Would you recognise your own son? - How a crime series began with DRIFTNET

The boy did not expect to die are the opening words of Driftnet, the story that launched the Rhona MacLeod series. It opens with Rhona, a forensic expert, arriving at a murder scene only to find that the teenage victim looks so like her, she thinks he may be the son she gave up for adoption seventeen years before.

University of Glasgow, where Rhona is based

At the time of the Dunblane school massacre (where 16 primary school pupils and a teacher were shot dead by Thomas Hamilton), I was a computing teacher in a secondary school in Edinburgh. When the terrible news reached my school, all anyone on the staff wanted to do was take their own children home.

I too had a small child in the adjacent primary school, but couldn’t take him home, because there was an after-school event for staff on the subject of child protection, and there was a social worker from Glasgow coming to talk to us.

That talk included information about three paedophile rings they suspected were working in Glasgow, and how these rings had just found the Internet.

That terrible murder of children, coupled with that lecture left an indelible mark on me.

Two other things combined with that memory to create the story of Driftnet.

My father (already deceased) had been a CID officer in Greenock police force. He had three daughters who he worried about a lot. One big fear was that he might turn up at a scene of crime and discover one of his daughters was the victim.

The third and final influence which helped create the story, was the revelation around that time that former MP Clare Short had had a child she gave up for adoption. She revealed this when her son came looking for her in his thirties.

Rhona finds out quite quickly that the boy is not her son, but the fear that he might have been drives her to start searching for her son. It also makes the death of the teenage victim seem more personal, and Driftnet sees her search for her son and the killer run in tandem.

Original cover for DRIFTNET

The killer is watching her, as much as she is seeking him, and the clash of her personal and professional lives created the character Rhona MacLeod.

I had no idea when I came up with that premise and character that Driftnet would be an immediate best seller, and would be the first in a series now running to eleven books and a novella, with the the twelfth book Follow the Dead now available for pre-order on Amazon.

I often think that Rhona MacLeod found me, rather than the other way round.

~o~

*** Promo from 29th October 2017 for limited time:  Buy Driftnet eBook on Amazon for 99p ***

~o~

Related links:-

Lin Anderson Amazon author page, featuring the forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod novels

Short and son reunited

The Dunblane school massacre

Deadlines and how to survive them

All writers have their own methods of writing.  One question I’m most often asked concerns ‘to plan or not to plan’. My method is not to plan.

I visualise an opening which intrigues and frightens me. Something bad happens, and the team arrive to try and figure out who and why. Hence, you the reader know a little more of the initial circumstances than Rhona and the team.

Then the investigation begins. Like all investigations there are twists and turns and false leads and people screwing up, being tested, often found wanting. Like a jigsaw, pieces are spotted and sometimes they fit. Often not.

As I progress the investigation through the team’s eyes, ideas arise. I do the research and more ideas come. Like life, the deeper you delve, the more complex the result.

I like this way of working. It makes telling stories exciting, and if I don’t know the answer to the riddle by page hundred, neither will you.

The first chapter of the first novel in the series, Driftnet begins with the sentence, ‘The boy did not expect to die’. The opening scene came to me in a visual form. I wrote it down and it never changed.

After that the story formed itself.

Each of the Rhona books happened that way, right through to the latest None but the Dead set on the island of Sanday on Orkney. Some are inspired by things people have said, or stories they’ve told me.

 

With None but the Dead it was the story of the discovery of thirteen muslin flowers in the loft of an old schoolhouse. The image sparks the story, the ending of which I do not know… yet.

And I’m back there now. Working towards what my friend and fellow crime writer, Alex Gray calls ‘the red fog of the denouement’.

This will be the first book in the series to visit my home area. When my father retired from the police force he took his family north to settle in Carrbridge. My three children were born here. I’m back here seeking to meet my deadline.

En route to the finale, the team (like myself) have gone from the top of Cairngorm to Stavanger in Norway. A joint investigation between Police Scotland and Politi- og lensmannsetaten informs the story.

When I wrote that opening all those months ago I had no idea I would end up in the middle of the North Sea. That’s the wonder and thrill of a real (and fictional) investigation.

