Review: The Dead and the Dying by Lin Anderson

The Dead and the Dying (Rhona MacLeod, #19)

by Lin Anderson

Release Date: August 19, 2025

2025 Macmillan

Ebook ARC; 380 Pages

ISBN: 978-1761773884

ASIN: B0DHZ6VRG6

Audiobook: B0DJRKV1TG

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

2.75 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

In the dim morning light, Orkney’s Skaill Bay is the backdrop for a calamity of nature’s making. When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod joins the rescue efforts as a volunteer, she uncovers more than she bargained a human skeleton entombed in a stone crypt.

The grave is believed to hail from the Viking Age, but Rhona's analysis of the content points to more recent and sinister evil. And a shadow is thrown over the investigation when the skeleton is finally identified – and unsettling connections emerge between the victim and the very people trying to solve.

As forensic clues lead Rhona to a second, horrifying discovery, the question how many more secrets are concealed in the sand?

 

My Thoughts

The Dead and the Dying is the next entry in Lin Anderson's long-running Shona MacLeod mystery series, and while I really enjoyed the archaeology aspects of this novel, I wasn't overly impressed with the mystery itself.  It's not that the mystery wasn't interesting, it was the way it was written as the author didn't seem to have faith in her readers and pretty much led them by the nose throughout the entire book. I am just not a fan of this way of writing as I prefer to figure things out as I read. 

 

There wasn't a lot of character development in this book as by the nineteenth entry readers are pretty familiar with the main characters, but it would have been nice to have somewhat developed the secondary characters involved in the mystery, to fully understand the motives and the reasons behind what they did. A few weeks after reading the book, I have to look at my notes to even remember who most of the secondary characters were as they just blend into each other as they were so blandly written. 

 

The mystery itself started out rather interesting and I did enjoy the descriptions of the archaeological evidence as opposed to the forensic evidence.  But then it just went on and on with a lot of the same things beings repeated over and over again.  I almost felt like the author wasn't quite sure what to do with certain characters, but still needed them to be relevant in the story, and just made up stuff to get them to certain locations.  So, the overall cohesion of the book felt off and the place was definitely on the slow side, at least for me.  I don't always mind a slower pace, but not when things are repeated constantly as if the reader didn't get it the first time. Even if it's a slower pace, the plot should advance and this one felt more like it was going around in circles.  And when I got to the ending, then I understood why the rest of the book felt like that.   

 

Verdict

The Dead and the Dying was one of the weaker entries in this series.  I thought the mystery was interesting, but the way it was told was bland and too much showing rather than letting the reader figure things out with the main characters.  At this point, I'm not sure if I will read the next entry in this series. That being said, I do recommend readers read the first ten books or so as they are quite good. And if you like forensic archaeology/pathology, then they will definitely be of interest to you.