Whispers of the Dead

By Lin Anderson

A gangland slaying. A missing movie star. When an actor goes missing in Glasgow, the clue to his whereabouts could be in the film script itself.

In the dead of night, a man’s body is found strapped to a chair in Glasgow’s Elder Park, his identity unknown. Forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod thinks the violence displayed at the scene suggests a gangland feud. And, when the post-mortem uncovers a bullet engraved with a snake’s head in the man’s stomach, Rhona’s suspicions intensify.

Elsewhere in the city, a major Hollywood movie is being filmed, but production comes to a standstill when the lead actor vanishes without a trace. As the news spreads, DS Michael McNab senses a chilling connection between the two cases – a brutal organized-crime storyline playing out in real life on the streets of Glasgow.

With fact and fiction blurring, all Rhona and McNab know for sure is that there is a vendetta at work that must be paid in blood. Can the script of the movie lead them to the killer before its gruesome finale comes to pass?