Dr Rhona MacLeod, Forensics and I by Lin Anderson

With the paperback of The Wild Coast due to be published on 11^th April 2024 Lin Anderson talks about the Dr Rhona MacLeod and forensics. 

Driftnet, the first book to feature forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod was published in 2003. The Wild Coast, the latest and the hardback of no 17 in the series was published twenty years later on the 3rd August 2023.

How has the world of forensics changed during that time?

The story of Rhona MacLeod…

My father was a Detective Inspector in Greenock when I was growing up. He never spoke about his job to his three daughters, but my mother was his confidant when dark things were happening and they would go into the kitchen to talk with the door firmly shut.

With three teenage daughters, my dad had lots to worry about. One of his favourite warnings to me was…I know what men are like, Linda.

One of his deepest concerns was that he might turn up at a scene of crime to discover one of his daughters as a victim. That fear of his became the catalyst for writing Driftnet.

I imagined someone turning up at the scene of a murder only to discover the victim is linked to them. I wondered who that someone would be. In most novels, it would be a male detective, like my dad. For some reason, I thought of a former Maths pupil of mine, Emma Hart who had gone to university to study forensic science, which back then was in its infancy. She had graduated and was now working with the forensic services in London.

So in that serendipity moment, I thought I would have a female forensic scientist and that she would think the teenage victim looked so like her, he might be the son she gave up for adoption seventeen years before.

Needless to say I knew nothing about forensic science at the time, so I set about trying to buy a book on the subject. In the current Waterstones on Princes Street, Edinburgh, back then known as Ottakers, I found only one book on the subject, The Encyclopedia of Forensic Science, which I have to this day.

Fortunately, I was also able to call on Emma, to point out what things I did right or wrong.

Driftnet became Ottakers book of the month and launched my career. I also found I loved the world of forensic science which married well with my other teaching subject of Computing Science. I fell in love with my little cast of characters, Rhona, Chrissy her side kick, DS Michael McNab, DI Wilson (who was based on my father) and Orcadian psychologist Professor Magnus Pirie(I used to live in Orkney…it’s a great place). Hence the series was born.

I didn’t make the decision to set each book in a given year and move forward in real time, like Ian Rankin did with Rebus. In truth, I hadn’t planned to write a series at all. So I just had each story start where the previous one ended. This is indicated by the season. So roughly speaking during her time in the spotlight, Rhona has aged about four years.

Shortly after Driftnet was published, I took an evening course at my former university of Glasgow entitled ‘Diploma in Forensic Science’, offered to those who might have to give evidence in court, such as police officers, mortuary technicians, social workers etc…and any other interested parties. I decided that was me and I applied. I then discovered my partner in crime (and co founder of Bloody Scotland with me), Alex Gray had also spotted the advert. After which we spent many happy hours listening to the real experts in the field of forensic science.

The experts I met through that course, together with my carefully preserved notes allow me to continue with Rhona up to now.

The Wild Coast by Lin Anderson (Pan Macmillan) PB Published 11 April 2024

A remote shoreline. A lethal killer. As lone visitors disappear from the rural northwest of Scotland, campsites are becoming crime scenes. 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...

Whispers of the Dead is the eighteenth book in the Dr Rhona McLeod series is due to be published in August 2024.

Whispers of the Dead by Lin Anderson (Pan Macmillan) Published 1st August 2024.

A gangland slaying. A missing movie star. When an actor goes missing in Glasgow, the clue to his whereabouts could be in the film script itself.  In the dead of night, a man’s body is found strapped to a chair in Glasgow’s Elder Park, his identity unknown. As forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod examines the scene, the violence on display suggests a gangland feud could be the cause. At the post-mortem, a bullet engraved with a snake’s head is found in the man’s stomach, lending weight to the theory. Elsewhere in the city, a major Hollywood movie is being filmed. But shooting comes to a standstill when its lead actor is reported missing. As the news spreads, Police Scotland believe the two cases may be connected. DS Michael McNab thinks the key to finding those responsible could be the film itself. A storyline playing out in real-life on the streets of Glasgow with a killer intent on revenge at any cost. A vendetta which must be paid in blood . . .

