The Innocent Dead (Dr Rhona MacLeod #15) by Lin Anderson
Genre: Crime thriller, Crime fiction
Read: 11th January 2022
Published: 6th August 2020
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
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 . . .
MY REVIEW:
OMG! How have I not heard of Lin Anderson or this series before? Having just finished this book I know now that I just need this series in my life...I loved it! It's just what I love in a crime thriller. A little bit of crime, a little bit of procedural, a little bit of thriller...and best of all, the various perspectives of the main players of the story...without it being all about Rhona and "the investigation". This way readers get a bit of everything as we puzzle it out for ourselves whilst being lead on the thrill-ride of our lives. I have read many crime thriller series but this one ticks most of the boxes and kept my engaged right the way through. Now I just have to find time to go back to the beginning sometime and see where it all began...
The opening chapter drew me in right away. Karen wakes from a fitful sleep and disturbing nightmares that have haunted her since childhood. And now even in her waking hours as black crows on the hearth seemingly sending messages from the dead as well as visions of her dead cat outside her window. This can't be happening. She seeks her husband Jack for answers...but he isn't there. For he, too, is dead...from dementia some time ago. It appears caring for him has taken it's toll on her and she can no longer distinguish fact from fiction; fantasy from reality. So what is haunting her dreams and turning them into nightmares...did it really happen? The diary, she suddenly remembers. The diary will tell her if what she imagines is true...because she wrote about it at the time. The diary will hold the truth...
Mary McIntyre was 11 years old when she disappeared from East Kilbride on 1st May 1975, just two days before her twelfth birthday. And despite investigations at the time, she was never found and no one was ever brought to justice. It was the case that haunted former DI Jimmy McCreadie since he was unwillingly shunted off the case and from the police. Now forty five years later, swimmers have made a gruesome discovery in a peat bog in a lochan south of Glasgow. Dr Rhona MacLeod and her assistant Chrissy are called to the scene where they carefully unearth and carefully extract the complete and mummified remains of what appears to be a child. Could this be Mary McIntyre?
Now with the advancement on forensic science, any trace evidence found with the remains can be tested for DNA and hopefully matched with someone in the system. But DNA extraction from the mummified remains could be tricky and take time but Rhona will not give up until she has the answers to lay this innocent child to rest. As news circulates about the gruesome find, many ruminate on the possibility of it being Mary McIntyre as the most likely. This in turn creates another avalanche of events an hour away in Stirling as Karen tunes in to the new of the discovery and her fears, it seem, become reality. The crow was right. It's Mary. She knows it is.
Whilst Rhona and Chrissy test the samples taken from the scene, DS Michael McNab and his partner DS Janice Clark begin the investigations into the discovery and on the notion that it is Mary McIntyre. Their DI, Bill Wilson, leads them to the original lead investigator on the case and youngest DI of his time, Jimmy McCreadie, who now lives in Stirling. McNab and Janice make the journey to see McCreadie, who it appears is now a best-selling crime fiction author writing under the name J.D. Smart, to pick his brains about the investigation into Mary's disappearance forty five years ago. And while much of the evidence and notes from the case has mysteriously disappeared, McCreadie/Smart kept his own notes on the case which he glady handed over to McNab in the hope it would help them solve the case which has haunted him for nearly five decades.
But the investigation is not without its dramas...and with the help of Professor Magnus Pirie along the way, McNab and Rhona sift through the evidence they have in the hope of uncovering the truth.
The story is told from the various narratives of mainly Rhona, McNab and Karen Marshall, Mary's childhood best friend, with the odd viewpoint of Professor Pirie from time to time. These perspectives combined together make for compelling reading as they each provide crucial pieces of the puzzle that becomes clearer as events unfold. Rhona brings the science and logic, McNab the investigative side, the Professor the psychology behind the crime as Karen provides an unreliability of lucidity between what's imagination and what's reality.
As the story unfolds, many possibilities for the killer are suggested but are dismissed as more suspects come to light. Who could have killed an 11 year old girl? And why? And what is the significance of the burial site and the confirmation dress buried with her which remained in tact due to the protection of the plastic bag it was found in? But as Rhona knows, every contact leaves a trace...and she is determined to uncover the truth through forensic science and to give this child the dignity in her true place of rest.
Gripping from the very first page, THE INNOCENT DEAD is the fifteenth book in the Dr Rhona MacLeod series and, while I normally don't like joining a series so far in, I can safely say it worked well enough as a standalone with enough background given to keep any new readers coming late to the party...like me. But as with all series such as this, to get the complete benefit and understanding of the series it is always best to start from the beginning.
This is not my first Scottish crime thriller series but I have to say it is one of the best I have come across and I am eager to read more by Lin Anderson. How have I not heard of her before?
One of these days I will venture back to the beginning...but until then I have no hesitation in recommending THE INNOCENT DEAD to fans of gritty crime thrillers with a compelling plot that is fast paced thanks to the short snappy chapters. Atmospheric and entertaining, THE INNOCENT DEAD is nothing short of brilliant...even if I did figure out the villain...but the ride was worth it!
I would like to thank #LinAnderson, #Netgalley and #PanMacmillan for an ARC of #TheInnocentDead in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
lin was born in Greenock, of Scottish and Irish parents. Her father was a detective in the CID. She worked in the Nigerian bush for five years during the 1980s, and later wrote an African short story which was broadcast on BBC Radio Four. Another of her African stories was published in the 10th Anniversary Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Collection. Before turning full-time to writing, she used to teach maths and computing at George Watson's College, Edinburgh.
A film of her screenplay Small Love was shown at London Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2001, and broadcast on Scottish Television in 2001 and 2002. Since then she has graduated from the newly founded Screen Academy Scotland, and has further screenplays in production.
Lin is a massive fan of the film Braveheart, claiming to have seen it over fifty times, and in 2004 wrote a book about the making of it.
Lin is a member of the Femmes Fatales crime writing trio, together with Alanna Knight and Alex Gray. She and Alex Gray are amongst the co-founders of Bloody Scotland, a Tartan Noir and Scottish crime writer's festival, which is held in Stirling since 2012.
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