Rating: 
Summary: Difficult to navigate
Review: Detective Inspector Orla McLeod is working undercover to infiltrate the drug ring of Tord Svensen. In the process, she suffers much physical and psychological damage including the loss of her partner, Luke Tyler. Orla agrees to take care of nine year old Jamie Buchanan once the assignment is over. Jamie, recently orphaned, is one of the only individuals who has seen Tord Svenson and able to identify him. This knowledge places Jamie in great danger. Orla takes Jamie to her mother's remote cabin where, hopefully, they will be safe. Unfortunately, they soon find out that is not the case.
NO GOOD DEED is a very difficult read. The writing is strong and sure. The characterizations skilled and breathe with vivid realism. However, the plot is extremely difficult to follow. The story is quite hard-boiled with some extremely harrowing scenes. However, on reaching the conclusion, I stopped and reflected on the fact that I didn't know what the hell happened. Bottom line: Good writing but hard to read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Gripping Tale
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: My Good Deed
Review: I met Manda Scott in a Bed and Breakfast this July in Durham, England. After I pried of her the fact that she dumped a steady job to be a writer, she gave me a copy of her recent thriller, No Good Deed. I hereby fulfill my promise to write a review of her book! On its most basic level, No Good Deed delivers as a gripping thriller, following the best methods of the genre without being formulaic. But what distinguishes it from the pack is the thorough development of the main characters. The descriptions of the scenes are excellent but not ponderous. The story line and foreshadowing are expertly woven together with references to the main character's past. I was particularly intrigued with Manda's thought-provoking method of introducing scenes with ambiguous pronouns that engage the reader in guessing which character is being referred to. The epilogue after the climax is paradoxically satisfying as it maintains elements of tension that will continue indefinitely rather than ending sickly sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed the thriller, No Good Deed, as I'm sure you will too. I look forward to reading Manda's other books soon!
Rating:
Summary: Just a Little Less, Please
Review: In general, I'm quite a fan of Manda Scott's. I first read her Kellen books, which I found thoughtful, powerful, and adult. Eventually, though, I began to have the same problem with them that I find in "No Good Deed": the characters are so deeply scarred, their lives are marked by such unremitting emotional pain and such constant situational intensity, that ultimately I find them difficult to believe. I prefer books that are grim and edgy, so I have no objection to dark stories in themselves. But I'd like to see Scott move down a few degrees on the angst-o-meter. Still, it's hard to be too critical of a novel with an opening scene as compelling as this one. And some of the lines are worth having samplers made of: 'Her mouth tasted of cigarettes and latex and semen.'
Rating:
Summary: great police procedural thriller
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Gripping Thriller
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Over-written and over earnest thriller
Review: No Good Deed begins in a gripping and intense manner with the failure of an operation by Special Branch to trap the criminal responsible for major drug and prostitution racketeering in Glasgow,the whole thing ending in carnage.The woman sent undercover,Olga McLeod,kills several gang members in the act of escaping and rescues a withdrawn 9 year old boy Jamie Buchanan,caught up in the operation.Her close colleague Luke is killed and tortured as the operation goes belly up.
She takes the boy to stay with Morag her mother in a remote part of the Highlands whence she is pursued by the bad guys;it also becomes clear there is a mole within Special Branch feeding information to the enemy.
The novel builds slowly-too slowly -to a climax in the Glasgow underworld and a cynical rapprochment between enemies in Dublin. My problem with the book is that it feels less written than "WRITTEN" so self consciously literary and intense is the book at times.Everybody seems permanently on edge and over wrought and the prose strives for the poetic in a way that had me twitching with irritation.The women in particular are all damaged in some way,physically and psychologically,and the political dimension with the Northern Ireland situation looming large is especially one dimensional
The book takes itself very seriously and plods rather than moves towards a climax
Ms Scott can write but needs to lighten up-nearly 500 pages of intensity needs to be leavened with some humour,even gallows humour ,if the urge to read on is to be maintained.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping and suspensful thriller!
Review: No Good Deed is a suspenseful and tantalizing thriller that kept me on the verge of my seat until its very end. A newcomer in the world of literature, Scott captures the essence of a true detective thriller with the brilliance of a more seasoned author. A Scottish undercover officer for the Glasgow police, Orla McLeod fails to solve a case. As a result, her cover is blown and her partner gets killed. But a nine-year-old may be Orla's savior -- for the child is the only one who knows the identity of the criminal in question. However, solving the crime by having the child speak up proves difficult. There are some rather interesting twists throughout the novel. Manda Scott is a great new voice in the thriller/mystery genre. Her writing is sharp, insightful and gripping. No Good Deed is a reading investment. I highly recommend this brilliant and suspenseful thriller!
Rating:
Summary: gritty Scottish thriller
Review: The harrowing opening - a traumatized boy in the midst of a scene of violence in a Glasgow tenement - his drug-addict mother dead, another woman urgently begging him to help untie her "before they come back" - grips the reader by the throat. And doesn't let go until the final, riveting scene in this dark, emotionally and politically charged thriller. The trussed up woman is Orla McLeod, undercover cop, and the attempt to infiltrate crime boss Tord Svenson's operation ends disastrously with the torture death of her partner, Luke. Now, 9-year-old Jamie Buchanan is a target and Orla's tightly knit, specially trained team, takes him to her childhood home in the highlands. It's a magical place to the boy, a vision of snow and open space, but to tightly wound Orla it's a reminder of all she lost in the assassination of her father. Sudden violence counterpoints the boy's shy awakening, moments of unspoken intimacy between the team members, the quiet wisdom of Orla's mother and the secrets buried in the past and concealed in the present. The tension works around the unpredictable and brutal attacks and the sense of mistrust - Svenson is getting inside information from someone, somewhere. The violence is highly sophisticated - Tord is no common criminal, but a wily phantom with access to the latest technology and trickery - and Orla's team are equally savvy, attuned, and equipped. Scott's (her first novel "Hen's Teeth" was shortlisted for the Orange Prize) spare, nuanced writing (reminiscent of Denise Mina) complements her taciturn protagonist and gritty story, keeping it from seeming over-the-top despite the graphic ingenuity of the violence.
Rating: 
Summary: Not an easy read
Review: Too many characters, too many times when the reader was unsure who the author was talking about, ........this reader finishes three books per week........finds a difficult one like this about once a year. Not recommended for the average person who just wants to read a good novel for relaxation.
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