Most Popular Books by Denise Mina

The first book in the acclaimed Alex Morrow series of crime novels set in Glasgow, Scotland, from the author of national bestseller Conviction. Alex Morrow is not new to the police force -- or to crime -- but there is nothing familiar about the call she has just received. On a still night in a quiet suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, three armed men have slipped from a van into a house, demanding a man who is not, and has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion that ensues, one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this the amateur crime gone horribly wrong that it seems, or something much more unexpected? "As Alex falls further into the most challenging case of her career, Denise Mina proves why "if you don''t read crime novels, Mina is your reason to change"-Rocky Mountain News

Set in Glasgow in 1981, a time of hunger strikes, riots and unemployment that decimated the old industrial heartlands, The Field of Blood is the first in the tense Paddy Meehan series from Scotland''s princess of crime, Denise Mina. The vicious murder of a young child provides rookie journalist Paddy Meehan with her first big break when the suspect turns out to be her fiance''s 11-year old cousin. Launching her own investigation into the horrific crime, Paddy uncovers lines of deception deep in Glasgow''s past, with more horrific crimes in the future if she fails to solve the mystery. Infused with Mina''s unique blend of dark humor, personal insights and social injustice, the story grips the reader while challenging our perceptions of childhood innocence, crime and punishment, and right or wrong.

A Washington Post Best Book of the Year, this standalone psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of the Alex Morrow novels that exposes the dark hearts of the guilty . . . and the innocent. William Watt''s wife, daughter, and sister-in-law are dead, slaughtered in their own home in a brutal crime that scandalized Glasgow. Despite an ironclad alibi, police zero in on Watt as the primary suspect, but he maintains his innocence. Distraught and desperate to clear his name, Watt puts out a bounty for information that will lead him to the real killer. Peter Manuel claims he knows the truth that will set Watt free and has information that only the killer would know. It won''t come cheap. Manuel is an infamous career criminal, a degenerate liar who can''t be trusted and will say, or do, anything to make a buck. But Manuel has something that Watt wants, which makes him the perfect target for Manuel''s consummate con. Watt agrees to sit down with Manuel and before they know it, one drink has turned into an epic, forgotten night of carousing across the city''s bars and clubs that exposes the thin line between a good yarn and the truth. The next time the unlikely pair meets is across the witness stand in court -- where Manuel is on trial for the murder of Watt''s family. Manuel calls Watt to the stand to testify about the long, shady night they shared together. And the shocking testimony that Manuel coaxes out of Watt threatens to expose the dark hearts of the guilty...and the innocent. Based on true events, The Long Drop is an explosive, unsettling novel about guilt, innocence and the power of a good story to hide the difference.

The most praised thriller writer to burst onto the scene in years returns with a brilliant story of suicide, murder, violence, and greed. Responding to a late night-call, Paddy Meehan arrives at an elegant villa, where a calm blonde with blood running from her mouth answers the door. She has already convinced the police to leave and soon Paddy realizes how: she slips 50 bucks into Paddy''s hands and begs her to keep the incident, whatever it is, out of the press. The next morning Paddy sees the lead news story: The blonde woman has been murdered, and far from the spoiled trophy wife Paddy assumed her to be, the victim turns out to be a prosecution lawyer with a social conscience. Bewildered why the woman didn''t take the chance to leave the house when she could, Paddy begins to make connections no one else has seen. When she witnesses the body of a suicide victim being pulled from the river shortly afterward, Paddy suspects links between the two deaths and follows her idea to its shocking -- and deadly -- conclusion.

It''s the week before Christmas when a lone robber bursts into a busy Glasgow post office carrying an AK-47. An elderly man suddenly hands his young grandson to a stranger and wordlessly helps the gunman fill bags with cash, then carries them to the door. He opens the door and bows his head; the robber fires off the AK-47, tearing the grandfather in two. DS Alex Morrow arrives on the scene and finds that the alarm system had been disabled before the robbery. Yet upon investigation, none of the employees can be linked to the gunman. And the grandfather-a life-long campaigner for social justice-is above reproach. As Morrow searches for the killer, she discovers a hidden, sinister political network. Soon it is chillingly clear: no corner of the city is safe, and her involvement will go deeper than she could ever have imagined.

