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.
Time for the Dead is a gripping crime novel by Lin Anderson and sees forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod discover that a terrifying war is unfolding on Scotland's Isle of Skye.
When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod returns to her roots on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, a chance encounter in the woods behind a nearby activities centre leads her to what seems to be a crime scene, but without a victim. Could this be linked to a group of army medics, who visited the centre while on leave from Afghanistan and can no longer be located on the island?
Enlisting the help of local tracker dog Blaze, Rhona starts searching for a connection.
Two days later a body is found at the base of the famous cliff known as Kilt Rock, face and identity obliterated by the fall, which leads Rhona to suspect the missing medics may be on the island for reasons other than relaxation. Furthermore, elements of the case suggests a link with an ongoing operation in Glasgow, which draws DS Michael McNab into the investigation.
As the island’s unforgiving conditions close in, Rhona must find out what really happened to the group in Afghanistan, as the consequences may be being played out in brutal killings on Skye . . .
Time for the Dead is the fourteenth book in Lin Anderson’s forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod. Discover more forensic thrillers with the start the series; Driftnet, Torch and Deadly Code.
None but the Dead is the thrilling eleventh book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
Sanday, one of Britain's northernmost islands, inaccessible when the wind prevents the ferry crossing from the mainland, or fog grounds the tiny, island-hopping plane.
When human remains are discovered to the rear of an old primary school, forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod and her assistant arrive to excavate the grave. Approaching midwinter, they find daylight in short supply, the weather inhospitable and some of the island's inhabitants less than co-operative. When the suspicious death of an old man in Glasgow appears to have links with the island, DS Michael McNab is dispatched 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 island school where the body was discovered. 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, and long buried secrets break the surface, along with the exposed bones.
Follow Rhona MacLeod in more forensic thrillers with Follow the Dead, Sins of the Dead and Time for the Dead.
Shortlisted for the 2018 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.
Follow the Dead is the thrilling twelfth book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
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. Added to that, a nearby climbing expedition has left three young people dead, with a fourth still missing.
Meanwhile in Glasgow, DS McNab’s raid on the Delta Club produces far more than just a massive haul of cocaine. Questioning one of the underage girls found partying with the city’s elite reveals she was smuggled into Scotland via Norway, and it seems the crashed plane 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 . . .
Follow Rhona MacLeod in more forensic thrillers with Sins of the Dead and Time for the Dead.
The Innocent Dead is a gripping crime novel by Lin Anderson featuring forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod who must solve the case of a young girl who went missing forty-five years ago.
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.
One key person had been Karen Marshall who was devastated by her best friend’s abduction. Questioned by the police at the time had led to a dead end and the case soon went cold.
Now the news of the discovered body brings the nightmares back. But added to that, memories long-buried by Karen are returning, memories that begin to reveal her role in her friend’s disappearance and perhaps even the identity of the killer . . .
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 best Scottish crime series since Rebus.' – Daily Record
The sins of the dead are all consuming . . .
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 . . .
Sins of the Dead is the thrilling thirteenth book in Lin Anderson’s forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod, followed by Time for the Dead.
The Killing Tide by Lin Anderson sees forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod investigating a mysterious abandoned ship which has swept ashore in the Orkney Isles.
'A cracking story told at breakneck speed' – Scotland on Sunday
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?
Meanwhile 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 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 . . .
'Forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod has become one of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' Daily Mail
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 a chilling thriller from Lin Anderson.
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