Garnethill (original 1998; edition 2007)

This book makes me think I don't like crime fiction. The book has a strong female lead, the British dialect was interesting, the other characters were interesting, but I never cared much about who did it or how it was going to work out. So it could be the book, or it could be my personal taste in fiction. ( )

Maureen O’Donnell comes home drunk one night and falls into bed. The next morning she discovers the mutilated body of her lover Douglas in the lounge room of her flat. She’s viewed with suspicion by just about everyone including the Police, Douglas’ mother (a member of the European Parliament) and his wife. Even her own mother questions whether she did it or not. As the victim of incest by her own father and having recently spent a stint in a psychiatric hospital Maureen has already experienced some of the worst life can throw at a person. But when she realises that no one else might be looking for the real murderer and suspects that the murderer has it in for some already abused people she takes action.

If I were supreme overlord of the universe (don’t think I haven’t dreamt of it) this is the kind of book that people would think of when they heard the term chick lit. Maureen is funnier than Bridget Jones, has better friends than Carrie Bradshaw and is the kind of practical, non shoe-obsessed woman that fiction needs more of. She is ‘pathologically independent’ (Mina has a way of describing things perfectly yet succinctly), a loyal friend, a helpful though perhaps misguided patient (she makes up stories that she thinks will make her therapist happy) and doesn’t define herself only terms of the bad things that have happened to her. In a nutshell she’s fantastic.

Fortunately Maureen has some helpful if unlikely allies. There’s her drug dealer brother Liam, her best-friend Leslie who volunteers at a women’s shelter and even one of the policemen working her case who all help her out and take risks for her. Just like any chick lit heroine’s mates would. Of course it wouldn’t be a great book if Maureen didn’t also have some crosses to bear including an alcoholic mother and several sisters who think she has a false memory of her father’s abuse of her. All of them though, the goodies and the not, the victims and the heroes are exquisitely depicted in a few of Mina’s evocative lines so that they all became quite clear images in my head while I was reading.

I know that not everyone likes humour in their fiction and also that humour is an elusive quality not easily shared. The humour here is of the dry, sarcastic ‘never let the bastards get you down’ kind that might not be for everyone but allowed me to relate to the characters far more than I would have if they’d been consistently earnest and worthy (as others in their predicaments might have had a yen to be). Plus it made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.

But the book is not all laughs by any stretch of the imagination. It depicts the systematic abuse of a city’s dispossessed and tackles hefty issues like domestic violence against women far more realistically than is often the case.

The whodunnit aspect of Garnethill is solved almost as an afterthought, although it is a very satisfactory and quite unexpected resolution, because it’s the characters and their respective journeys through the crap life throws at them that make this book a page turner and a treasure. ( )

Denise Mina is becoming one of my favorite crime scene investigation authors. Although Maureen O'Donnell is not a member of the Glasgow's police force, she certainly knows how to solve a murder that points to her as the prime suspect. It seems even the local police are determined to find her guilty, especially when she begins showing their shoddy investigation to be the sham that it is. I'm ready for the next novel in this three part adventure. Denise Mina gives power and smarts to the women of the world in the largely male dominated occupation of law and order. ( )

Maureen O'Donnell's boyfriend is found dead in her flat and she can't rest until she has done all she can to find the person actually responsible. It's not your regular whodunit since Maureen isn't a detective or journalist or similar, but rather a former mental patient, and because of this the story will not only deal with the mystery but will involve Maureen's whole life and history, an introduction to her dysfunctional family, and an enormous amount of binge drinking.

As with other Mina stories, the sense of place is uncanny - she does have a real knack for describing places and moods to make you feel you're there and I quite enjoyed my visit to this very bleak Glasgow. I can't say I was very fond of Maureen herself, though. I found her somewhat unlikely in her switches from clever and strong to, in a second, weeping and doing utterly stupid things. I also have a problem with characters who get into trouble by acting stupider than they are, and, unfortunately, Maureen falls into this category from time to time. Luckily, she gets most things right and, overall, manages to be a captivating enough narrator for the story. ( )

Maureen O'Donnell has spent time in psychiatric care due to having a breakdown caused by the surfacing of suppressed memories of sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her own father. She's also having an affair with a therapist which she manages to justify because she's not his patient. Nobody else can seem to recognise the fine distinction though so when she confirms suspicions that he's also a married man she decides to end it. When waking up after a particularly heavy night of drinking, when all she did after getting home was to fall into bed, Maureen discovers him tied to a chair with his throat cut she didn't think this was the kind of end that she meant. With no signs of forced entry and Maureen's mental illness history she and her drug dealer brother, Liam, quickly become the main suspects in the police investigation. Maureen manages to pick up on some clues that have eluded the police so sets about trying to find the real killer and the motive behind this brutal act.

This was such an accomplished story that I was surprised that it was the author's début novel. The characters are first rate and the pacing was spot on. It was very easy to read in large chunks so was quickly devoured. I'll look forward to picking up more of another tartan noir author. ( )