how Anderson got there and how she handled
developments along the way. And several loose ends suggest that
Rhona, Chrissy and DI Bill Wilson -- a policeman who's seen it all
but still keeps battling -- will be back.
Sharon Wheeler
Reviewing the Evidence.com
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Buy DRIFTNET ...
ISBN-10: 0340922362 -
ISBN-13: 978-0340922361
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