Elsa finds a book with strange powers and must face her tortured past. It’s been seven years since Else visited her tiny hometown on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland. After years of suffering bullying at the hands of the few other residents, she left to make a new life. But now that her mother has passed, Else has returned. And when her old tormentor Karen Little hands her the very book that sent her running all those years ago, the cruelties of her past have Else seeing red. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.

Things like this don''t happen to people like us. That''s what Lachlan Harriot thinks as he watches his wife, Susie, led to jail in handcuffs. Yes, Susie, a psychologist, was found covered in blood near the spot where one of her clients appears to have been murdered. But Susie is not a killer, Lachlan thinks. She''s my wife. She''s our child''s mother. Secrets lurk behind closed doors, however, a dark truth made chillingly clear as Lachlan''s efforts to prove Susie''s innocence uncover an entire secret history -- illicit affairs, false identities, unimaginable deception -- and this brilliantly acclaimed, page-turning novel speeds toward a conclusion as shocking as it is ingenious.

Alex Morrow faces her toughest opponents yet in this brilliant thriller about criminals, consequences, and convictions. Police detective Alex Morrow has met plenty of unsavory characters in her line of work, but arms dealer Michael Brown ranks among the most brutal and damaged of the criminals she''s known. Morrow is serving as a witness in Brown''s trial, where the case hinges on his fingerprints found on the guns he sells. When the investigation leads to a privileged Scottish lawyer who''s expecting to be assassinated after a money laundering scheme goes bad, and a woman who''s spying on the people who put her in jail, Morrow has her hands full. And that''s before she even gets to her family issues. The Red Road is a thrilling new novel from a masterful writer, proving once again that "If you don''t love Denise Mina, you don''t love crime fiction." (Val McDermid)

Forty years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the island owned and inhabited by the Vanger family, her uncle hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate, in a tale retold in graphic novel format.

A brilliant thriller featuring Paddy Meehan, one of the most praised heroines since Temperance Brennan, from "a rising star in the world of crime fiction" (Laura Miller, Salon). Paddy Meehan is no stranger to murder -- as a reporter she lives at crime scenes -- but nothing has prepared her for this visit from the police. Her former boyfriend and fellow journalist Terry Patterson has been found hooded and shot through the head. Paddy knows she will be of little help -- she had not seen Terry in more than six months. So she is bewildered to learn that in his will he has left her his house and several suitcases full of notes. Drawn into a maze of secrets and lies, Paddy begins making connections to Terry''s murder that no one else has seen, and soon finds herself trapped in the most important -- and dangerous -- story of her career.

From the multi-award-winning master of crime, Denise Mina delivers a radical new take on one of the darkest episodes in Scottish history—the bloody assassination of David Rizzo private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the queen’s chambers in Holyrood Palace. On the evening of March 9th, 1566, David Rizzio, the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, was brutally murdered. Dragged from the chamber of the heavily pregnant Mary, Rizzio was stabbed fifty six times by a party of assassins. This breathtakingly tense novella dramatises the events that led up to that night, telling the infamous story as it has never been told before. A dark tale of sex, secrets and lies, Rizzio looks at a shocking historical murder through a modern lens—and explores the lengths that men and women will go to in their search for love and power. Rizzio is nothing less than a provocative and thrilling new literary masterpiece.

Detective Alex Morrow discovers that the darkest secrets never stay buried as she investigates the criminal underbelly of a seemingly tranquil seaside town. For reasons she can''t quite explain, Alex Morrow is addicted to watching surveillance footage of Roxanna Fuentecilla -- a gorgeous Spanish mother of two, in a tempestuous relationship with her boyfriend, who recently relocated to Glasgow under mysterious circumstances. She is also Morrow''s prime suspect in an investigation that resembles a soap opera, filled with glamorous jetsetters and enough money to interest the highest levels of law enforcement. Until Roxanna vanishes. Morrow traces Roxanna''s steps to Helensburgh, a sleepy, picturesque seaside community. But behind the idyllic Victorian homes and quaint storefronts, darkness lurks. Home to a man with blood on his hands who is haunted by guilt, a mysterious woman with ulterior motives back in town for the first time in decades, a sexually frustrated restaurateur looking to blow off steam, and a crew of vicious small-time gangsters blindly following orders, it''s a town ruled by base instincts where no one is quite what they seem. And it''s the perfect place to get rid of someone. When she uncovers an unsettling connection to Roxanna''s job back in Glasgow, Morrow suspects that her missing person is more than a white-collar criminal on the lam -- she may also be a victim caught up in a sophisticated conspiracy that stretches far beyond Helensburgh and is more personal than Morrow ever imagined. As the truth rises to the surface and the conflicts that lie beneath Helensburgh''s calm waters threaten to explode, Morrow must find Roxanna before any hope of solving the case disappears with her. A gripping tale of greed, power, and vengeance, Blood, Salt, Water is a masterful crime novel from Denise Mina that confirms her reputation as "one of the genre''s brights stars" (George Pelecanos).

