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| Lin
Anderson was featured and interviewed on the Simon Mayo Book
Panel programme (on DARK FLIGHT publication day). Jeffrey Deaver
was also on the show with his new book THE SLEEPING DOLL. |
Colin Murray |
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The
show was presented by Colin Murray, standing-in for Simon Mayo, who was
on holiday.
The
reviewers were Boyd Hilton (journalist), Joel Morris (writer) and
Alexandra Heminsley (journalist and book reviewer).
The quotes below are from Colin
Murray and the panel (Boyd, Joel, and Alex) as they discussed DARK
FLIGHT ... |
You only need to be one page in to
Lin’s book and you are at a critical point …
Anybody who picks the book up will
know within two pages exactly what they’re going to get …
It really took my breath away … the
stark, honest brutality of it …
I've watched 'Wire in the Blood' and
'The Commander' on TV, and all the stuff that has ratcheted-up the
element of blood and gore ... Lin has, in a way, trumped them all …
… almost ‘Live and Let Die’ level of
subject matter …
… dealt with in a very fine sensitive, subtle manner …
There is a scene at the end, the climax to the book, which is SO
spectacular …
… fantastically interesting, very
enjoyable, and truly, truly disturbing.
… the style of writing makes it the
ultimate page-turner …
I was completely gripped by the plot …
I thought – ‘this has got me’ - from
that point onward I wanted to know what happened. People are in peril,
there are horrible things happening, and the plot carried me through …
It was propelling itself, without any
embellishments, towards horrific scenes which every time turned up a
bravura set-piece.
It gets away with doing something
which is very difficult these days, which is basically doing a ripping
yarn about Darkest Africa. Sherlock Holmes, you would have thought, was
the last person who could do something about unspeakable goings on in
dark parts of continents … this manages to pull it off without being
politically incorrect.
You’ve got to get to the big climactic
scene at the end … you don’t want to miss that.
Simon Nichols from Bristol was the
listener reviewer:-
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Colin: |
Were you a Rhona MacLeod fan?
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Simon: |
Well, I have to confess until now I’d
never heard of the lady, and I read a lot of crime fiction. But I
was absolutely gripped.
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Colin: |
Wonderful, wonderful.
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Simon: |
I was hooked from the word go,
from that opening terrible scene.
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Colin: |
Did you have any knowledge of the
subject before reading the book?
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Simon: |
I’ve read a bit of forensic science, I
suppose from the American books. I can’t remember having read
anything in crime fiction in this country concerning a forensic
scientist as the central character.
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Colin: |
Simon, you say you read a lot of crime
fiction yourself. Who would you recommend this book to? Profile the
sort of person who should read Lin Anderson’s DARK FLIGHT.
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Simon: |
I think most people I know who read
crime fiction absolutely love all of the gore, the murder, the
terrible scenes, and what have you, and would be quite happy not to
get too much of the private life of the central characters. However,
that said, I was really intrigued with the character DI Wilson, who
is actually, for the first time a fictional detective, albeit not
the central character, who has actually a sort of happy home life
and a very stable relationship.
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Colin: |
And doesn’t stink of fags and whisky!
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Simon: |
The storyline with him and his wife, who
has found a breast lump, and he’s absolutely gutted, and she’s
really stoic, and he goes to meet her after she’s had the biopsy,
and she says ‘I don’t get the results for a week, so get back to
work and find this child.’ … which is quite wonderful.
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Colin: |
Well that was a glowing review. Thank
you very much Simon.
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