No Good Deed [Paperback]

Manda Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2002

In a freezing Glasgow tenement a Special Branch undercover operation has gone disastrously wrong. A nine-year-old boy and Orla McLeod, who was spearheading the case, are the only ones left alive. Orla's a damaged woman, she knows about violence, so she's not going to let anyone else take care of Jamie.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Det. Insp. Orla McLeod goes undercover in Glasgow's underworld, then heads to the highlands with the nine-year-old boy who saves her life. As the novel opens, Orla is about to become the victim of the infamous gangster who brutally murdered her partner, Luke; her only hope is Jamie, who just saw his mother die and is the only one who can identify the killer. Injured in the crossfire, Jamie is taken by Orla and fellow officer Murdo Cameron to her mother's mountain hideaway to recuperate in the care of Orla's friends. But who are her friends? Someone on her team may be working for the other side and her mother's neighbors may not be what they seem. And even Orla's past including memories of her crusading father's assassination by the Irish villains he tried to put behind bars is not what she thinks it is. Scott's prose suits her tough yet sensitive heroine and her storytelling is equally unflinching. Graphic violence contrasts with wilderness beauty in a thriller that has plenty of touching moments, as when Orla and Murdo manipulate Jamie's computer records to create an artificial family for him. Scott, whose first novel, Hen's Teeth, was a finalist for the Orange Prize, delivers humane characters and supercriminals, romance without sentimentality, and adventure without easy answers. Orla McLeod's American debut ensures that she will take her place in the top ranks of fictional female detectives.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Scott's fourth crime novel introduces a new cast of characters, members of a fictional special branch of the Glasgow police. In the initial scene, detective Orla McLeod is involved in a shootout in a dismal flat where she has been living undercover. Her cover is blown, her partner is killed, and she is saved from certain death by 9-year-old Jamie, whose mother also dies in the flat. The target of the operation is Tord Svensen, a violent criminal whose true identity is unknown--to everyone but Jamie, who has seen his face. This is an unflinching portrayal of police work at its dirtiest--Orla gives herself body and soul, literally, to find Svensen and to keep Jamie safe. Her life story, gradually revealed (and frighteningly relevant to the present), lends authenticity to her tough yet vulnerable persona. What's missing from this dark, politically charged read is backstory--the obviously close-knit relationships between Orla and her partners are never fully explained. Perhaps Scott's next project should be a prequel. Carrie Bissey
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Feature; First Edition edition (January 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747262500
• ISBN-13: 978-0747262503
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,087,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great police procedural thriller, April 30, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Good Deed (Hardcover)

In Glasgow, Detective Inspector Orla McLeod and her partner Luke Tyler work undercover. They plan to bring to an end the brutal Tord Svensen's criminal empire. However, everything quickly unravels as either someone on their team informed Tord or they slipped up somehow because they are spotted as infiltrating intruders. When the dust settles, Luke is dead and the only person living who can identify Tord is the nine-year-old boy who saved Orla's life even as he watched his own mother killed.

Orla realizes that she must keep the lad Jamie Buchanan safe, but Glasgow means death for the youngster. She takes him to the Scottish Highlands, but Tord is coming. No one lives if they can finger Tord.

NO GOOD DEED is as good a police procedural thriller as it gets. The story line is powerful and descriptive even with the villain identified almost from the start. The action moves out as soon as the reader begins the opening paragraph. Yet Manda Scott insures that the characters are fully developed, especially the haunted Orla. As she did with HEN'S TEETH, Ms. Scott provides a Scottish police procedural worth reading by anyone who relishes a loaded fast-paced thriller.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Gripping Thriller, September 17, 2002

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Good Deed (Hardcover)

Manda Scott's No Good Deed is an excellent thriller that will keep you guessing to the end. Orla Macleod, the herione, has gone deeply undercover to catch a criminal. Just as her cover is blown, she rescues Jamie, a 9 year old orphan who may be the only living witness who has seen the criminal. Together they escape to her childhood home in the mountains--she has been taken off the case, but it seems to be following her. It appears there is a leak in her department, no where is safe. Scott's story is well done, with some clever twists thrown in. Enjoy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Gripping Tale, August 19, 2002

By 

T. Judd "booknut" (ALEXANDRIA, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Good Deed (Hardcover)

First a disclaimer: My sister is Manda Scott's agent in the U.K. and she gave me a signed copy in June, 2001. I had not heard of this author and it was not really my type of book - no spies - so I put it aside. I finally read it last September while looking for an escape from the 9/11 saturation coverage. Some escape!

This book takes hold from the first page and simply doesn't let go. The opening scene with 9-year old Jamie Buchanan who has just watched his mother murdered and undercover Glasgow officer Orla McLeod begging him to untie her before the killers return is a classic.

This is a tale of an undercover counter-narcotics operation gone bad. Watch the characters; has there has been a leak? Is there some souce of information that threatens Orla and Jamie even as they hide out with Orla's mother? Orla's relationships with Jamie and the other characters is particularly well done, and Orla's mother is a great character in her own right. In fact, Orla's and her mother's past - they have come to Scotland from Northern Ireland - is central to the surprise with respect to the two villans in the tale. It fooled me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

No Good Deed is about as good as it gets in the police procedural field. I had a bit of trouble setting the scene in the beginning and had to re-read the first few pages when I was half way through the book. Other than that, it is a fast-moving book, with characters that can be cheered or hissed as appropriate, a couple of twists in the plot and very enjoyable read. I highly recommend it to any thriller/police procedural fan.