A true crime podcast sets a trophy wife''s present life on a collision course with her secret past in this "blazingly intense" Reese Witherspoon book club pick and New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year (A. J. Finn). The day Anna McDonald''s quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone. Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people''s problems are much better than one''s own -- a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna''s problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she''s taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened. Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened -- and they''re in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, Anna goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide. Conviction is "daredevil storytelling at its finest" (NPR''s Fresh Air), a breathtaking thriller from one of the most "superbly talented" writers of our time (Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of Trust Me).

In this "edge-of-your-seat" thriller and sequel to the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine book club pick Conviction (The Los Angeles Times), Anna and Fin find themselves on another breathtaking chase across Europe—and another race to save their own lives. Deception. Theft. Murder. All you need is confidence. Anna McDonald has made a terrible mistake. She has forced her blended family to vacation together. The weather is bad, her daughters are bored, and her ex-husband still insufferable. Oh, and Fin Cohen brought his latest girlfriend, too. So when news of a shocking kidnapping breaks, Anna and Fin do the responsible thing. They take off to solve the case. Lisa Lee, a young YouTube star, has vanished after answering the door to what she thought was a pizza delivery. Police suspect her dad or the delivery guy, but in Lisa’s last known video she ventured into an abandoned chateau in France, where she uncovered a priceless artifact. Anna knows they must find this young woman before it’s too late. To do so, they need to track down that treasure, a casket that could hold answers to the greatest questions ever asked. But Anna and Fin might have misunderstood the stakes of the game. Soon, they find themselves mixed up with some very dark characters, on another thrilling chase across Europe—and another race to save their own lives. Praise for the national bestseller Conviction: "One of the most talented, most daring, most humane writers of the past twenty years . . . Conviction is Mina''s finest work to date: a dark star of a novel, blazingly intense, up-to-the-minute fresh, and exciting as all hell." ―A.J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window "Endlessly surprising . . . This incredible novel seems to have been written in a white-hot rage."―Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review "Conviction combines all Mina''s gifts―for suspense, humor, menace, sentiment―in spectacular fashion."―Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal "A page-turner with depth and soul."―O, the Oprah Magazine

In this "thought-provoking" thriller from the author of the Reese Witherspoon book club pick and national bestseller Conviction, a woman in crisis finds herself on the hunt for her own mother''s murderer (People). Dr. Margo Dunlop is at a crossroads. Her adoptive mom just passed away, and Margo misses her so much she can''t begin to empty the house-or, it seems, get her brother on the phone. Not to mention she''s newly single, secretly pregnant, and worried about her best friend''s dangerous relationship. In an effort to cheer herself up she goes in search of her birth mother. Instead she finds Nikki, her mother''s sister. Aunt Nikki isn''t what Margo expects, and she brings upsetting news: Margo''s mother is dead. Worse, she was murdered years ago, and her killer is still at large—and sending Nikki threatening letters. Margo is torn. Should she stay out of this mess, or try to find justice? But then Margo receives a letter, too. Someone out there has been waiting and watching, and in Margo sees the spitting image of her mother . . . Darkly funny and deeply affecting, The Less Dead is a sharply modern new thriller from the bestselling author of Conviction, and a surprisingly moving story of daughters and mothers, secrets and choices, and how the search for the truth—and a long-hidden killer—will lead one woman to find herself.