Once in the final section of the book, everything you’ve written, all those twists and turns you’ve made, must be held in your memory. The world of your characters becomes your world. They are with you always, their voices in your head, often reminding you of what they know, and what you’ve forgotten.

Eventually the story comes together because, as every story is a character in action, so those characters determine the ending.

I like to believe that my characters will save me. If I remind them often enough that we are working (like any good thriller) against the clock, then they will come up trumps.

Okay… it’s worked up to now.

And so, back to meeting that deadline.

Bob Moore: 2016 Golden Spurtle World Porridge Champion (Video)

I had the great please of acting as MC for the 2016 World Porridge Making Championships in my home village of Carrbridge. The winner was Bob Moore, of Milwaukie, Oregon, USA, and you couldn't have had a more worthy and deserving winner.

Watch this lovely video by Fergus Thom of highlights of Bob's big day (you might even catch a few glimpses of me and Craig Robertson) ...

Related links:-

The Golden Spurtle
Competition Rules
Carrbridge website
CNN film of 2013 Golden Spurtle
Mary's Meals - World Porridge Day 
Crime Writers Do Porridge

Prepare to Lose Sleep - Scottish Field review : NONE BUT THE DEAD

The Orkney Island of Sanday in the middle of winter becomes a character in its own right in Lin Anderson's latest novel in the Rhona MacLeod series.

As if the discovery of human remains in the grounds of a former primary school and thirteen flowers representing the souls of dead children in the attic of the nearly schoolhouse isn't enough, the Glasgow-based forensic expert, and her team including the dogged DS MacNab have the additional challenge of weather as inhospitable as some of the island's inhabitants.

Without a police station and with an intermittent Internet connection and no access to the usual tools for solving crime such as CCTV, the investigation team have to use their knowledge and gut instincts to piece together crimes that see the past and the present collide in a way that threatens to rip apart this small island community, which is overly keen to keep its secrets.

Anderson superbly ratchets up the tension as the team race to rescue a missing girl before the approaching storm hits the island.

Prepare to lose sleep.

~o~

Related links:-

Hearing the singing of long-lost children - None But The Dead review on Undiscovered Scotland

Shades of The Wicker Man with a touch of Agatha Christie - Daily Mail review

The Write Stuff: None But The Dead by Lin Anderson (extract from book)

Crime Writers Do Porridge

Coming up in Carrbridge on Saturday 8th October 2016 - the 23rd annual Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship, this year with two Bloody Scotland crime writers involved!

Master of Ceremonies for the 23rd Championships will be myself, Lin Anderson, with Carrbridge being my home village, and one of this year's judges will be Craig Robertson from Stirling. Both Craig and myself are Directors of the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival.

Lin Anderson                                                   Craig Robertson

Craig has previously been a judge at the Scottish Haggis Championship, the Scottish Steak Pie Championship, and the World Black Pudding Championship (in Mortagne, France), so the Golden Spurtle on 8th October will fill an obvious gap in his CV!

'Queen of Crime' Val McDermid was keen to enter, but her schedule would not permit this year, so maybe next year!

Things will kick off around 10:00am on Saturday, entry is free, it looks like being fine weather, so come along for the day, and enjoy the fun, tastings, and competitions.

Related links:-

The Golden Spurtle
Competition Rules
Carrbridge website
CNN film of 2013 Golden Spurtle
Mary's Meals - World Porridge Day

Hearing the singing of long-lost children - None But The Dead review

The Undiscovered Scotland website have put up an excellent and very thoughtful review of None But the Dead.

"None but the Dead" by Lin Anderson is the latest book in her series featuring forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod. It is an outstandingly good read that brings together character, place and plot with consummate skill.

Read the full review here.

Shades of The Wicker Man with a touch of Agatha Christie

Great review of None But The Dead in The Daily Mail ...

 ~o~

Related posts:-

Sanday - A Very Special Island
Hearing the singing of long-lost children - None But The Dead review on Undiscovered Scotland

Prepare to Lose Sleep - Scottish Field review of None But the Dead

The Write Stuff: None But The Dead by Lin Anderson (extract from book)