Still Midnight - Hardcover

Mina, Denise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1409100529 ISBN 13: 9781409100522

Publisher: Orion, 2009

Synopsis

Life ought to be simple for DI Alex Morrow. She's an up-and-coming Glasgow cop, just about to be presented with the case that could make her career. Her half-brother Danny is also on the up. Unfortunately for her, he's making his name on the other side of the tracks - in the murky shadows of Glasgow's criminal underworld.

Nearby, a peaceful Sunday evening in a suburban neighbourhood is brutally shattered by a vicious attack. A battered van pulls up to the door of an ordinary-looking home and disgorges a group of armed men in balaclavas. They smash into the house, hold the terrified family within at gunpoint and demand millions of pounds. Baffled, the family protest that they don't have that sort of money. As quickly as they came, the attackers snatch the elderly grandfather and storm off into the night.

When DI Morrow arrives she soon realises that there are too many missing links in this seemingly random attack: nothing quite makes sense. Who were the men? And why did they think this normal household concealed untold riches? The family is certainly not talking and as Morrow starts to delve deeper, she realises that there are dark secrets all around...

As she searches for answers to one family's secrets, she must protect her own. Can she keep her bosses in the dark about her criminal brother? Or is something going to have to give?

About this title

Product Description:

Unusual book

Review:

the added mystery element could make this Mina's breakthrough book from critics' darling to big seller (THE BOOKSELLER)

The strength of this well written novel lies in the characterisation...I felt as involved with the villains as with the police and victims (SHOTS)

Gritty, bizarre, true to life, and hinting at racial tension running high in the city, this enthralling story will hold your mind hostage until the shocking climax (WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY)

There is a rich ordinariness, a believability, a recognisable quality about Mina's characters, who are better drawn than those of anyone else writing in her genre in Scotland. A good example is Mina's heroine. Detective Sergeant Alex Morrow is instantly believable, instantly placable (David Leask SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

Suburban Glasgow has a new cop to conceal the cracks. But even DS Alex Morrow finds she's up against it when a grandfather is snatched by an armed gang and the attacks presents more questions than answers (DAILY MIRROR)

She's probably not that chuffed being dubbed the Queen of Tartan Noir, but we'll do it anyway (THE LIST)

Good fiction is defined by characters we can believe in. Denise Mina, author of the Garnethill and the Paddy Meehan trilogy, has won herself many fans by writing thrillers with realistic characters. Still Midnight, a rather tame title for a robust book, is an honest depiction of Glagow's south side community, as well as a beguiling crime novel (GLASGOW HERALD)

Mina's bungling crims, the cops chasing them (including bolshie DS Alex Morrow, with her conflicted past), her 'innocent' victims and even her minor characters are startlingly believable, and she conjures up the seamier side of Glasgow with flair (METRO)

Unquestionably Britain's finest unheralded crime novelist (Paul Connolly LONDON LITE)

Mina is acutely sensitive to characters' mental states, rendering them with a precision which blurs the line between heroism and villainy. At the same time, her prose is both nimble and muscular (John O'Connell GUARDIAN)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1409100529
• ISBN 13: 9781409100522
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368