Garnethill

Categories: Award Winners , Mystery & Suspense , Rediscoveries , Staff Picks , Fiction

How about a little suspense?

I’m looking back at a whole stash of good, nailbiting suspense novels and nice, twisty mysteries that I’ve read in the past few years, and I think my next several posts are going to be about those genres. 

Maybe it’s the hot sunshine we’ve been having lately that has put me in a noir mood—I once read a definition that said a true noir movie had to have a shot somewhere in it of broken light slanting in through venetian blinds. 

I don’t think my first title quite fits that definition, since it takes place in Glasgow.  But it sure fills the bill for gripping suspense.

It’s Denise Mina’s award-winning 1999 debut, Garnethill.

When Maureen O’Donnell gets up after a drunken night out, she stumbles to her front room to find the murdered body of her boyfriend tied to a chair.  His throat has been slit. 

The police naturally consider Maureen their major suspect, and most of her family seem to think she’s guilty, too. 

Why?  Because Maureen is not long out of a psychiatric hospital after a breakdown caused by returning memories of childhood sexual abuse.  (Her family doesn’t believe her about that, either.) 

While the police press her none too subtly to explain her movements, Maureen works furiously to find out the truth—it’s either that or doubt her own sanity after all.  And there’s no way Maureen is going to do that without a fight.

This is terrific from page one.  Maureen’s raw and angry emotion as an incest survivor and her embattled relationships with the police and her family give the novel a real edge.  Her quest for the truth is genuinely exciting. And with or without the blinds, the Glasgow setting is wonderfully noir. 

Go find a fan, a dripping cold drink, and a half-darkened room, and read this one in one sitting.