The Dead Hour - Hardcover

Mina, Denise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593051424 ISBN 13: 9780593051429

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2006

Synopsis

When Paddy Meehan, Glasgow's youngest aspiring journalist, is called to a domestic dispute at a house in a wealthy suburb in the north of the city, it seems like just another police call. The blonde bleeding from a head injury in the shadows doesn't want any help; and the well dressed man at the front door assures Paddy that everything's fine, and that she can leave. And then he slips her a crisp GBP50 note to keep the story out of the paper. By the next morning the woman's dead. Paddy may have found the story she's dreamed about, but she'll lose all credibility if the word gets out about her bribe. The police who attended the call are twisting the evidence for reasons of their own. Only Paddy cares enough to pursue a dark and brutal truth that could make her career - or kill her.

About this title

About the Author

As an academic researcher, Denise Mina has written extensively on the medicalization of deviant women, and until recently she taught criminology and Criminal Law. She is the author of Garnethill, for which she won the John Creasey Award for best first crime novel in 1998, Exile, Resolution and Sanctum. She lives with her partner and two young sons in Glasgow.

From the Back Cover

DENISE MINA IS
Really quite wonderful. It took only one book for me to become a true fan. Michael Connelly

Quite simply a must-read writer for anybody who thinks that crime fiction is as important as it is entertaining. Mark Billingham

One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years. Ian Rankin

Set to carve a niche for herself as the Crown Princess of Crime. Val McDermid

One of the genre s brightest new stars. George Pelecanos

From the Inside Flap

Paddy Meehan, Glasgow s youngest aspiring journalist, cruises the dark city on a perpetual night shift, chasing police calls for a story to promote her out of a twilight existence that makes Mars bars and coffee a medical necessity. With her father and brothers unemployed, and her upright Roman Catholic family perilously short of money, she needs the work.

The domestic dispute at a house in a wealthy suburb seems like nothing unusual at first. The blonde in the shadows bleeding from a head injury doesn t want any help; and the well-dressed man at the front door tells Paddy everything s fine, and that she should leave.

And then he slips her a crisp £50 note to keep the story out of the paper.

By the next morning the woman is dead; she s been tortured first, beaten, and left to die.The untraceable man was neither her boyfriend nor her husband, and Paddy can t understand why the woman passed up the chance to walk through the door and live.

Paddy s found the story she s dreamed about, but she ll lose all credibility if the word gets out about her bribe. The police who attended the call are twisting the evidence for reasons of their own. Only Paddy cares enough to pursue a dark and brutal truth that could make her career or kill her.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593051424
• ISBN 13: 9780593051429
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352