Review of 'Garnethill' [22]

Garnethill: A Novel of Crime by Denise Mina 
Back Bay Books, ISBN 978-0316016780
September 30, 2007, 432 pages

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Maureen O'Donnell is from a family that put the dysfunction in the word dysfunctional. Her brother is a drug dealer, both her sisters with their own issues, and she has an alcoholic mother and a father who took off years ago when it seems that Maureen was going to accuse him of sexual abuse.
Or so Maureen claims...the rest of her family, with the exception of her brother claim to believe that she is just very troubled, mentally unbalanced and imagining the whole event.

So when Maureen, just a short time out of mental hospital after a breakdown, awakes in her apartment after a drunken night to finds her therapist boyfriend Douglas murdered in the middle of her living room with a few bits and pieces cut off, things do not look good for her. With more than a few clues pointing her way, it is not a huge jump for police to see Maureen as the number one suspect. But for all her problems, Maureen is not one to take things sitting down and sets out to prove her innocence. By finding the true murderer.

It soon become apparent that the victim had a number of secrets and it is not long before Maureen uncovers a series of crimes that someone is willing to kill to keep secret.
Maureen may be one of the most unlikely heroes you will find, but make no mistake, she is no ones fool. The only question is whether she will catch the murderer before he or she catches her.

I have read a number of Mina's other books but not this one, Mina's first book and the first in a series.
Oh now, don't get upset with me for suggesting yet another series..
It is only a nice little three book series so you are not taking on a big commitment here. And I will tell you, it is a good one.

It takes place in a rather bleak and dreary Glasgow, Scotland...Garnethill is the name of a Glasgow suburb...but don't worry, Maureen and her friends and family are colorful enough to make for an excellent story. Maureen is on the one hand very troubled, very damaged, yet on the other, smart and very funny and surprisingly resilient. And while underlying the story is the heartbreaking world of the sexually abused, it is far from a hopeless book. Maureen sees to that is her own imperfect way.

Yes, the second book "Exile" is one the way and shortly after that I will be reading the third and last in the series, "Resolution". I can't wait to see what trouble the very interesting and very likable Maureen gets up to.

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