The Long Drop

Starred review from March 13, 2017
In this outstanding standalone, set in late-1950s Glasgow, from Edgar-finalist Mina (Blood, Salt, Water), William Watt stands accused of butchering his wife, daughter, and sister-in-law, but he vehemently proclaims his innocence. Only ace attorney Laurence Dowdall saves him from prison, but public sentiment is against him, forcing Watt to take on the mantle of amateur crime-solver. This is how he meets Peter Manuel, career criminal, convicted burglar, suspected rapist. The two form a strange alliance after Manuel promises to show Watt where the murder weapon is hidden—but for a price. With knifelike precision, Mina flicks between the bizarre 12 hours Watt and Manuel spend together getting drunk in Glasgow bars, and Manuel’s later trial, where’s he’s on the dock not only for the murder of the Watt family but also the slaughter of another trio, asleep in their beds. The question of guilt or innocence is irrelevant, and the gray of the in-between reigns supreme. And while Mina’s usual tough female protagonists are absent, the presence of women presses as near as the crush of bodies eager to attend Manuel’s trial.

Starred review from February 15, 2017
Hard men work their will in 1950s Glasgow.Though somewhat unlike Mina's usual thrillers in many ways, this study of a serial killer shares her persistent themes. Mina has penned three series of novels, each featuring a female protagonist (Blood, Salt, Water, 2015, etc.) struggling against both active criminals and pervasive misogyny. In this story she omits the female protagonist but remains grounded in the casual victimization of Scotland's women. William Watt's family (wife, daughter, and sister-in-law) is slaughtered, and at first Watt is charged with the crimes. Feeling the police are not investigating energetically enough, he reaches out to the Glasgow underworld--and finds Peter Manuel, who claims to know where the gun is buried and much more. In the course of a December evening he and Watt spend drinking together, much that is repellent about Manuel is slowly revealed. Then another family is murdered. Eventually Watt is exculpated, and Manuel is charged with eight counts of murder. The story alternates mostly between that December night of drinking and the subsequent trial. Manuel is delusional, possibly psychotic; but is he alone responsible for the deaths of Watt's family? Watt is a man of some substance, involved in political and real estate machinations that will transform Glasgow. He has a mistress. Do the hard men close ranks around him? Is Manuel, beyond the control of the men who rule his world, sacrificed to preserve one of them? In the end, the answer matters less than the method, as women's lives are degraded, publicly and privately, physically and spiritually, to preserve the ranks of those hard men. In more than one sense, Manuel takes the fall. A terrific exploration of crime and oppression.

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Starred review from February 15, 2017
In 1957 Glasgow, the grisly home-invasion murders of William Watt's family are rare enough to capture rapt public attention, which guarantees that Watt's reputation is destroyed once police think enough of his oddly dispassionate behavior to investigate him. Watt survives the detectives' scrutiny without arrest but can't bear the sudden halt in his social climb. So, in a desperate bid to rescue his reputation, Watt announces a reward for information leading to his family's killer. Peter Manual, a criminal with a history of vicious attacks on women, offers a new suspect and the location of the murder weapon in exchange for the reward. Their meeting begins legitimately enough, arranged by Glasgow's most famous criminal lawyer in a conspicuously reputable restaurant, but shifts into something altogether different when Watt and Manual conspire to ditch their attorney chaperone. As the pair ricochet through Glasgow's underworld hangouts, Manual spins his promised tale, and Watt's motivations begin to appear? much less straightforward. The emerging story is an intricate and suspenseful unveiling of a murderer's mind while taking readers on a compelling journey through Glasgow's historic underworld, the long-extinct but legendary Gorbals tenements, and the city's famous High Courts Or just High Court?. This stand-alone thriller showcases Mina at her best, capturing the nuanced psychological suspense and ethical shadows of her Alex Morrow series as well as the electric dialogue and tangible grit of her Paddy Meehan novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2016

This multi-award-winning exponent of Tartan noir turns in a stand-alone psychological thriller set in 1950s Glasgow, where Peter Manuel awaits death by hanging after having been found guilty of several murders. His story dates back to the murder of William Watt's family, blamed by the police on Watt himself, which forces Watt to follow up on longtime criminal Manuel's claim that he knows the real killer. With a 35,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2017

In Glasgow in December 1957, successful businessman William Watt hires noted defense lawyer Laurence Dowdall to defend him against charges he murdered his wife, sister-in-law, and daughter. The two men meet with recently released criminal Peter Manuel, who claims to have information--the location of the gun used in the killings--that will exonerate Watt. Manuel and Watt spend the evening together drinking and talking, but no gun is produced. Six months later, Manuel is on trial for these and five other murders, and Watt has been called to testify as a witness. The story, narrated in the present tense, alternates chapters between the end of 1957 when these characters first interact and the trial in May 1958, which decides the fate of both Watt and Manuel, effectively portraying a grimy, gritty Glasgow of 60 years ago. VERDICT Award-winning Scottish author Mina's (Blood, Salt, Water) stand-alone is a disappointment. Unfortunately, there is no sympathetic main character and little fulfillment at the end. Readers will be left wondering at the stylistic devices and wishing for a better resolution. [See Prepub Alert, 11/21/16.]--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.