Media Reviews
One of Denise Mina's many attractions is her willingness to take risks with her characters. She delves deeper than most into emotions, whether of the police, victims or perpetrators; she eschews the usual formula of crime fiction...The financial and moral disintregration of families, the iniquities of the class system and prostitution all play a role. Mina's best -- Marcel Berlins THE TIMES A literary West Lothian question: why do Scottish writers dominate British crime fiction? With Denise Mina at least, the answer is pure class -- Jake Kerridge DAILY TELEGRAPH Perceptive and insightful at both ends of the social scale, Mina eschews cliffhangers and plot twists - here, pathos provides the fuel for real suspense. Marvellous -- Laura Wilson THE GUARDIAN ...Thoughful attention to detail take the novel to another level...Scotland has produced some seriously good crime writers; The End of the Wasp Season places Denise Mina alongside Ian Rankin and Val McDermid -- Christopher Fowler FINANCIAL TIMES This wonderfully plotted combination of police procedural, psychological thriller and social comment leap-frogs Denise Mina to the top rank of Scotland's crime-writing scene -- Myles McWeeney IRISH INDEPENDENT She has immeasurably widened the scope of Scottish crime fiction, dragging its cliches out of the dark alleys and beating them to death in broad daylight -- David Robinson THE SCOTSMAN Miss your bus stop...reading The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina, a gripping tale tracing the links between an elite private school, the suicide of a millionaire banker and the shocking murder of a wealthy young woman GRAZIA A wealthy single woman wakes up in her mother's house to the sound of intruders creeping up the stairs. From this gripping start, Mina seizes our attention, and holds it until the final shocking twist in the tale PSYCHOLOGIES both a police procedural and a psychological thriller. Deftly plotted and, as with Mina's other work, always anchored by a strong seam of compassion for those characters at the sharp end of the class divide; who in this novel have the extra burdens of recession and cuts to social services to bear...A rewarding read which explores the significance of love in childhood and the dreadful damage wrought by its absence -- Cath Staincliffe TANGLED WEB It dispels with the whodunnit format, instead revealing everything at the start, and brilliantly spends the novel delving into the motivations and problems of a wide range of diverse characters -- Doug Johnstone THE BIG ISSUE A glamorous young woman is brutally murdered in her home while a disgraced banker hangs himself in his garden. The heavily pregnant Morrow chases the case methodically, and we are also given narratives by Kay, a single mum down on her luck, and Thomas, the dead financier's spoilt teenage son. Mina's great skill is in keeping the reader hooked despite the lack of cliffhangers and twists, something she achieves through perceptive social insight and a refreshing eye for odd detail -- Doug Johnstone THE LIST 'Truly intriguing' **** STAR MAGAZINE Denise Mina is one of Scotland's most impressive crime writers. This dark, angry novel doesn't offer easy thrills or the intellectual diversion of a whodunnit. Instead it focusses on its deeply flawed characters, their motivations and the world they live in; in a way, the plot is of secondary importance. The result is bleak and perhaps a little misandrous, but it's undeniably powerful -- Andrew Taylor THE SPECTATOR Denise Mina rarely relies on the usual formulae of lesser crime writers. Her Glasgow-set novels do not depend on serpentine plot twists and precision-tooled narrative, preferring instead to concentrate on developed characters and sharp social insight -- Paul Connolly METRO - 4 stars Mina is an edgy, very Scottish crime writer whose stories are often pretty raw and do not flinch from making political and moral judgements -- Carla McKay DAILY MAIL the incisive Mina presents a helix-with-a-twist: there are above-board crimes, like murder, and then there's another kind, inflicted by parents on vulnerable children. There's no let-up in this fast-paced thriller, as connections are relentlessly tugged on until they turn up deception on several levels -- Daneet Steffens TIME OUT ' A pregnant detective, a slaughtered Glasgow socialite, the Kentish suicide of a detested banker: worlds converge for Mina's DS Alex Morrow. Behind the mystery, it sheds a fierce light on damaged childhoods i (Independent) newspaper Denise Mina takes the grimmest material and makes it bearable with the warmth of her voice and the compassion with which she reveals her characters in all their inadequacy, cruelty or distress -- Natasha Cooper TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT Mina has the gentle sinister brio of one who has gained mastery of the form and is lightly tap-dancing over her great puddle of blood. There is such an undertone of unremitting horror in this examination of how the upper class and the underclass, and possibly everyone in between, mess up their children, that it does sometimes seem as if we are watching wasps die GLASGOW SUNDAY HERALD What she is really writing about, it seems to me, is the moral and practical resilience of the much-despised ordinary people . -- Mat Coward MORNING STAR Mina's skill in blending the darkest storylines with the humanity of relatable characters reminds us why she is one of the stars of the Scottish thrillerati -- Shari Low DAILY RECORD This is one of those rare books where sleep, however much needed, can't tear you away WOMAN'S WAY (Ireland) A vibrant, thought-provoking read and one that is an excellent addition to this talented author's oeuvre CRIME SQUAD Highly recommended -- Gloria Feit CRIME SPREE A new Mina is not something you would want to miss REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE.COM Philosophical, social and financial issues raised include the class system, the disintegration of families, the moral status of sex workers and the treatment of troubled juveniles. And it's all totally entertaining and not a bit too heavy -- Marcel Berlins THE TIMES 20111126 DS Alex Morrow investigates a murder in a posh Glasgow suburb, discovering a link with a dead millionaire banker - and all while she's pregnant with twins. Superb -- Kate Saunders SAGA 20111201 The terse prose is ostensibly functional, but Mina's sleight of hand is such that she has the capacity to turn the entire tale on its head with a single, telling phrase, as she does on a number of occasions in a hugely satisfying read -- Declan Burke IRISH TIMES 20111112 Mina's new novel addresses the financial crisis, mega-rich bonuses and the toxic nature of inequality face-on, and also tackles suicide in a frank and shocking manner. -- Stuart Kelly THE SCOTSMAN 20111210
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