Product Description

Orla McLeod knows too much about violence for her own good. She knows about pain and how to inflict it, she knows about guilt and she knows about survival. And because of her own experiences, she knows what these things 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 hand Jamie Buchanan over to social services. Not when Jamie’s the sole witness to Tord Svensen committing an act of savagery so awful it's rapidly turning him into one of the most feared criminals in Europe. Especially since Svensen knows a lot about survival too.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #449797 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
No Good Deed begins with what most thrillers would have as their climax--undercover cop Orla McLeod talks a young boy into cutting her free to fight back as drugs race catastrophically through her system and a colleague is tortured to death in another room. Orla is a woman who keeps her promises, and she promised the child that she would look after him, forever--and this she does, though Hell stands in her way. In this radical break with the intense, but comparably gentle, detective stories with which she started her career, Manda Scott gives us a full range of thriller experiences--brutal noir as the police try to persuade Glasgow's criminals to give up a torturer gang boss of whom everybody is afraid, Buchanesque wanderings through the snow-covered foothills of a remote mountain district and a sense of growing dread as we struggle to understand what made Tord Svensen the vicious killer he is, what Orla will have to learn to defeat him. No Good Deed is a meditation on vengeance and violence and their costs, and what it means to walk away and make other choices; it is one of the most remarkable thrillers of the year. --Roz Kaveney

Denise Mina
'Compulsive reading from page one to the shattering conclusion...Manda Scott's writing is simply beautiful'

About the Author
Manda Scott is a veterinary surgeon, writer and climber. Born and educated in Scotland, she trained at the Glasgow Vet School and now lives and works in Suffolk. Her first novel, Hen’s Teeth, was shortlisted for the 1997 Orange Prize.

Customer Reviews

Her best
I have read and enjoyed all Manda Scott's crime novels but this is by far the best. In fact it is one of the best crime novels I have ever read. Scott's prose style is strong, her characters are all well rounded and fascinating, she has a good sense of location and she is a master of suspense and drama. This is the only crime novel I have read three times (and counting) - even when you know who dunnit it is still well worth reading again.

A well written thriller with twists
A taut well written thriller.

A change from Manda Scott's earlier offerings but if you are a fan of her previous ones, don't let this put you off. From page one you are taken on a journey through the scottish underworld with emotion and skill.

The attention to detail is gratifying and a lot of research has obviously gone into this book. In my opinion, this should be trabslated to TV... but then I like the genre!

I hope there is a sequel.

As good as rankin
After reading all of Ian Rankins books i have found someone else who matches up to his savage and detailed look into the scottish underworld. Manda Scott takes you from the Glasgow slums to the highlands with breathtaking ease. This book kept me up for three nights i just had to keep reading the next chapter.
I hope her next book will be another Orla Mcleod stunner.