Forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod has already appeared in eight novels and is, reputedly, being developed for television. A Scottish counterpart to America's Kay Scarpetta or Temperance Brennan, she deserves a similar success. Voices from the dead at a spiritualist meeting, a ritual murder with severed hands and a stone with the number five carved into it, stuffed into the victim's mouth found in a neolithic stone circle high above Glasgow: enter the indomitable Dr McLeod. Then another body is discovered in similar circumstances. Occult motivations or gangland murder? A doughty sleuth with a pleasant personality, Rhona is tenacious, a CSI Scotland with a cast of one, and a memorable character who's gunning for the top 10 of the McMafia hitlist.
A brutal slaying is the first move in a ritualistic killer's twisted game. Paths of the Dead is the ninth novel in Lin Anderson's Glasgow-set forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod.
'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' - Daliy Mail
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 - that of a killer intent on enacting a gruesome Druidic game. One that everyone will be forced to play . . .
'The best Scottish crime series since Rebus' - Daily Record
Paths of the Dead is the ninth book in the Rhona MacLeod series by Lin Anderson. It is followed by The Special Dead.
Readers love Paths of the Dead:
'It is gruesome, gritty reading at times, full of twists and turns' 'I had to ration myself or I would have finished it in one sitting' 'I have read all the Rhona MacLeod books and each one is better than the last!'
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Silent Witness.
Lin Anderson has published several novels and one novella featuring forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod, which have 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.