More information about Lin Anderson and her books can be found on her website. You can also find her on “X” @Lin_Anderson on Instagram @Linandersonwriter and on Facebook.

Lynda La Plante - Listening to the Dead and The Judas Horse

 

Queen of Crime Drama Lynda La Plante launching series 2 of true crime podcast on 24th February; LISTENING TO THE DEAD

The forensics podcast Listening to the Dead is available via all good audio platforms. Season 2 will feature episodes on; blunt force homicide, poisoning, gun shot wounds, terrorism & mass disaster, strangulation & cause unknown.

LISTENING TO THE DEAD SEASON 2 PODCAST

Lynda La Plante’s true-crime podcast series, Listening to the Dead, co-hosted by CSI Cass Sutherland, will feature interviews with specialists in the field of criminal science.

The first series, which focussed on forensic science was an Apple Podcast bestseller. The new series, launching on 24th February 2021, will look at how investigators approach different causes of death – from blunt force to poisoning – with a focus on the methods used in the Prime Suspect and Tennison series. The podcast is a contributing factor to the incredible success Lynda La Plante enjoys in audiobook format, with sales of Buried in 2020 55% higher than her previous audio bestseller, Widows, in 2018.

NEW NOVEL JUDAS HORSE OUT 1ST APRIL 2021

La Plante will also be continuing her Detective Jack Warr series with a new book, Judas Horse, publishing on 1st April 2021. The first in the series, Buried, was published at the very start of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020, but despite this became a bestselling sensation, reaching #2 in the Sunday Times bestseller charts in both hardback and paperback, and going on to sell over 100,000 units in the UK and 130,000 units worldwide, making it La Plante’s biggest seller since Bloodline in 2011.

Lynda La Plante said “I am thrilled with all the activity taking place this year, re-packaging, online festivals, my podcast and the new Tennison,Unholy Murder, and Jack Warr novel, Judas Horse. I am also so grateful to the publishers, retailers and especially the readers, who have encouraged and supported me over the years. I’m looking forward to being able to meet and thank them all in person, hopefully in the not too distant future.”

About Lynda La Plante

#1 Sunday Times Bestselling author

Over 30 internationally bestselling novels

Over 170 hours of international television scripted

One of the best-loved authors in the world and 6th most popular in the UK

Recipient of four BAFTA awards

CBE since 2008 for services to Literature, Drama and Charity

1 of only 3 screenwriters to have been made an honorary fellow at the British Film Institute

The first lay person to be awarded with an honorary fellowship by The Forensic Science Society

Biography

Lynda La Plante was born in Liverpool. She trained for the stage at RADA and worked with the National theatre and RDC before becoming a television actress. She then turned to writing– and made her breakthrough with the phenomenally successful TV series Widows. Her novels have all been international bestsellers.

Her original script for the much-acclaimed Prime Suspect won awards from BAFTA, Emmy, British Broadcasting and Royal Television Society, as well as the 1993 Edgar Allan Poe Award. Lynda has written and produced over 170 hours of international television.

Lynda is one of only three screenwriters to have been made an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Best Writer Award in 2000. In 2008, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to Literature, Drama and Charity.

If you would like to hear from Lynda, please sign up at here or you can visit Lynda’s website for further information. You can also follow Lynda on Facebook and Twitter

Alibi orders first scripted drama from idea by Val McDermid

UKTV channel Alibi is famous for the cosier, more humour-filled side of crime dramas (think MurdochMysteries, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Castle et al). Now the channel is dipping its two in the original drama series ocean and has ordered a brand new series from RED Productions, the people who make Happy Valley, among others.

UKTV Original Traces is a suspense-filled crime thriller written by actress and writer, Amelia Bullmore – is a suspense-filled crime thriller told from a fresh point of view, where forensic science takes centre stage.  Set in Scotland and exploring the world of SIFA, the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science. Traces centres on three very different female characters – Emma Hedges, Prof. Sarah Gordon and Prof. Kathy Torrance – who use forensics to uncover the truth about an unsolved murder case.

