Manda Scott at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 29/01/2008

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Manda Scott - Page 2

Paperback - Headline (2002)

No Good Deed
Orla McLeod knows too much for her own good. She knows about pain, she knows about guilt and she knows about survival. And because she was barely a teenager when she learnt about these things, she knows what they can do to a child.
So when she and a nine-year-old boy are the only ones left alive in a freezing Glasgow tenement after a Special Branch undercover operation she was spearheading has gone disastrously wrong, there’s no way Orla McLeod’s going to let anyone else take care of Jamie Buchanan. Not when Jamie’s the sole witness to Tord Svensen committing an act of savagery of the kind that’s rapidly turning him into one of the most feared criminals in Europe. Especially since Svensen knows a lot about survival too.
Scott's writing is powerful and subtle, her characters have depth, the plot is impeccable and original' The Times
'Grips like a stranglehold' Val McDermid
'I was moved, impressed and utterly absorbed' Andrew Greig
`Moves Scott into the rarefied air of Ian Rankin ...brilliant’ Toronto Globe and Mail
`Scott’s debut thriller exerts an emotional grip that tightens to a twisting stranglehold ...a joy to read’ Val McDermid
`Awesomely powerful’ Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
`Intricately crafted and absolutely gripping’ Glasgow Evening Times
‘Expertly paced, grips from beginning to end’ Sunday Telegraph
`One of the most remarkable thrillers’ amazon. co. uk
`Intelligent, humane, literate and exciting ...combines action and suspense with compassion and genuine emotion’ Mike Ripley, Birmingham Post
`Compulsive reading from page one to the shattering conclusion’ Denise Mina, Author of Exile
`A thriller tugging at your nerve endings all along ...makes Patricia Cornwell seem cosy’ Northern Echo
`Taut and compulsive’ Woman And Home
`Powerful, surprising, intelligent’ The Bookseller
`Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for her debut novel... on this form she is well worth following’ The Scotsman
`Gritty, literate and engaging ...an exceptional achievement’ Julia Wallis Martin
`Unforgettably dramatic ...the fast-paced drama never lets up’ Hello
`Darkly gripping...if you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, this will keep you on the edge of your seat’ Newcastle Journal
`A suspenseful read’ Tatler
`Picks us up by the scruff of the neck, drags us kicking and bumping along the rough side of life, then makes us fall in love with her characters along the way. Wow, just ...wow’ Laurie R. King

Paperback - Headline (2000)

Stronger Than Death
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Sometimes tragedies come in waves. First Eric, irrepressible, indestructible, climbing alone. Second Joey, choking, drunk - though not much more than usual - the night after his great triumph. But then there was the statistician, overdosing on Flatliners he thought were something else. Three's a series, not a coincidence: three men dead, three colleagues with a shared past. A past also shared by the one person Kellen Stewart would trust with her life, pathologist Lee Adams. Suspect number one.
‘I was moved and impressed and utterly absorbed… A fine book, one that transcends genre labelling’ Andrew Greig, author of When They Lay Bare
'Scott's writing is powerful and subtle, her characters have depth, the plot is impeccable and original, and the shiver-count high. Her first two novels were impressive; Stronger than Death propels her into the front rank of British crime writers' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'A stylish voice, unusually poetic for crime fiction... Stronger than Death is as much about the strengths and weaknesses of loving friendships as it is about murder. It's a theme which recalls the charismatic males - Lymond or Niccolo - of Dorothy Dunnet's novels' Scotland on Sunday
'Beautifully cadenced prose that rivets the reader. Probably the best read of this autumn's crop' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'My heart beat faster, head turned, stomach lurched as I read that opening chapter - and the book never let up after that. I couldn't stop reading it, simple as that... In the end it's about rage, trust, loyalty and death...' Andrew Greig
‘Powerful and gripping' Guardian
‘Scott is fast becoming a master of accessible but multi-layered fiction' Big Issue
'A skill that leaves her readers powerless to resist' The List

Paperback - Headline (1999)

Night Mares
Manda Scott's first novel, Hen's Teeth, was the only British novel to be shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 1997.
Dr Nlna Crawford - driven, dedicated, a survivor - runs Glasgow University's prestigious veterinary hospital. But she's losing her grip - on her operating theatre, on her surgeon's skills, and on her mind. Horses are dying of the highly infectious E. Coli, and nothing she can do can control it. Now she is spiralling into the depths that led her, years before, to attempt suicide.
Kellen Stewart is Nina's friend and therapist and when her horse needs emergency surgery she is suddenly part of Nina's tragic dilemma. And soon it becomes clear that it's not only horses' lives that are being threatened...
'Nail-biting… the Patricia Cornwell of the animal world' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday
'Even more accomplished than the acclaimed Hen's Teeth' Sunday Telegraph
'Gripping and topical' Good Housekeeping
'A familiar landscape warps into terror...something epic in this struggle between horse and human... Horses, sex and death create [a] potent cocktail' Helen Dunmore, The Times

British Pbk Original - Women's Press (1996)

Hen's Teeth
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Midnight in Glasgow. A bad time to be faced with a dead body. Especially if the body in question is your ex-lover and the woman grieving at her bedside used to be your friend.
Add a corpse packed with Temazepam, a genetic engineer with a strange interest in chickens and a killer on the loose with a knife and you have all the reason you need to walk away and never come back.
Except that it's Bridget who's dead and she has always deserved better than that.
For Dr Kellen Stewart, ex-medic, ex-lover and ex-friend, a simple call for help rapidly twists into a tangled web of death and deceit.
With the help of Lee Adams, pathologist, iconoclast and ally, Kellen sets out to uncover the truth. But as anonymous threats turn to physical violence, the two women are drawn inexorably into a world where corpses vanish without warning, the police are the enemy and even the hens have teeth …
'Eloquent, excellent… A new voice for a new world and it's thrilling' Fay Weldon
'A terrific new character' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'A skillfully constructed plot...deftly handled' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'Exciting debut thriller which will make you hold your breath' Frances Hegarty, Mail on Sunday
'Clear, honed, highly intelligent sense of language… a page-turning read of hair-raising plot' Scotsman
'A taut thriller' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'The plot is well thought out and daringly executed… What really makes this book stand out is the atmosphere...gets Crime Time's vote for best debut novel of the year' Crime Time
'Thrilling, chilling and original' The Times