Synopses & Reviews
Field of Blood pulses with the taut situations and real-as-life characters that have won Denise Mina's earlier novels praise as "entertaining and engrossing" (
San Francisco Chronicle). This is another unstoppable and unforgettable thriller from "not only one of the best crime writers going, but one of the best writers of any stripe" (
Rocky Mountain News).
The murder of three-year-old Brian Wilcox is the saddest story to hit the newspaper in years. Even Paddy Meehan, the new copygirl at the Scottish Daily News, feels the tremors it sends through the jaded newsroom. It's the kind of once-in-a-generation crime that changes a city's landscape the kind that can make or break a journalist's career.
And Paddy could use a break: her battle for stature in the men's club of the newsroom is going nowhere. So when she discovers a personal connection to one of the young boys implicated in the killing, her job prospects look bright but at the cost of her family's trust. Loyalty and ambition are at war only briefly, until the secret explodes into public view in the worst possible way. Under siege in the newspaper office and in her own home, Paddy realizes that the only way to make amends is to clear the boy's name, when he's been all but convicted by her colleagues in the media. On her own, and then with the help of a charmingly disheveled young beat reporter, Paddy begins an investigation that reveals secret allegiances and lines of deception that go deep into the past and that could spell even more horrible crimes in the future if Paddy doesn't get it right.
Review
"As Ms. Mina grippingly reveals the implications of these events, it's clear that she is something more than a crime writer. Like Dennis Lehane with Mystic River, she describes a close-knit, secretive community in a substantial novel that happens to be centered on a crime." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"Mina is a ruthlessly accomplished surgeon of souls who can strip her living characters as bare as Patricia Cornwell does her corpses." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[A] fascinating look at sexism and newspaper politics and a reminder of how tough it is to be poor and ambitious." Booklist
Review
"The first volume in a promised, and promising, new series from Mina, this should earn her even more fans and cement her position as Glasgow's retort to other Scottish luminaries like Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. A thoroughly engaging read..." Library Journal
Synopsis
Set in Glasgow in 1981, a time of hunger strikes, riots and unemployment that decimated the old industrial heartlands, The Field of Blood is the first in the tense Paddy Meehan series from Scotland's princess of crime, Denise Mina.
The vicious murder of a young child provides rookie journalist Paddy Meehan with her first big break when the suspect turns out to be her fiance's 11-year old cousin. Launching her own investigation into the horrific crime, Paddy uncovers lines of deception deep in Glasgow's past, with more horrific crimes in the future if she fails to solve the mystery.
Infused with Mina's unique blend of dark humor, personal insights and social injustice, the story grips the reader while challenging our perceptions of childhood innocence, crime and punishment, and right or wrong.
Synopsis
A sensational murder provides the young journalist Paddy Meehan with her big professional break when she realizes that she has a personal connection to one of the suspects.Launching her own investigation, Paddy uncovers lines of deception that go deep into the past - and that could spell even more horrible crimes in the future if she doesn't get the story right.
About the Author
Denise Mina is a "fearless" (GQ) writer "of stunning talent and accomplishment" (Publishers Weekly) and "the crown princess of crime" (Val McDermid). She is the author of Garnethill, which won the John Creasey Memorial Prize for best first crime novel, Exile, and Resolution. She lives in Glasgow.