It’s a real pleasure to close the blog tour for Lin Anderson’s latest Rhona MacLeod thriller The Innocent Dead. My enormous thanks to the team at Pan Macmillan for inviting me to participate. I’m so sorry I didn’t have time to squeeze in a review as I think it sounds fabulous.

Lin was last on Linda’s Book Bag when I reviewed the first book in her new Blaze Dog Detective children’s series. You can see my review of The Magic Flag Mystery here.

Come and see what Lin told me about her new adult thriller when we stayed in together.

Staying in with Lin Anderson

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Lin. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

It’s my pleasure and thank you for asking me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought along my latest book, The Innocent Dead because it’s the eagerly awaited latest book in my long running crime series starring forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod.

I’ve heard such good things about this series Lin. What can we expect from an evening in with The Innocent Dead?

Quoting a fan (who I didn’t bribe!)… ‘This is one of my favourite series, and having read so much crime fiction, it is not easy to sustain a riveting long running series without great skill, talent and expertise, qualities that Anderson has in abundance.’

What a smashing comment. You must be thrilled with that response.

In The Innocent Dead, Rhona revists a crime scene from 45 years ago, when forensic science was in its infancy. Now however she can bring her forensic knowledge and skills to the study of what little evidence has been retained. It’s a period I know well, being the young daughter of a DI, who served then.

This sounds so fascinating. It’s high time I caught up with Rhona’s activities.

What else have you brought along and why?

The book is dedicated to my late father, who died before I wrote the first book in the series. So I’d bring along a drawing of him which my sister, an artist did.

Wow. What a wonderful portrait Lin. He looks such a fabulous man and would have been so proud of you I’m sure.

Rhona MacLeod was inspired by a former maths pupil of mine, Emma Hart, who became a forensic scientist. She works in London now, but comes back to our home village of Carrbridge often. I would invite Emma to our get together and present her with her own copy of the new book, as I do every year.

What a lovely way to celebrate a new book Lin. I wish you every success with The Innocent Dead. Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about it.

The Innocent 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 . . .

Published by Macmillan on 6th August 2020, The Innocent Dead is available for purchase through the links here.

About Lin Anderson

Lin Anderson is best known as the creator of the forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod series of crime thriller novels, and for her part in founding the annual ‘Bloody Scotland’ crime writing festival.

For more information, follow Lin on Twitter @Lin_Anderson or visit her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook and Instagram.

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