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NO GOOD DEED
by Manda Scott
Bantam, April 2002
320 pages
ISBN: 0553802674


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

A young boy sits in a freezing Glasgow tenement staring out the window. Behind him, in the room, are the bodies of his mother and another woman. Gradually, the boy becomes aware of someone calling his name. He sees a woman with tiger eyes tied to the legs of the couch. He frees her and she gets him hidden back in his chair before three men come looking for her. Gunplay ensues. The three men are dead and Jamie, the boy is wounded but the woman Jamie knows as Sheila is apparently unhurt.

Sheila gives the boy an electronic box and tells him to press the buttons in a certain sequence. She describes the men who will be summoned by the signal and gives him a message to give to one of them. Jamie understands and does as he is asked. The woman goes to search for Luke. The men arrive. Alec Strang, the leader of the division designed for urban criminal surveillance in Glasgow, along with Andy Bennet and Murdo Cameron. Finally, Orla McLeod, the woman Jamie knew as the prostitute Sheila, reappears with the news that Luke Tyler, the 4th member of the team, has been tortured and murdered.

Orla recovers from the heroin overdose she was given and her injuries, as does Jamie. Orla promises Jamie she'll take care of him and he begins to depend on her. They go to Orla's mother's cottage in the highlands, where Orla and Murdo try to keep Jamie safe. He's the only one who has seen the face of Tord Svenson, the chief thug.

The plot continues to unfold but never becomes too complicated, even though elements lead back 21 years, to the day that Orla's father and older brother were killed in Northern Ireland, and she and her mother were badly injured. Although Scott's previous books were enjoyable, this one brings her to a new level.

This is a review of the UK paperback. There will be a US hardcover edition published in April.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, January 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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