Garnethill by
Denise Mina
hbk out May 98
Published by Bantam
at £15.99
Imagine waking up with the hangover from hell and finding your married
lover tied to a chair in the middle of a pool of blood in your kitchen.
That's what happens to Maureen O'Donnell. Unfortunately for Maureen, she
once had a nervous breakdown, and in the eyes of the world, that makes her
unreliable, suspect and probably mental enough to cut a man's throat from
ear to ear.
With the police haranguing her on one side and her dysfunctional family
clinging to the wreckage of respectability on the other, Maureen is forced
to choose between giving up and giving in or pursuing her own off-the-wall
investigation in a bid to clear her own name. On the way, she finds herself
the unlikely champion of others as powerless as she was before she decided
to take her life into her own hands.
A woman who discovers she has more front than Blackpool, Maureen is
surrounded by a motley cast of characters, some loveable and some loathsome
but all wonderfully credible. Set against the vivid backdrop of Glasgow
without the spit and polish of the 'Glasgow's Miles Better' campaign, this
is an intriguing debut that sharply picks up pace from a slow start to
build to a deeply satisfying climax
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
Garnethill by
Denise Mina