When 23-year-old Emma Hedges returns to Scotland to take up a new position as a lab assistant at SIFA, she signs up to a MOOC - Massive Online Open Course - which teaches the principles of forensic science. But she soon discovers that the fictitious case study has a strikingly similar and shocking link to her past. As Emma's sleuthing takes her into darker corners and unpicks more and more secrets, it becomes clear that she should trust no-one. It will be Sarah and Kathy's exacting minds that reward Emma's faith in the science that has fuelled her imagination and who will ultimately bring a killer to justice.  Running alongside Emma's central story, other cases and different forensic disciplines will shine a spotlight on science's contribution to solving the mysteries of human existence.

Traces is based on an original idea by best-selling, multi-award-winning crime writer Val

McDermid.

Casting will be announced over the coming months, with the series due to air exclusively on Alibi in late 2019.

Hat tip The Killing Times TVfor the information.

Call for Papers - Crime Fiction: Detection, Public and Private, Past and Present

CfP: Captivating Criminality 4

29th June – 1st July 2017

Corsham Court, Bath Spa University, UK

The Captivating Criminality Network is delighted to announce its fourth UK conference. Building upon and developing ideas and themes from the previous three successful conferences, Crime Fiction: Detection, Public and Private, Past and Present will examine what is arguably the very heart of this field of critical study.

Crime fiction narratives continue to gain in both popularity and critical appreciation. This conference will consider the ways in which both the public and private aspects of criminality and detection merge and differ from each other. The police detective, bound by laws of the state (however loosely adhered to) brings a different set of skills and methods of detection than the often maverick private eye. Of course, detection includes the criminals who attempt to avoid capture – the term ‘anti-hero’ can apply to both upholders of the law and to those evading it.

A key question that this conference will address is the enduring appeal of crime fiction and its ability to incorporate other disciplines such as Criminology, Film, and Psychology. From the ‘sensational’ novelists of the 1860s to today’s ‘Domestic Noir’ narratives, crime fiction has proved itself exceptionally proficient in expanding its parameters to encompass changes in the wider culture. With this in mind, we are interested in submissions that approach crime narratives from the earliest days of crime fiction up until the present day.

This international, interdisciplinary event is organised by Bath Spa University and the Captivating Criminality Network, and we invite scholars, practitioners and fans of crime writing, as well as interested parties from Criminology, Psychology, Sociology, and Film and Media, to participate in this conference that will address these key elements of crime fiction and real crime. Topics may include, but are not restricted

to:

The Detective, Then and Now

The Anti-Hero

True Crime

Contemporary Crime Fiction

Victorian Crime Fiction

The Golden Age

Hardboiled Fiction

Forensics and Detection

The Body as Evidence (silent witness)

Crime and Clues

Dostoevsky and Beyond: The Genealogy of Crime Writing Fatal Femininity Seduction and Sexuality The Criminal Analyst Others and Otherness Landscape and Identity The Country and the City The Media and Detection Adaptation and Interpretation Justice Versus Punishment Lack of Order and Resolution

Please send 300 word proposals to Dr. Fiona Peters

(f.peters@bathspa.ac.uk) by 13th February 2017. The abstract should include your name, email address, and affiliation, as well as the title of your paper. Please feel free to submit abstracts presenting work in progress as well as completed projects. Postgraduate students are welcome. Papers will be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Proposals for suggested panels are also welcome.

​Attendance fees: £145 (£95 students)

--

Joanne Ella Parsons

Lecturer

Bath Spa University

Falmouth University

Twitter: @joparsons

www.joanneparsons.co.uk

www.damagingthebody.org

Leigh Russell on Moving Away from Police Procedurals

Interested in what makes people tick, I have always been fascinated by people who kill. What passion or insanity is it that drives someone to commit murder? Is it an act that any one of us could carry out given sufficient provocation or terror, or does it require a particular kind of personality to pull the trigger or thrust the blade? This kind of speculation led me to write my debut, Cut Short, the first of my crime novels that examine the psyches of different killers. Quite unintentionally, I found myself launched into a new career, writing a series of murder stories.