When a notorious millionaire banker hangs himself, his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of selfishness is widespread, and the carnage most acute among those he ought to be protecting: his family. Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered. The community is stunned by what appears to be a vicious, random attack. When Detective Inspector Alex Morrow, heavily pregnant with twins, is called in to investigate, she soon discovers that a tangled web of lies lurks behind the murder. It''s a web that will spiral through Alex''s own home, the local community, and ultimately right back to a swinging rope, hundreds of miles away. The End of the Wasp Season is an accomplished, compelling and multi-layered novel about family''s power of damage-and redemption.

In this provocative mystery from beloved crime writer Denise Mina, new evidence in an old murder case forces one woman to make an impossible choice. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO TELL THE TRUTH WHEN YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON A LIE? A year ago, a father and his fiancée were brutally murdered in their opulent London townhouse, sparking the most high-profile murder investigation in recent history. Blood spatter expert Doctor Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put the killer behind bars—or so everyone believes. But since the trial, Claudia’s learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her testimony were wrong. And someone she knows made sure of it. Now, as she takes the stage to give a career-defining speech before London’s elite, Claudia faces a devastating choice. Protect her children and her career with her continued complicity, or blow the whole conspiracy apart and reveal the truth: not only is the real murderer still out there, but they’re in the audience. As Claudia steps toward the microphone, she revisits that fateful night. What really happened? And what will Claudia say?

A powerful new stand-alone novel from Scotland''s princess of crime -- author of the acclaimed Garnethill trilogy. Lachlan Harriot is in a state of shock. His wife Susie has been convicted of the murder of serial killer Andrew Gow, a prisoner in her care. Unless Harriot can come up with grounds for an appeal, Susie will be given a life sentence, depriving her of her home, her family and her two-year-old daughter. Harriot is convinced that his wife, a respected forensic psychiatrist, is innocent, and each night he climbs the stairs to her study and goes through her papers, laboriously transcribing into his computer her case notes, her interviews with Gow and the press cuttings from the trial. But his search for the truth soon raises more questions than answers. Why had Susie stolen prison files and then lied about it? What was the nature of her relationship with Gow? And what is it in her study that she doesn''t want her husband to find? As things become ever more complex, he must decide what to do with a discovery that involves violence, sexual obsession, lust and ultimate betrayal. "From the Trade Paperback edition.

In this graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson''s THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine MILLENNIUM, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander''s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

Irresistibly blending suspense, mystery, compassion, raw instinct, and grim wit, Resolution provides a wrenching conclusion to Denise Mina''s universally acclaimed Garnethill trilogy. Life has gotten no easier for Maureen O''Donnell since the events in Exile. Already deeply in debt and struggling with alchoholism, she now faces her most formidable challenges yet: testifying against her boyfriend''s murderer and the return of her abusive father to Glasgow. As family matters deteriorate and violence hovers over the familiar neighborhoods of Garnethill, the world becomes a darker, more dangerous and even deadly place for Maureen. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Maureen O’Donnell wasn’t born lucky. A psychiatric patient and a survivor of sexual abuse, she is stuck in a dead-end job and a secretive relationship with Douglas, a shady therapist. Her few comforts are making up stories to tell her psychiatrist, the company of her friends, and the sweet balm of whisky. She is about to put an end to her affair with Douglas when she wakes up one morning to find him in her living room with his throat cut. Viewed in turn by the police as a suspect –- aided and abetted by her drug-dealing brother Liam – and as an unco-operative, unstable witness, even Maureen’s alcoholic mother and self-serving sisters are convinced of her involvement. Worse still, the police won’t tell her anything about Douglas’s death, or what the killer left behind in her hall cupboard. Feeling betrayed by friends and family, Maureen begins to doubt her own version of events. Panic-stricken, she sets out to retrace Douglas’s last, desperate days and picks up a horrifying trail of rape, deception and suppressed scandal at a local psychiatric hospital where she had been an inmate. But the patients won’t talk and the staff are afraid, and when a second brutalized corpse is discovered, Maureen realises that unless she gets to the killer first, her life is in danger. This is a breathtaking and compelling piece of crime fiction. Shocking, insightful and shot through with black humour, Garnethill marks the arrival of a powerful new voice, remarkable not only for its grit and candour but for its sensitivity and compassion

