Kellen Stewart is a therapist who on returning from a lengthy sojourn abroad is confronted with the death of a former lover, Bridget Donnelly. She soon learns that while she was away deliberating on her future as well as her relationship with her partner Janine, Bridget’s brother, Malcolm had also died.
Kellen is unsatisfied with the coroner’s report that determined that Bridget had committed suicide. Soon, Kellen becomes embroiled in the seedy under belly of the city of Glasgow: and Bantam hens.
Kellen Stewart becomes amateur detective and like so many literary amateur detectives before her she enlists the help of friends and proves to be smarter than the local police.
Manda Scott’s use of a lesbian protagonist was a brave move back in the mid nineties. At that time it was very difficult to get a lesbian literary lead character to be taken seriously by the mainstream public, media and major publishing houses.
The Scottish writer and internationally renowned crime writer Val McDermid’s first books based around a lesbian detective, Lindsay Gordon, proved a difficult sell. She soon realized that if she wanted to make a living as a writer she would have to change her protagonist’s sexual orientation to straight.
In the British newspaper, The Independent, Val McDermid commented on the situation;

“My first three novels, featuring the UK’s first openly lesbian detective, Lindsay Gordon, were published 20 years ago by the Women’s Press, a small feminist publishing house whose output went largely unreviewed by the mainstream press and was ignored by chain booksellers.
Back then, the notion that a commercial house would publish a novel that featured a lesbian protagonist was laughable. I knew that I’d never make a living as a writer if I stuck to writing about Lindsay. Luckily for me, my ambitions to spread my wings and push myself as a writer meant I embraced alternative possibilities.”

So, it is with sadness that I have to write that the book is a slightly disappointing read. In 1976, Booker Prize judge Philip Larkin was asked for his thoughts on the books that had been short-listed. Larkin remarked, ‘The books had a beginning, a muddle and an end’.
This description best sums up my thoughts of ‘Hen’s Teeth’. Many of the characters within the book are wonderfully drawn, in particular Kellen Stewart and Lee Adams but other characters are sketchily drawn; Elspeth Phillips and Janine to name but two.
This is disappointing especially when it comes to Elspeth’s character as she is a police officer and a lesbian but no mention is made of how she combines these two elements in her life. We never find out if fellow officers are aware of her sexual orientation and if they are what problems, if any, this causes. This would have made an interesting sub-plot.
Janine was Kellen’s partner for nearly four years. She was one of the reasons why Kellen decided to take a lengthy sabbatical in order to decide if the relationship was what she wanted. But, we don’t learn a lot about Janine and this I believe is a glaring omission for a character who shared the main protagonist’s life. Janine leaves Kellen a few days after her return but leaves the proverbial door open for Kellen to let Jan know what she wants from their relationship.
Apart from the above-mentioned there are several more glaring reasons for describing parts of the book as a ‘muddle. Here are a few: firstly is Bridget’s dog. The dog, Tan, is killed but some chapters later it is alive and well and lying next to the Aga range and then a few chapters further on it is dead again.
Next we have the ridiculous scenario where Lee and Kellen decide to break into Malcolm Donnelly’s workplace to retrieve information. They both dress in black with accompanying balaclavas. Both abseil from an adjacent building, over a high security fence and into the grounds of the medical building. It is never satisfactorily described as to how they achieved this feat. Lee manages to pick lock two secured doors but how this is done and what method is used is never mentioned. Then pushing incredulity to its apex two large guard dogs that patrol the ground that encompasses the building are subdued rather fortuitously as Kellen not only knows the dog’s owner but knows the safe word that will make the dogs act like puppies.
In the books of Ian Rankin or Irvine Welsh to name but two, the city of Edinburgh is written in such a way as make the Athens of the North a distinct character in its own right. Manda Scott’s novel is based in and around the City of Glasgow. However, though various locations are mentioned in the book the City of Glasgow is basically ignored and personally I think that was a missed opportunity.
As a whole the book is very well written with a mixture of pathos, drama and a dollop of humour. The conclusion and the crime’s dénouement are beautifully written and well paced and results in a very satisfactory ending to the novel.
Manda Scott proves herself adept at writing within the difficult genre of crime writing. Hen’s Teeth was I believe Manda Scott’s first novel and also the first to feature Kellen Stewart who appears in two other novels, Night Mares and Stronger than Death. As a first novel it has to be congratulated as a standout but flawed novel in the saturated market that is crime thrillers.

Good read .. Kellen and her friend Lee are the like the friends we all want to have,
if only to live vicariously through them. They are not twenty somethings either..
they are mature women.. and smart ones. Kellen trained to be a doctor, chose another path.
Once upon a time she lived on a lovely horse farm with her partner Bridget. Then bad decisions
on Kellen's part ended that. But the love never ended.

This is a murder mystery and most of the important parts are played by good, strong and loving
women. The inspector is a treat, I like him. I especially liked him when he showed up with Tir, another
strong smart female. Some might call her a bitch, but she wouldn't mind that a bit.

How satisfying to be the one to look for the one who did harm to loved ones.
The ending came too quickly. A worthy read. A series of course. I look forward to
book #2. It is no Three Pines, but I sure wouldn't mind visiting... ( )

Enjoyable but overcomplicated; some of the characters are quite absurd. ( )

I didn't enjoy this book as much as "No Good Deed" but it is still a great thriller and I am looking forward to reading the next in this series. The character is Dr Kellen Stewart and the place is of course Glasgow. ( )

First in the Kellen Stewart mystery series set in Glasgow, Scotland and surrounding countryside, with our protagonist being a doctor, a therapist and a lesbian. This book is one of my TBR Challenge Books that’s been sitting on my shelf for a long time, at least a couple of years. When Kellen is called in the middle of the night by an old friend to inform her that Bridget, her former lover, has been found dead, supposedly of a heart attack at the age of forty-one, Kellen reluctantly drives to their farm to sit with her friend and support her during the police questioning. There she learns that not only is Bridget dead, but her brother Malcolm, who had been Kellen’s mentor in medical school, died of the (apparent) same cause a couple of months previously while Kellen was out of the country. Malcolm had turned from doing medical work to genetic research and soon the mystery surrounding what he was working on with Bantam chickens seems to be at the center of the mystery. Kellen calls on her old friend Lee Adams, a thoroughly free spirited rebel who also happens to be a pathologist at the local hospital, to help investigate. I enjoyed the book and really like the main character and her cronies, but I was a little puzzled at first, as there seemed to be some backstory that I just wasn’t getting or that was possibly edited out or something, and it left me feeling a bit scattered, though that settled down eventually. Quite an interesting mystery as well as a thriller as Kellen and Lee finally learn just who is behind the whole chicken caper and nearly get themselves killed in the process. Very enjoyable read, and I’ve already ordered the next book in the series. ( )