Rhona MacLeod
17 total works
When art student Jude Evans disappears on a photographic visit to a derelict Glasgow cinema, her friend Liam he enlists the help of his birth mother, forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod, in his search for Jude. Visiting other derelict cinemas on her list, they find clues to her disappearance and to the horrifying secret she may have discovered behind those walls.
Still recovering from her previous case, Rhona MacLeod must investigate a series of brutal killings on the Isle of Skye. Time for the Dead is the fourteenth book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail
Taking time away from work, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod returns to her roots on the Isle of Skye. But a chance encounter in the woods leads her to what seems to be a crime scene – without a victim. Could this be linked to a group of army medics, who visited the area while on leave from Afghanistan and have since gone missing from the island? Enlisting the help of local tracker dog, Rhona starts searching for a connection.
Two days later, a body is found at the base of the famous cliff known as Kilt Rock. The victim's face and identity are obliterated by the fall. Rhona suspects it is the work of a killer and, as connections form with an ongoing operation in Glasgow, DS Michael McNab is drawn into the investigation.
The island’s unforgiving conditions close in, and Rhona must find out what really happened to the group in Afghanistan – as the consequences may be being playing out in brutal killings on the Isle of Skye . . .
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' – Daily Record
Time for the Dead is the fourteenth book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by The Innocent Dead.
Readers love Time for the Dead:
'Honestly this series just gets better and better'
'We see a more vulnerable Rhona in this book . . . Another cracking read'
'Will have you gripped from the beginning to the end'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.
On an isolated Scottish island, a secretive community is forced to face the darkness of its past. None but the Dead is the thrilling eleventh book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail
Sanday, one of Britain's northernmost islands. Inaccessible when the wind prevents the ferry crossing, or fog grounds the tiny, island-hopping plane. When human remains are discovered at an old primary school, Rhona MacLeod and her assistant are dispatched to excavate the grave.
In Glasgow, the suspicious death of an older man appears to have links to the island – and DS Michael McNab arrives to investigate. Desperately uncomfortable in such surroundings, he finds that none of the tools of detective work are there. No internet, no CCTV, and no police station.
As the weather closes in, the team – including criminal profiler and Orkney native Professor Magnus Pirie – are presented with a series of unexplained incidents, apparently linked to the discovery of thirteen magic flowers representing the souls of dead children who had attended the primary school. But how and in what circumstance did they die? And why are their long-forgotten deaths significant to the current investigation?
As a major storm approaches, bringing gale-force winds and high seas, the islanders turn on one another. As past and present evil deeds collide, long-buried secrets will break to the surface . . .
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' – Daily Record
None but the Dead is the eleventh book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by Follow the Dead.
Readers love None but the Dead:
'I really LOVED this book'
'Really enjoyed the change of location'
'A terrific read and a must for every crime thriller loving reader'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.
A plane crash, a missing person – and a girl abducted. Follow the Dead is the thrilling twelfth book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail
On holiday in the Scottish Highlands, forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod joins a mountain rescue team on Cairngorm summit, where a mysterious plane has crash-landed on the frozen Loch A'an. Nearby, a climbing expedition has left three young people dead – with a fourth still missing.
In Glasgow, DS Michael McNab's raid on the Delta Club produces far more than just a massive haul of cocaine. Underage girls are found amongst the city's elite – during an interview, one reveals that she was smuggled into Scotland via Norway, and it seems the plane crash in the Cairngorms may be linked to the club. But, before McNab can discover more, the girl is abducted.
Joined by Norwegian detective Alvis Olsen, who harbours disturbing theories about how the two cases are connected with his homeland, Rhona searches for the missing link. What she uncovers is a dark underworld populated by ruthless people willing to do anything to ensure the investigation dies in the frozen wasteland of the Cairngorms . . .
Shortlisted for the 2018 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' – Daily Record
Follow the Dead is the twelfth book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by Sins of the Dead.
Readers love Follow the Dead:
'A different setting for Rhona in this Highland epic . . . I enjoyed this immensely'
'This book takes you on such a journey round Scotland'
'If you like crime thrillers, you will not be disappointed'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.
Forty-five years ago, a young girl went missing. Now, a body is found. The Innocent Dead is the fifteenth book in Lin Anderson's Glasgow-set forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail
Mary McIntyre's disappearance tore the local community apart, inflicting wounds that still prove raw for those who knew her. So when the present-day discovery of a child’s remains are found in a peat bog south of Glasgow, it seems the decades-old mystery may finally be solved.
