Eye of the Raven by Ken McClure

On Kindle

This is the eleventh McClure thriller that I have read and it is one of his best.

A research scientist is in Barlinnie Prison for the rape and murder of a thirteen year old girl but then a gangland killer who is dying of cancer in a secure hospital confesses to the crime.   The case is passed to Dr Steven Dunbar of Sci/Med, a small hi-tec unit within the Home Office.   Dunbar arrives in Edinburgh to find the police uncooperative and resentful of his presence.   This attitude stems from their mistaken arrest of a mentaly sub-normal man who was later proved to be innocent but by that time he and his mother had committed suicide.   The press, who only days previously had been calling the man a monster, turned on the police and several officers were forced to resign.   Needless to say they did not welcome the case being re-opened.   Despite opposition, sometimes from very senior officers, Dunbar persists and follows a convoluted trail until he solves the case with a surprising but just about believable twist at the end.