Philip Marlowe is on the hunt for a missing heiress—and up against a rival PI—in this smart and atmospheric authorized mystery from acclaimed crime writer and "one-of-a-kind storyteller" Denise Mina (James Patterson), the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective.u200b Has Philip Marlowe finally met his match? It’s early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they’ve got Anne Riordan—now head of her own all-female detective agency—on the case, too. The search for Chrissie takes the two investigators from the Montgomery mansion to the roughest neighborhoods of LA, through dive bars and boarding houses and out to Skid Row. And that’s all before they find the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to Chrissie first? And what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be found? In The Second Murderer, Denise Mina becomes the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective, delivering a clever and timely new take on Philip Marlowe, as well as a propulsive, dark, and witty mystery all its own.

"Suggested for mature readers" -- p. [4] of cover.

John Constantine''s trip to Scotland has ended in disaster, as Steve Evans'' well-intentioned Empathy Engine has caused mass suicides and the quarantine of Glasgow. Now John, Evans, Angie, Chas and a motley crew of survivors must seek the cause of the horror, while desperately trying to stave off its terrible effects.

From the award-winning master of crime fiction, Denise Mina re-imagines the "Bonfire of the Vanities,” a series of fires lit throughout Florence at the end of the fifteenth century—inspired by the fanatical Girolamo Savonarola. Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar living in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century. An anti-corruption campaigner, his hellfire preaching increasingly spilled over into tirades against all luxuries that tempted his followers toward sin. These sermons led to the infamous "Bonfire of the Vanities”—a series of fires lit throughout Florence for the incineration of everything from books, extravagant clothing, playing cards, musical instruments, make-up, and mirrors to paintings, tapestries, and sculptures. Railing against the vice and avarice of the ruling Medici family, he was instrumental in their removal from power—and for a short time became the puritanical leader of the city. After turning his attention to corruption within the Catholic Church, he was first excommunicated and then executed by a combination of hanging and being burned at the stake. Just as in Rizzio—her latest novel with Pegasus Crime—Denise Mina brings a modern take to this fascinating historical story, drawing parallels between the febrile atmosphere of medieval Florence and the culture wars of the present day. In dramatizing the life and last days of Savonarola, she explores the downfall of the original architect of cancel culture and, in the process, explores the never-ending tensions between wealth, inequality, and freedom of speech that so dominate our modern world.

Movie star... comic book icon... John Constantine, the legendary chain-smoking, hard-drinking man of the occult is back - and as usual, he''s his own worst enemy! When Constantine tries to help out a man cursed with the ability to feel the same things as everyone around him, no matter how awful, he is led on a journey to a remote Scottish island, where an ancient power waits for him - as does a vengeful fellow magician...

The last time Maureen O''Donnell saw Ann Harris, she was sitting in her office in the Glasgow Women''s Shelter smelling of a long binge on cheap drink. A month later Ann''s mutilated body is washed up on the banks of the Thames. No one, except for Maureen and her best mate, Leslie, seems to care about what has happened to her, and Maureen is the only person who thinks Ann''s husband is innocent.But solving Ann''s murder comes as light relief for Maureen. Her father is back in Glasgow, living in an area overlooking her bedroom window; Leslie is sloping about like a nervous spy; and then there''s Angus - Maureen''s old therapist - who''s twice as bright as she is and making her play a dangerous game with the police.In the long tradition of Scots in trouble, Maureen runs away to London. Looking for answers to the mystery surrounding Ann''s death, she becomes embroiled in a seedy world of deceit and violence. Alone and vulnerable in a strange city, Maureen starts to piece together Ann''s final days. But time is not on her side, and Maureen needs twelve more hours, just twelve, to put things right, and she doesn''t care what it costs...

In this final graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson''s international bestseller, Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She''s fighting for her life in more ways than one: If and when she recovers, she''ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life. Written by novelist Denise Mina (The Field of Blood) and illustrated by Andrea Mutti and Antonio Fusso, this epic graphic novel concludes Vertigo''s critically acclaimed adaptation of The Millenium Trilogy.

In Glasgow, a toddler goes missing, snatched from the front garden of his home. But while the city braces itself for the discovery of a lone sexual predator, the police are led to the doors of two 11-year-old boys.