Called in to excavate the body, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod uses the advances made in forensic science since Mary’s vanishing to determine what really happened all those years ago – and who was responsible.
Karen Marshall had been devastated by her best friend’s abduction. The police questioned her at the time, but it was a dead end – and the case soon went cold.
Now, news of the discovered body brings the nightmares back. Memories long-buried by Karen are returning – memories that begin to uncover her role in her friend’s disappearance, and may even reveal the identity of the killer . . .
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' – Daily Record
The Innocent Dead is the fifteenth book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by The Killing Tide.
Readers love The Innocent Dead:
'Lin Anderson delivers another belter of a book'
'I couldn't put the book down it was absolutely gripping'
'I enjoyed every single minute of it'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.
When Mark Howitt is invited back to Leila's flat and ordered to strip, he thinks he's about to have the experience of his life. Waking later he finds Leila gone from his side. Keen to leave, he opens the wrong door and finds he's entered a nightmare; behind the swaying Barbie dolls that hang from the ceiling is the body of the girl he just had sex with.
Rhona Macleod's forensic investigation of the scene reveals the red plaited silk cord used to hang Leila to be a cingulum, a Wiccan artefact used in sex magick. Sketches of sexual partners hidden in the dolls provide a link to nine powerful men, but who are they? As the investigation continues, it looks increasingly likely that other witches will be targeted too.
Working the investigation is the newly demoted DS Michael McNab, who is keen to stay sober and redeem himself with Rhona, but an encounter with Leila's colleague and fellow Wiccan Freya Devine threatens his resolve. Soon McNab realizes Freya may hold the key to identifying the men linked to the dolls and the Nine will do anything to keep their identities a secret.
Where the hell had the kid found a human skull? McNab heard an intake of breath behind him as someone else made out the shape in the torchlight. A metre away now, McNab crouched on a level with the child. 'Where did you find that, Emma?' he said softly. She stared at him. 'I was lost. I heard them calling me.'
When Claire regains consciousness after a stranger causes her car to crash in a snowstorm, she is frantic to discover her nine-year-old daughter Emma missing from the back seat. Then Emma is found in the woods nearby, unharmed but cradling a child's skull. She claims it 'called to her' - and she can hear another voice nearby...
Meanwhile, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is trying to discover the identity of a corpse found badly burned in a skip. The body is wearing a soldier's ID tag, but DNA tests show it's not him. When DS Michael McNab asks for her help identifying the remains Emma found, they discover the two cases are linked in ways they could never have imagined...
Lin Anderson, author of Driftnet and Easy Kill, has written her most powerful novel to date.
'Lin Anderson is one of Scotland's national treasures' Stuart MacBride
When a young homeless girl dies in the latest of a string of arson attacks, Dr Rhona Macleod is called in. But here in Edinburgh she is off her patch - the Chief Fire Investigator is hot-tempered misogynist Severino Macrae, and he doesn't like to lose face. As the attacks escalate, will their growing chemistry distract them from the murderous arsonist who seems to be infiltrating their personal lives as well as their work?
The Rhona Macelod Series:
1: Driftnet
2: Torch
3: Deadly Code
4: Dark Flight
5: Easy Kill
6: Final Cut
7: Reborn
8: Picture Her Dead
9: Paths of the Dead
10: The Special Dead
11: None but the Dead
12: Follow the Dead
One grave. Two bodies. How many more?
A young woman - a prostitute - has been brutally slain and left across a grave in Glasgow's sprawling cemetery, the Necropolis. Rhona Macleod, called in to carry out forensic investigations, has no doubt that the depraved killer's motives were sexual.When the removal of the girl's corpse from the city of the dead reveals another woman recently buried underneath, the case takes on a disturbing new dimension. This man has killed before - and will again. When another girl is reported missing, Rhona knows she has to track him down and stop the pattern from repeating itself..
The first in the gritty, atmospheric Rhona Macelod crime series. Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin.
'Lin Anderson is one of Scotland's national treasures' Stuart MacBride
'The boy who had been abused and strangled in that hideous little room looked so like her, he could have been her brother...'
A teenage boy is found mutilated and murdered in a Glasgow flat. Forensic scientist Rhona Macleod is called to the scene, but her grim task is made even more unsettling than usual by the boy's remarkable resemblance to her - and the fact that she gave up a baby boy for adoption seventeen years before.
Racked with guilt, she sets out to find the boy's killer and determine whether he is her long-lost son - but in doing so, she immerses herself in the sinister world of an internet paedophile ring. Some very powerful men have a lot to lose if she succeeds, and everything to gain if she dies.
