Still Midnight

An Asian merchant is mistakenly abducted by an inept gang of Glaswegian thugs. Detective Sergeant Alex Morrow of the Strathclyde Police catches the case. Morrow is uncomfortable in social situations, often abrasive and pig-headed, filled with confusion about what is "right." When it comes to police work, however, she's spot-on. Morrow interviews witnesses, interrogates suspects, all the while running an inner dialogue confronting her own uncertainties. Grim and darkly amusing, Denise Mina's latest, inspired by a true crime, affords narrator Jane MacFarlane a host of eccentric characters to inhabit. While MacFarlane's voice is a bit soft for the gritty descriptions, her characterizations in dialogue exchanges are lively, vivid, and credible. Mina raises serious social questions about race, politics, and community, and MacFarlane makes the listening distinctive. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 25, 2010
At the outset of Mina’s stellar first in a new series, two men in army fatigues, Pat and Eddy, break into the suburban Glasgow house of the Anwars, a Muslim family, demanding to speak to a man none of the family has ever heard of. The pair abduct the father, Aamir, after Pat shoots Aamir’s attractive teenage daughter in the hand. Det. Sgt. Alex Morrow wonders if religious bigotry prompted the crime, but she soon realizes that money is the key when Pat and Eddy demand a £2 million ransom, an exorbitant sum for a family of modest means. As Morrow and her partner, Det. Sgt. Grant Bannerman, dig deeper into the lives of the Anwars, particularly middle child Omar, they begin to untangle a complex web of intrigue. Meanwhile, the frantic kidnappers realize too late they’re out of their depth. Mina (Slip of the Knife
), who’s as much at ease with cops as she is with the people they chase, laces this potent crime thriller with colorful Scottish slang and delivers a sucker-punch climax.