The End of the Wasp Season

Starred review from July 25, 2011
In Mina's stellar follow-up to Still Midnight, Det. Sgt. Alex Morrow, who's five months pregnant with twins, looks into the murder of Sarah Erroll, who was kicked to death in her childhood home in an affluent Glasgow suburb. The discovery of more than 600,000 euros in the house suggests robbery wasn't a motive. Detective Chief Inspector Bannerman, a much reviled colleague of Alex's, fixates on Kay Murray, who's not only a former caregiver for Sarah's recently deceased motherâand whose teenage sons are thought to fit the two killers' basic profileâbut also Alex's long ago friend. Despite their history, Kay soon sees Alexâand all policeâas the enemy out to railroad her sons. Delving deeper into Sarah's life, Alex connects her to Lars Anderson, a London banker in dire financial straits who recently committed suicide. The gulf between social classes and the disintegration of families both inform this memorable police procedural. 5-city author tour.

August 1, 2011

DS Alexandra Morrow's second murder investigation—it's far too lumpy to call a case—is even more death-haunted than her first (Still Midnight, 2010, etc.).

Three recent deaths, none of them suspicious, cast a long shadow over the Strathclyde Police Department. One is that of demented old Joy Erroll, whose daughter Sarah is kicked to death only days later in the home she shared with her mother. The second is the hanging of Sir Lars Anderson, an obvious suicide after the spectacular bursting of his bank's bubble. The third is the death of Alex's father, an unloved man whose passing severs the last link between Alex and her delinquent teen nephew John McGrath. Five months pregnant and chafing under the obtuse supervision of DCI Grant Bannerman, the colleague whose promotion has vaulted him ahead of her, Alex is in anything but the mood to look into the callous murder of Sarah Erroll, dead at the hands (and feet) of a pair of home invaders who somehow managed to overlook the £650,000 she had stashed away. She'd be even less enthusiastic if she knew that the investigation would bring her up against Kay Murray, the most prominent of the endless parade of cleaners and caretakers who saw Sarah's mother through her last days; Nadia, the dry-eyed party girl who explains how she showed Sarah how she could bump up her wages dramatically; and Sir Lars' son Thomas, a precocious 15-year-old whose life is immeasurably complicated by a phone call from a woman identifying herself as "Lars Anderson's other wife."

Not exactly a model of plot construction, but that's not why you read Mina, who takes you so deep inside her troubled characters that long after you turn the last page, you wonder if you'll ever get out again.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011

Scottish crime vet Mina brings back prickly Detective Superintendent Alex Morrow for a second downbeat thriller (after Still Midnight). Now pregnant with twins, Morrow is called to a dilapidated manor on the outskirts of Glasgow where a young woman has been stomped to death. Perplexingly, an untouched fortune in cash waits hidden nearby. After learning that her childhood friend Kay recently worked in the home, Morrow grows suspicious (albeit reluctantly) of Kay's teen sons. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Kent, disgraced financier Lars Anderson hangs himself, leaving behind an emotionally ruined boy of his own. As Mina gradually reveals the connection between the deaths, she also explores how psychological brutality, particularly toward children, is a horrific crime of its own. VERDICT Mina exhibits her usual thoughtful flair for tough female protagonists and morally complex suspects and victims. Fans of Scottish crime fiction are probably hooked already, but introduce this author to readers of George Pelecanos and Henning Mankell. [Five-city tour.]--Annabelle Mortensen, Skokie P.L., IL

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2011
When the badly mutilated body of high-class prostitute Sarah Erroll is discovered in a wealthy Scotland suburb, Detective Sergeant Alex Morrow is called onto the case. But the seasoned investigator has little time to pursue clues before there's news of yet another violent death. This time, it's millionaire banker Lars Anderson, who hanged himself from an oak tree in front of his family's mansion. Are these merely two random acts, or could there be a connection? Detective Morrow thinks the timing is suspicious, and sure enough, there's a link. Sarah Erroll and Lars Anderson were lovers, but that's but one thread in a tangled web of dirty dealings and double lives. Heavily pregnant with twins, Detective Morrow finds herself belly-deep in family dysfunction, from Lars Anderson's morose, narcissistic wife and neurotic daughter to Morrow's own wayward brother, in desperate need of help for his troubled son. Scottish novelist Mina, author of the celebrated Garnethill series, is a master of psychological suspense, but her latest offering is a bit long on psychology and short on suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)