The Princess Of Scottish Noir - Denise Mina

“Maureen dried her eyes impatiently, lit a cigarette, walked over to the bedroom window, and threw open the heavy red curtains.”

And so it began.

From the first sentence in Denise Mina’s “Garnethill Trilogy” readers have sped through the prose of Mystery’s newest Nom. There’s a groundswell of enthusiasm for the lady’s work and it grows as word of mouth is passed. Far from the typical hype of print ads, radio spots and huge tours the Mina reverie is spread from reader to reader, author to author, editor to agent and any combination of the above that make up the rather incestuous world of “Mystery”. Her admirers are British, German and American. They are famous and not so famous. They may plow through six books a week or only have time for six books a year. To a person there’s one common denominator ..... once you’ve read the books you want to share the experience. So here goes...

GARNETHILL
The book in which we are introduced to Maureen O’Donnell and fall in stride with a character unique in fiction. As written by Mina, Maureen is more honest than likable. A survivor of incest and recovered memory syndrome Maureen lives in fear of many things. She works towards recovery with the aid of therapy and the love of a few good friends and one remarkable brother. There are problems. Alcohol abuse has begun and even blackout cannot always stave off the scorn of family and the fear of self for our “Wee lass”. Tough as nails but with a heart of gold; that’s Maureen. So cliché in mystery. NOT. An inappropriate relationship with a therapist and too much drink lead to the events in the first novel. As Maureen tries to prove her innocence after her lover is brutally murdered in her flat we meet up with a cast of characters that will recur in all three books. Determination leads to the amateur and unorthodox solving of the crime.

EXILE
Helping in a woman’s shelter after the events in GARNETHILL Maureen is far
from healed. When a resident is brutally murdered and no one can understand
how her husband could have possibly been so abusive Maureen remembers her
recent past of being unjustly accused and sets out to find the murderer and the
true motivation for this crime. Carried off from her native habitat Maureen sees
the seedier side of life only to return home and find her own world turned upside
down with the past firmly at the forefront and herself too tired to fight it.

RESOLUTION
The murderer of Maureen’s lover is about to stand trial, she needs a lot of
scratch fast and an older woman she’s recently become acquainted with dies in
hospital. Dad is back in town and Maureen is afraid of what she might do. With
help from her pals and that wonderful brother the many stories that are
Maureen O’Donnell are resolved.

All right, that’s the synopsis out of the way. And they’re okay as far as they go but the blurbs can’t tell the story and I tried to make sure that mine didn’t give anything away. Denise Mina has said that her story ended up a trilogy because the credibility of her character would be shattered if both personal and outside catastrophes of the magnitude Maureen faces happened all in one book(paraphrasing here). She’s right. This is not to say that she’s gone and stretched one book to three. Far from it. We’ve experienced a short part of one life in which human emotion and environment are so humanely and brutally dealt to us that it’s one of the finest treats this reader has been given in prose.

Crafting the character of Maureen, Ms. Mina has created a woman who’s sanity is at times precarious. Maureen doubts herself. She is often on the brink and has been catatonic in the past. She trusts very little at face value but still has the ability to trust unconditionally in certain instincts and people (I see problems ahead, you?). Maureen fights for the next day always. Through Maureen we are exposed to a menage of women in different states of mental wellness who are all beautifully drawn. With a compassion rare in writing the men in the stories are also written with a believable pen and a humanness that remembers both sexes have the ability for good and evil. Throw in the character of Scotland. It’s done with a adeptness to match Rankin’s, almost(as a disclaimer remember he is a God of to me). Dark and dreary weather, grimy streets, takeaways and tenements, sunshine on hung-over days.... We feel the pulse of the environment. Did I mention the mystery in Exile is one of the best executed of the last decade? Trains and timetables and subtle clews ....

Best friend Leslie is a joy. Brother Liam, well ...Pete you’re good but.... you could be better. The whole Family is brilliantly done. The behavior patterns of incest survivors is starkly put on the page with a gentleness that left me close to tears in hospital with Mother Winnie as we awaited the birth of her first grandchild. The coppers are far from one-dimensional and my-o-my, those villains. There are bad people in this world. And sometimes the bad people are our heroes. Am I being Cryptic enough for you, people?

In the past I’ve carried copies of GARNETHILL through mystery convention halls, passing them out to people who ask “What did you like this year?“ I’ve lusted after the last copy of RESOLUTION available to the point of considering how pissed off Karin Slaughter would be if I stole it from her. Have you read Slaughter’s books? Then you know just how addictive Mina is. Steve Hamilton was, dare I say, excited when the only book I bought at one of his signings was EXILE ( I already had his). And when recently asked by one of the “big boys” who I thought should be next I said the name Denise Mina without a pause.

I’m running out of words. Read these books! Enjoy! Satiate! Experience everything that mystery can and should be. Should you ever meet Denise Mina tell her she has a fan in Wisconsin who’s dying to meet her and thank her from the bottom of my heart for an experience I wouldn’t have missed.

Ruth Jordan

Out now in the UK , SANCTUM a standalone from the author Denise Mina.