Paddy Meehan Series by Denise Mina
Paddy Meehan #1
Field of Blood
Denise Mina
Paddy Meehan is dreading them finding out. Her family assume that her dogsbody job at the Scottish Daily News is a stop gap between leaving school and her big Catholic wedding to Sean Ogivly, but Paddy lies in bed at night, tracing the patterns in the artexed ceiling and dreams of being a journalist, wearing smart suits and carving a place for herself among the boozy, broken-hearted idealists she fetches and carries for.Brian Wilcox's story is consuming the city. The toddler is missing, snatched from the front garden on a busy street when his mother nipped inside to answer the phone. Glasgow braces itself for the revelation of a lone sexual predator but the police are lead to a far darker conclusion as two young boys are implicated in the crime. Everyone at the Daily News is content to believe that the boys acted alone. Only Paddy feels certain that there was an adult hand in the murder and her thirst to find it deepens when she discovers that one of the boys is a distant relation.Unsure whether she is motivated by personal ambition or social concern, Paddy tries to uncover the truth. She realises, too late, that her actions have invited a savage havoc into her own life and could lead to a catastrophic injustice as well as professional suicide.Set in Glasgow in 1981, a time shaped by betrayal and conflict, when hunger strikes, riots and unemployment decimated the old industrial heartlands, The Field of Blood is the first in a new crime series tracing the life and career of Paddy Meehan, through the momentous events of the nineteen eighties, nineties and beyond. Infused with Minais unique blend of dark humour, personal insights, true crime, and the social injustices that pervade our society, this is a novel that will grip and challenging our perceptions of childhood innocence, crime and punishment, right and wrong.
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Paddy Meehan #2
The Dead Hour
Denise Mina
Paddy Meehan returns in Denise Mina's most powerful mystery yet, nominated for a 2007 Edgar AwardWhen journalist Paddy Meehan investigates a domestic dispute, the well-dressed man who answers the door assures her the blonde in the shadows behind him is fine, and slips her money before he closes the door. In fact, the woman was tortured and left to die later that night, and Paddy has only days to uncover the truth before the newspaper learns of her bribe and the police close the case for reasons of their own. Only Paddy cares enough to pursue a dark and brutal story that could make her career-or kill her, in a novel that proves why Denise Mina is "some kind of magnificent" (Wall Street Journal)."Brutally funny." -People "Mina again demonstrates why she is one of the best mystery writers on either side of the Atlantic." -Miami Herald"In all her insecurity, Paddy is achingly real . . . and Mina's note-perfect writing captures Paddy's voice dead-on." -Boston Globe"A gloriously visceral style. . . . Mina excels at narrative and social commentary." -NewsdayFrom Publishers WeeklySet in Glasgow in 1984, Mina's riveting second thriller to feature Patricia "Paddy" Meehan (after 2005's A Field of Blood) opens with the 21-year-old crime reporter for the Scottish Daily News following up a late-night disturbance complaint at a Victorian villa in the posh suburb of Bearsden. The tall, attractive man at the door assures Paddy, as he had the police, that the incident won't happen again. Behind him is a blond woman with a bloody face"Vhari Burnett, a well-respected political activist and lawyer. The man bribes Paddy, as he had the police, to keep quiet. The next day the news of Vhari's murder dismays the normally scrupulous Paddy. When a suicide is fished out of the river, Paddy begins to connect the two deaths. Meanwhile, Vhari's cokehead sister, Kate, is on the run from Vhari's killer, and Mina skillfully alternates Kate's desperate point-of-view with that of Paddy, who's determined to do the right thing and bag the story. Hopefully, this won't be the last breathless adventure for one of the most entertaining reporter sleuths in recent crime fiction. 6-city author tour. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks MagazineCritics agree that Paddy Meehan may just be one of the most fascinating investigators in recent crime fiction—and that The Dead Hour is a gripping sequel to The Field of Blood. Purportedly about spousal abuse, the novel also features a secondary story about a woman on the run, ruminations on human nature and experience, and depictions of class and religious tensions during the Thatcher era. Paddy has evolved since the last novel; reviewers identified with her moral uncertainty and praised her hard-won confidence. The other Glasgow characters are equally lively, though their regional dialect confused some American critics. The novel's cliffhanger will make readers anxious for the third installment's arrival.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
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Paddy Meehan #3
Slip of the Knife
Denise Mina
Paddy Meehan is home alone when there's a knock at the door. It's the police and they have bad news. Former boyfriend Terry Patterson's naked body has been found in a ditch. He's been tortured, hooded, then shot through the head: all hallmarks of an IRA assassination.Paddy is devastated: Terry was her first lover; the sort of journalist she's always aspired to be. But why have the police come to her? Although she and Terry have had an on/off affair since they first worked together, she hasn't seen him for over a year.She is therefore horrified to find that not only has Terry named her next of kin, but he has left her a huge Georgian house in Ayrshire and several suitcases full of notes.What was Terry trying to tell her? As Paddy begins her investigation into his death, she realizes that if the secret he was about to expose was worth killing for, she is next in line.
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