Advances in forensics make it almost inevitable that murders nowadays are subject to police investigations. The police have resources at their disposal that are simply not accessible to civilians. So it seemed to me that the best way to write about the killers who interested me was to write police procedurals. So Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel appeared, along with her colleague Ian Peterson. The parameters of a police investigation offer a familiar format, which gives the author an opportunity to fulfill or confound readers' expectations.

Having written a dozen or so police procedurals, I wanted to tackle the challenge of writing something different. My police procedurals have not been abandoned. The Geraldine Steel series is still only half way through, with at least another ten in the pipeline. But I am also writing a new series featuring my heroine Lucy Hall, which is taking me in a different direction.

It has been an exciting venture. Lucy Hall is not a police officer, which frees me from the restrictions of the police procedural. She is not accountable to anyone for her decisions or her actions, and there is no one to arrange back up or even notice if she goes off alone. She is twenty-two in Journey to Death, and still only twenty-four in the second book in the series, young enough to be impetuous and take risks. What is more, being a civilian means she can throw herself into all sorts of dangerous situations that an experienced detective of nearly forty could never credibly tackle alone.

At the same time, in some ways it has been a daunting experience as I am never quite sure how Lucy is going to extricate herself from any situation. Her investigative skills are not under scrutiny. She can go where she likes, and do what she wants, driven solely by her determination to protect the innocent and see the guilty punished. How she achieves that is entirely up to her, a freedom that I find both daunting and inspiring.

The Lucy Hall books are part crime novels, part adventure stories. It is going to be fun watching my new protagonist get into all sorts of scrapes. Acting independently, she will have to rely on her own instincts and intelligence to save herself from danger. I'm looking forward to seeing what she gets up to next, and how she manages to survive.

Journey to Death by Leigh Russell

Lucy Hall arrives in the Seychelles determined to leave her worries behind. The tropical paradise looks sun-soaked and picture-perfect—but as Lucy soon discovers, appearances can be very deceptive. A deadly secret lurks in the island’s history, buried deep but not forgotten. And it is about to come to light.  As black clouds begin to gather over what promised to be a relaxing family break, Lucy realises that her father stands in the eye of the coming storm. A shadow from his past is threatening to destroy all that he holds dear—including the lives of his loved ones.  A dark truth is about to explode into their lives, and that truth is going to hit them right between the eyes.

Lin Anderson and The Special Dead

I was having dinner with a prospective director for my upcoming film Dead Close, which is based on a long short story of mine of the same name. He was reminiscing about his early career when he and a friend had been out on the town, celebrating a short film they’d just completed. They met two girls who professed to be witches, which seemed very sexy at the time. I immediately thought, beware of what you wish for, and thus the opening scene of The Special Dead was born.

My former Professor of Astronomy at Glasgow University, Archie Roy was an authority on the paranormal in Scotland. A scientist who was willing to investigate, that which we don’t yet understand. He told me about the famous Ferguson Collection on the occult housed in Glasgow University Library, which features in the story, along with the practice of witchcraft, or Wicca. Number patterns are important too. The quote on the front of the book,  “If you are reading this then I am dead”, is exactly nine words long, for a reason. And 9 is the square of 3…

They say bad things come in threes.   But good things can too. Being nominated for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year with Paths of the Dead, followed by the launch of The Special Dead, and a spectacular Bloody Scotland to look forward to in September is definitely a good threesome.

The Special Dead by Lin Anderson

If you are reading this, then I am dead!

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 realises 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.

The Special Dead by Lin Anderson is out on 13 August 2015 (£12.99 HB/ £8.99 Ebook Macmillan)

An extract from The Special Dead can be read over on the Shots website here.

Lin Anderson has published several novels and one novella featuring forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod, which has been widely translated. Her short story Dead Close was chosen for the Best of British Crime 2011 and is currently in development as a feature film. Also a screenwriter, her film River Child won a student BAFTA and the Celtic Film Festival best fiction award. Currently Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland, she is also co-founder of Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival.

For more information about Lin Anderson and her work can be found on her website.  You can also follow her on twitter @Lin_Anderson and find her on Facebook.

