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34 | www.westendermagazine.com Writer’s Reveal meets Lin Anderson WORDS LORAINE PATRICK
There aren’t many things Lin Anderson doesn’t know about dead bodies. She created tartan noir heroine, forensic scientist Rhona Macleod whose cases now run to 13 books, and is cofounder of Bloody Scotland, the Crime Writing Festival which takes place in Stirling this September. The author lets Loraine Patrick into the secrets of writing a successful book series and discusses why crime writing has put Scotland on the modern literary map. You are on the list for the 2018 McIIvanney Crime Book of the Year for Follow The Dead your 12th book in the Rhona Macleod series. How does it feel to be nominated? Named after the late, great Willie McIlvanney who inspired so many of us to write Scottish crime fiction, the McIlvanney prize is dear to my heart. It’s therefore a great honour to be long-listed among such an array of talent, established and new. This book has been particularly well received, described as an outstanding thriller with shades of the Wicker Man and a touch of Agatha Christie. One critic said the pace is beautifully judged with plenty of twists and turns. Can you give our readers a flavour of what to expect? Hogmanay, in a blizzard on top of Cairngorm... what could possibly go wrong? My home village is Carrbridge in Cairngorm National Park. A couple of Christmases ago safely tucked up in front of the fire, with a blizzard raging outside, I imagined the opening of Follow the Dead. Consulting with Willie Anderson, leader of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue, I learned of a plane that had come down on a frozen Loch A’an near the Shelter Stone refuge. The plane was from Norway, and the idea of a joint investigation between Police Scotland and Stavanger police was born. For those who haven’t encountered your books featuring forensic scientist Rhona Macleod how would you describe her? Rhona was inspired by a former maths pupil of mine at Grantown Grammar School, who comes from Carrbridge. She studied forensic science at Strathclyde University and now works in London. My father was a DI in Greenock when I was a teenager, and www.westendermagazine.com | 35 his constant worry was that he would arrive at a scene of crime and it might involve one of his three daughters. That provided the premise of Book 1, Driftnet, only I made the protagonist a woman and a forensic scientist instead of a male detective. Rhona arrives to find a teenager who looks so like her she thinks he might be the son she gave up for adoption 17 years before. I don’t describe her physically in the books. I like the fact that readers forge their own image of her. You learn about her by what she does in difficult circumstances. I would say one thing though. She doesn’t openly reveal her feelings. That’s where her sidekick and forensic assistant comes in. Chrissy says exactly what she’s thinking, and through her you learn more about Rhona. Did you expect right at the beginning there would be so much scope for the character and so many books could come from her? No. I saw the dramatic premise of Driftnet where she searches for the killer and her own son in tandem, being a one off. However I loved the characters and the world of forensics, as did my readers, so I wanted to explore both through more stories. You have actually just published the next instalment, book number 13 called Sins of The Dead. What do you think the secret to creating a long running series is? Willie McIlvanney once said of Laidlaw that he was a man who just happened to be a detective. Rhona is a woman, who happens to be a forensic scientist. Any crime series is never about the crime, but always about the character. Readers come back because they want to be with those characters again and again. These characters are on the front line and the world they have to deal with is far removed from our own. We live vicariously through them. In Sins of the Dead, Rhona must face a forensically aware killer, who targets her through her knowledge. A personal and professional nightmare. How long does it take you to write a book? It takes about nine months to research and write a book. I have a very visual image of an opening which I write down. That rarely changes. I have no idea the who or the why. That’s for Rhona to find out. I investigate in
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