The Red Road by Denise Mina

The Red Road by Denise Mina
Buy The Red Road by Denise Mina at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A complex police procedural which amply repays the concentration you need to give it. It's a book you'll read more than once. Recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 288	Date: July 2013
Publisher: Orion
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1409140719
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Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Princess Diana was dead, right? On that August night fourteen-year-old (but she looks sixteen, as she would tell you herself) Rose Wilson snapped. She'd been pimped out by her boyfriend and let down by everyone - but that night she committed two dreadful crimes and it seemed that her life was over. Then a defence lawyer took pity on her and set out to save her from the worst consequences. Well over a decade later DI Alex Morrow is a witness in the case of Michael Brown. Brown is vicious and brutal, damaged beyond hope of salvation but Morrow knows that something is wrong when fingerprint evidence places him at the site of a murder committed the week before - when he was safely in prison.

Look - you're going to need to pay attention with this one. Denise Mina's trademark is the complex plot with many strands which sometimes seem in danger of choking each other and which you really can't believe are going to resolve themselves. You'll probably get to the end and it will be a day or so later that you'll suddenly realise why something worked out the way that it did. I've had a couple of those moments - the plot stays in your mind, you see. Her books are ones which you buy because you'll read them - and then read them again to see how it was all done.

As usual there are some serious issues in the plot - child abuse, corruption, money laundering - and people you can feel for. Rose Wilson is a brilliant creation - superficially very together, grateful for each day which passes without her being touched by a man and looking, frankly, rather classy. Inside she's the abused child with loyalty to very few people. D I Morrow might be the investigator (and one with a very unusual family relationship - her brother's a crime boss) but she doesn't dominate the pages, which is refreshing. Women are perhaps stronger than men but it's marginal and a very minor quibble.

The books in the series all read well as stand alone novels but if you want to start at the beginning then it all starts with Still Midnight - but I'd definitely like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of The Red Road to the Bookbag.

If this book appeals then we think that you might also enjoy Never Forget by Lisa Cutts.

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