The Field of Blood by
Denise Mina
hbk out March 05
Published by Bantam
at £12.99
Denise Mina must rank as one of the best UK writers. In her crime novels she
gives voice to the reality faced by the working people of Glasgow and those
living on the edge, in much the same way as George Pelecanos articulates
daily life in the immigrant blue-collar neighbourhoods of Washington DC or
Walter Mosley exposes black experience in LA in the 50s and 60s. And in
common with those authors, Mina is accomplished in creating memorable
characters who we come to care about passionately and whose adventures
make us laugh and weep, as well as hold our breath. Field of Blood fuses the
compulsive pull of a thriller with authentic period detail (the book is set in
1981) and a real life miscarriage of justice case is woven into the story.
Paddy Meehan just out of school is a gofer at the Scottish Daily News. Paddy
dreams of being an investigative journalist but the reality of her lowly position
is waiting to run and fetch for the bigger players and putting up with comments
about how fat she is. She has no idea how she will square the hopes and
expectations of her close knit family (that she will marry soon and start a
family) with her own fierce ambitions. When two eleven-year-old boys are
charged with being involved in the abduction and murder of a toddler, Paddy
learns that one of them is her fiancé's cousin. Paddy finds herself playing
detective. It's a deadly game and her bloody-minded stubbornness leads to
ostracism from her family (an acutely painful and well conveyed episode) as
well as danger for herself and others. Forming unlikely alliances along the
way, Paddy pursues the truth. Mina brings the drink-drenched, nicotine
soaked, male chauvinist world of the newspaper offices to life in such detail
one winces and wonders at how hard it must have been for the women who
fought their way up through the ranks in such a hostile environment.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
The Field of Blood by
Denise Mina
