A remote shoreline. A lethal killer.
The height of summer in Scotland. Small west-coast campsites are the go-to for wild campers and campervans. Remote, loch or beach-side, most occupy a field on a highland croft.
No CCTV. Small overnight fee paid for in cash. Friendly and ideal if you long for solitude, beauty and safety.
Until a lone camper disappears. Then another. It appears that a killer has found the perfect way to operate. Remote, unnoted and lethal.
Meanwhile in Glasgow , Police Scotland is facing allegations of sexual assault by its male officers. Young women from all walks of life have come forward to reveal the names of their police attackers. In that list is one DS Michael McNab.
Did McNab overstep the mark, or is the accusation against him a way of putting him out of action forever?
Having very much enjoyed my first Lin Anderson thriller, The Killing Tide, I was keen to revisit Glasgow-based forensic scientist Rhona McLeod and her colleagues for The Wild Coast, their seventeenth outing but one that, as with the previous book in the series, can easily be read and enjoyed as a standalone novel.
Her latest case sees Rhona and her assistant Chrissie called to Arisaig on Scotland’s west coast where a shallow grave has been discovered amidst the wild beauty of the machair. When the body is revealed to be a missing art student from Glasgow, questions arise as to how she ended up being buried in the dunes. Who transported her to Arisaig, and for what purpose? And what happened to this young woman between the time she went missing and when her body was found? With another young woman missing, and some sinister stick figures connecting the body in the machair with her disappearance, Rhona and her colleagues soon find themselves in a race to untangle the connections between the pair before tragedy strikes again.
As in The Killing Tide, The Wild Coast doesn’t shy away from portraying some of the darker aspects of police investigations. Although never gratuitously graphic, readers should be aware that this latest book contains some challenging scenes of domestic, physical, and sexual abuse, and the book contains discussions or descriptions of alcohol & drug use, alcoholism, sexual assault, self-harming behaviours, vomit, and injury/injury detail, as well as the use of some choice language. Because this is a forensic thriller, there are also some detailed descriptions of crime scenes and the bodies uncovered.
That said, the darker elements of the book are balanced out by both the compulsive plotting and the interactions between the characters. As with previous books in the series, Rhona and Chrissie are joined in their investigation by DS Michael McNab and his partner, DS Janice Clarke, as well as by Professor Magnus Pirie. Rhona’s sort-of relationship with Irish musician Sean is also still sort-of going strong but DS McNab’s recent break-up from on-again, off-again girlfriend Ellie has done nothing to improve either his mood or his penchant for engaging in reckless behaviour: a situation that is exacerbated by the rumours circulating that serving police officers on the Glasgow force have committed sexual offences.
Whilst the sub-plots involving the various characters didn’t interest me as much as the case itself (probably because I don’t have that 17-book-long relationship with them), Anderson strikes a nice balance between portraying the professional and the personal aspects of police work and, for the most part, resists the temptation of letting her detective’s personal lives interrupt their professional investigation whilst also giving sufficient recognition to the fact that they have them.
The case itself is another inventive and twisting mystery with plenty of threads for Rhona and her colleagues to follow and untangle. As the connections between Glasgow and Arisaig become apparent, Rhona and the team find themselves tackling a genuinely sinister perpetrator. Without giving away any spoilers, the finale is really high-stakes and has both professional and personal ramifications for various cast members. As in The Killing Tide, I also really enjoyed Anderson’s evocation of the natural beauty of Scotland which, although contrasting sharply with the often grim events taking place there, still shines through on the page.
Fans of previous books in the series are sure to enjoy reuniting with Rhona and her colleagues for another intriguing case but I would also heartily recommend The Wild Coast – and indeed, the Rhona MacLeod series – to anyone who enjoys a good forensic mystery. Although billed as a thriller, stout-hearted fans of police procedurals who don’t mind a bit of ‘tartan noir’ darkness, will also find much to enjoy here.
The Wild Coast by Lin Anderson is published by Macmillan and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Wordery.
If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, Sam Read Booksellers, Book-ish, Scarthin Books, Fox Lane Books, and Berts Books.
My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour. The tour continues until 16 August 2023 so please do check out the other stops for more reviews and content!
Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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