Showing posts with label Crime Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime Fiction. Show all posts

Saturday, April 5, 2025

The Wild Coast by Lin Anderson - Book Review

A Remote Shoreline – a Lethal Killer…..


Book #17 of 18 in the Rhona MacLeod series of crime novels set in Scotland.


Coast of Scotland

Lin Anderson, a Scottish author, is known for her bestselling crime series featuring forensic scientist Dr. Rhona MacLeod. The series takes place in Scotland.  Dr. MacLeod’s home base is in Glasgow, but she is called out to crime scenes all over Scotland.


Synopsis of The Wild Coast


Summertime has brought vacationers to the West Coast of Scotland for camping and hiking along the coastline.  Suddenly, campsites are becoming crime scenes when lone visitors disappear. 


A young woman (Callie) sets her camper up near the seashore and meets the family camping in the next  site. The family’s two children, Orlando and his little 4-year-old sister Lucy, are fascinated by the woman’s kayak as she prepares to take it out to the water. She promises to give them a ride in the kayak the next day. 


The following morning, little Lucy seems to have disappeared. When her mother, Francine, and her brother go to see if she had wandered over to Callie’s camper, they find the door unlocked and blood and vomit inside the camper. Panicked, Francine calls the police and a search begins. Lucy is finally found standing near a site which looks as if it could be a grave, but she is in a fearful state and not speaking.


When the police determine that the site is indeed a grave, Forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in and as she and her assistant, Chrissy, unearth the body and carefully collect evidence to analyse, they are disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim’s mouth.


With young Lucy safely back with her family, a search begins for Callie. Not only does she appear to be missing, but a similar stick man had been left in her camper. The police and forensic scientist Rhona suspect that the body and the missing woman are connected.


Back in Glasgow, Rhona and Chrissy continue analysing the evidence collected at the gravesite and from the missing woman’s camper while the police continue searching for Callie. Then another young woman who had stopped for an overnight camping trip on the coast disappears.


Meanwhile, rumors of sexual assault offenses by police officers are circling in Glasgow centered around a popular club.  Then the body from the gravesite is identified as a Glasgow girl who had been reported missing two months earlier.  When it was discovered that the girl had disappeared from the very same Glasgow nightclub, the police and Rhona MacLeod are convinced all these events are connected. Do the children from the camp, Lucy and Orlando, have some of the answers? 


All the while a young woman’s life is on the line and the clock is ticking . . .


Summary


As lone visitors disappear from the wild coast of rural northwest Scotland, campsites are becoming crime scenes. Rhona MacLeod and her assistant Chrissy, working with the Glasgow police, search for the lethal killer. A tense and chilling crime novel with a surprise ending. 


*The Wild Coast book review was written by Wednesday Elf


 




Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”


Thursday, April 6, 2023

CRIME FICTION DETECTIVES

Three police detectives from three crime fiction series. Who did I like the best? Chief Inspector Armand Gamache,  Commissario Guido Brunetti or Detective Inspector John Rebus??

I recently read three crime fiction books from three separate authors and series that I love. I am systematically working my way through each of these series. Ordinarily, I do not read them back-to-back but this time I did and it made me realize that while I love all three, they are definitely very different and that it is not necessarily good to read one after the other. Learn a bit more here as I review the three crime detectives from these books.

CHIEF INSPECTOR ARMAND GAMACHE


Canadian author Louise Penny has written 18 crime novels set in the Eastern Townships of Quebec that feature Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Gamache is with the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force for that Canadian province. Penny’s books not only feature the solving of mysteries but they are also quite character-driven exploring as they do relationships between the various characters who live in or near the fictional town of Three Pines. While Gamache does solve mysteries, his character and these books are definitely kinder and gentler crime novels that feature love and friendship, belonging and hope and kindness.

Find Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache here on Amazon.

COMMISSARIO GUIDO BRUNETTI 


American and Swiss author Donna Leon has written 32 crime novels set in Venice, Italy, that feature Commissario (Detective Superintendent) Guido Brunetti, a member of the Italian State Police. Brunetti reminds me of Chief Inspector Gamache. He is also neat and tidy and educated. He values his home life, trying to be home for dinner and to be with his family as much as he can be. Definitely not what you might not expect in the pages of a detective novel.

Find Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti here on Amazon.

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR JOHN REBUS


Scottish author Ian Rankin has written 29 crime novels mostly set in Edinburgh, Scotland that feature Detective Inspector John Rebus. Rebus is a member of the Lothian and Borders Police force in Edinburgh. Rankin’s books are darker and, accordingly, Rebus is not so likeable. He is definitely not neat and tidy and his life usually seems to be in shambles. He fits the stereotype of what you might expect to find in a noir-style, crime fiction novel. That is, he is a disorganized, hard-drinking, over-worked policeman. 

Find Ian Rankin's Detective Inspector John Rebus here on Amazon.  

WHICH DETECTIVE DO I LIKE BEST?


The first two detectives obviously share somewhat similar styles but the third, Detective Inspector Rebus, has a style that is vastly different and therefore, the whole feeling of Rankins’ books is different. I like all three of the detectives and I stand by my previous recommendations to read each of these series but I don’t recommend reading them together or even back-to-back. Detective Inspector Rebus’ and his whole world are much, much darker and grittier than the other two and it is, therefore, very hard to like him after you have just finished solving mysteries with the very likeable Chief Inspector Gamache and Commissario Brunetti.

See you
At the library!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

Louise Penny's Still Life Reviewed


CRIME FICTION DETECTIVES: Chief Inspector Gamache, Commissario Guido Brunetti and Detective Inspector John Rebus. Which is best? 

Three police detectives; three crime series. Who did I like the best? Chief Inspector Gamache,  Commissario Brunetti or Detective Inspector Rebus?




Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”


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