Ken McClure

(born 1942 - ) - Edinburgh

Ken McClure

Ken McClure was born and raised in Edinburgh. He had the good fortune to be taught by Norman MacCaig at Craiglockhart Primary School and later Sorley Maclean at Boroughmuir High School. His first career plan was to join the Merchant Navy, but after a year of studying engineering in Glasgow he realised that engineering - and a possible 18-month post in the Antarctic - wasn't for him.

He turned to music for a year or so, playing guitar with a small jazz combo and several pop groups, before taking a job as a junior lab technician at Edinburgh City Hospital. Under the influence of consultant bacteriologist Dr Archie Wallace, Ken McClure took a night-school course, and later a degree from the Open University and a PhD in molecular genetics from Edinburgh University. His research work won him the Difco Triennial Prize in 1980, and, while working with the Medical Research Council, had a gene named after him: ftsK.

McClure first turned to writing after a research trip to Tel-Aviv; his time there became the basis of his first novel The Scorpion's Advance. Now writing full time, McClure has written over 15 medical and scientific thrillers, and has had the most success with his Dr Steven Dunbar series, most recently The Lazarus Strain. He lives in East Lothian.

  • Cover scan of Eye Of The Raven
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    Eye Of The Raven - Paperback
    Dr Steven Dunbar is bemused when the deathbed confession of a convicted psychopath lands on his desk. Until it emerges that another man has already been charged with the crime. A man whose medical research once sent shockwaves through the scientific community.
  • Cover scan of The Gulf Conspiracy
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    The Gulf Conspiracy - Paperback
    Since 1991, the government has denied the existence of Gulf War syndrome which has claimed many once-healthy soldiers. This story follows Steven Dunbar, a medical investigator with an elite government agency, as he traces the causes of the condition all the way to the plush boardrooms of Whitehall.
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    Hypocrites' Isle - Paperback
    Dr Frank Simmons works in the University of Edinburgh's medical school. One of his PhD students, loner Gavin, announces his intentions to find a cure for cancer and actually makes a major breakthrough. Oddly, no one seems to be interested and a picture emerges of a cancer research industry caught in a desperate paradox.
  • Cover scan of The Lazarus Strain
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    The Lazarus Strain - Paperback
    When an apparent animal rights stunt sends shockwaves from the quiet English countryside to the corridors of Whitehall, Sci-Med, an elite investigative agency, sends Dr Steven Dunbar to uncover the truth.
  • Cover scan of Past Lives
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    Past Lives - Paperback
    When neurosurgeon John MacAndrew performs a routine operation to remove a tumour, he is pleased with the outcome. The patient's husband is what the hospital calls 'a tough customer'. But when the patient wakes up it is evident that all is not well and MacAndrew retreats to his native Scotland to lick his wounds.

Bibliography

Dr Steven Dunbar series

Other novels

Written under the name Ken Begg

  • The Anvil Agreement - 1985
  • The Scorpion's Advance - 1986
  • The Trojan Boy - 1988
  • Fenton's Winter - 1989

Written under the name Ken McClure

  • Pestilence - 1991
  • Requiem - 1992
  • Crisis - 1993
  • Chameleon - 1994
  • Trauma - 1995
  • Pandora's Helix - 1997
  • Resurrection - 1999
  • The Tangled Web - 2000
  • Past Lives - 2006
  • Hypocrite's Isle - 2008