Kathy Reichs at Barts Pathology Museum update!

On Wednesday 17 September Kathy Reichs is doing a broadcast from Barts Pathology Museum and she’ll be talking all about how forensics have influenced her career.  Questions will be taken up until 12:00pm (UK Time) the day before (Tuesday 16^th September 2014) as the show will be broadcast at 17:00 (UK Time) on Wednesday 17^th.

To send questions ahead of the live show and to watch the broadcast go to studiotalk.tv. You can also tweet using #BartsBones

Kathy Reichs will be joined by Carla Valentine, Technical Assistant Curator in the special broadcast from London’s Barts Pathology Museum.

www.kathyreichs.com

Bones Never Lie - An Evening With Kathy Reichs

Join Barts Pathology Museum for a very special evening with bestselling author and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs who will be appearing at Barts Pathology Museum on 16^th September 2014! This exclusive evening is Kathy’s first stop on her UK tour to mark publication of her new novel Bones Never Lie. She will be giving a fascinating illustrated talk on forensic anthropology and how forensics has influenced her writing career. 

From teaching FBI agents how to detect and recover human remains, to separating and identifying commingled body parts in her Montreal lab, as a forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs has brought her own dramatic work experience to her mesmerising thrillers. For years she consulted to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina, and continues to do so for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Québec. Dr. Reichs has travelled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, and helped exhume a mass grave in Guatemala. As part of her work at JPAC (Formerly CILHI) she aided in the identification of war dead from World War II, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Dr. Reichs also assisted with identifying remains found at ground zero of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Dr. Reichs is one of only eighty-two forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She served on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and is currently a member of the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada. She is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. A native of Chicago, she now divides her time between Charlotte, NC and Montreal, Québec.

Tickets:-

Tickets cost £13.90 and can be bought from Eventbrite.

Where:-

Barts Pathology Museum (3rd Floor Robin Brook Centre)

St Bartholomews Hospital (Outpatients Entrance)
West Smithfield EC1A 7BE London
United Kingdom

When:-

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 from 18:30 to 21:00 (BST)

Simon Beckett and his Stone Bruises

Today’s guest blog is by Simon Beckett.  He has worked as a freelance journalist, writing for national newspapers and color supplements.  He is the author of four international bestselling crime thrillers featuring his forensic anthropologist hero, Dr David Hunter: The Chemistry of Death, Written in Bone, Whispers of the Dead and The Calling of the Grave.  He lives in Sheffield.

“Stone Bruises  isn't part of a series, it's a standalone thriller, the first I've written since before the David Hunter series.  I've always tried to keep a sense of freshness and unpredictability about the David Hunter books, because I think that's important for any thriller, whether it's a standalone or not.  The Calling of the Grave was the fourth in the David Hunter series, and I wanted to take time to decide where Hunter would go next.  It wasn't my intention at first to write a completely different novel, but while I was planning the fifth Hunter I found that ideas kept falling into place for Stone Bruises.  It felt like the book I should write next, and that's what happened.  Although Stone Bruises doesn't involve forensics, I think it's a tense and gripping story that will keep people on the edge of their seats.  So I hope David Hunter readers will enjoy it and I'm very excited about it.

Will there be more David Hunter novels in the future?  Yes, there will be.  In fact

I've already started work on the next one.

Stone Bruises -

‘Somebody!’  I half-sob and then, more quietly, ‘Please.’  The words seem absorbed by the afternoon heat, lost amongst the trees.  In their aftermath, the silence descends again.  I know then that I’m not going anywhere...  Sean is on the run.  We don’t know why and we don’t know from whom, but we do know he’s abandoned his battered, bloodstained car in the middle of an isolated, lonely part of rural France at the height of a sweltering summer.  Desperate to avoid the police, he takes to the parched fields and country lanes only to be caught in the vicious jaws of a trap.  Near unconscious from pain and loss of blood, he is freed and taken in by two women - daughters of the owner of a rundown local farm with its ramshackle barn, blighted vineyard and the brooding lake.  And it’s then that Sean’s problems really start...