The Rhona Macelod Series:
1: Driftnet
2: Torch
3: Deadly Code
4: Dark Flight
5: Easy Kill
6: Final Cut
7: Reborn
8: Picture Her Dead
9: Paths of the Dead
10: The Special Dead
11: None but the Dead
12: Follow the Dead
It was never just a game . . .
When Amy MacKenzie agrees to attend a meeting at a local spiritualist church, the last person she expects to hear calling to her from beyond the grave is her son. The son whom she'd only spoken to an hour before.
Then the body of a young man is found inside a neolithic stone circle high above the city of Glasgow and forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is soon on the case. The hands have been severed and there is a stone in the victim's mouth with the number five scratched on it. DI Michael McNab is certain it's a gangland murder, but Rhona isn't convinced. When a second body is found in similar circumstances, a pattern begins to emerge, of a killer intent on masterminding a gruesome Druidic game that everyone will be forced to play . . .
The sins of the dead are all consuming . . . Sins of the Dead is the thrilling thirteenth book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail
While illegally street racing in the underground tunnels of Glasgow, four Harley-Davidson riders make a horrifying discovery: a dead man left in the darkness, hands together on his chest as if peacefully laid to rest. The cause of death is unclear, the only clues being a half glass of red wine and a partially eaten chunk of bread by his side that echo the ancient religious practice of sin-eating.
Called to the scene, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is perplexed by the lack of evidence. But when another body is found near her own flat, laid out in a similar manner, she fears a forensically-aware killer stalks the city and is marking the victims with their unique signature. Even more worryingly, the killer appears to be using skills they may have learned while attending her forensic science lectures at Glasgow University.
There are signs that Rhona is being targeted, that the killer is playing with her and the police – drawing them into a deadly race against time, before the sin-eater’s next victim is chosen . . .
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' – Daily Record
Sins of the Dead is the thirteenth book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by Time for the Dead.
Readers love Sins of the Dead:
'I was thoroughly gripped from start to finish as I always am!'
'I really and honestly couldn't put it down'
'Enjoyed this from first page to last - I'm officially hooked'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.
An abandoned ship sweeps ashore in the Orkney Isles – and a global conspiracy unfurls. The Killing Tide is the sixteenth book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail
After a fierce storm hits Scotland, a mysterious cargo ship is discovered in the Orkney Isles. Boarding the vessel uncovers three bodies, recently deceased and in violent circumstances. Forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod’s study of the crime scene suggests that a sinister game was being played on board, but who were the hunters? And who the hunted?
In Glasgow, DS Michael McNab is called to a horrific incident where a young woman has been set on fire. Or did she spark the flames herself?
As evidence arises that connects the two cases, the team grow increasingly concerned that the truth of what happened on the ship and in Glasgow hints at a wider conspiracy – one that stretches down to London and beyond, to a global stage. Orcadian Ava Clouston, renowned investigative journalist, believes so and sets out to prove it, putting herself in grave danger.
When the Met Police challenge Police Scotland’s jurisdiction, it becomes obvious that there are ruthless individuals who are willing to do whatever it takes to protect government interests. Which could lead to even more deaths on Scottish soil . . .
'Enthralling' – The Guardian
'A cracking story told at breakneck speed' – Scotland on Sunday
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' – Daily Record
The Killing Tide is the sixteenth book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by The Wild Coast.
Readers love The Killing Tide:
'Gritty, menacing and unputdownable'
'Instantly I was glued to this mystery, couldn’t turn the pages fast enough'
'Roll on the next book in the series'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.
A remote shoreline. A lethal killer. As lone visitors disappear from the rural northwest of Scotland, campsites are becoming crime scenes. The Wild Coast is the seventeenth book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail
When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland’s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim’s mouth.
Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.
As her investigation proceeds, Rhona is forced to reconsider her closest bonds. Rumours of sexual assault offences by serving police officers are circling in Glasgow, which may include her trusted colleague DS Michael McNab. Could it be true, or is someone looking to put him out of action?
All the while a young woman’s life is on the line and the clock is ticking . . .
'Lin Anderson is one of Scotland’s national treasures' – Stuart MacBride, author of the Logan McRae series
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' – Daily Record
The Wild Coast is the seventeenth book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by Whispers of the Dead.
Readers love The Wild Coast:
'This series just keeps getting better'
'I was totally glued the whole way through'
'Loved it - makes me want to visit the Wild Coast'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.