Glasgow, 1957. It is a December night and William Watt is desperate. His family has been murdered and he needs to find out who killed them.
He arrives at a bar to meet Peter Manuel, who claims he can get hold of the gun that was used. But Watt soon realises that this infamous criminal will not give up information easily.
Inspired by true events, The Long Drop follows Watt and Manuel along back streets and into smoky pubs, and on to the courtroom where the murder trial takes place. Can Manuel really be trusted to tell the truth? And how far will Watt go to get what he wants?
The Long Drop by Denise Mina is published in paperback by Vintage on 22 February 2018. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.
Peter Manuel was the last man to hang in Scotland. True fact. That's no spoiler, the Manuel case is notorious, he's a well-known character. This case is hugely important.
Denise Mina takes the facts and weaves them into a dark, sinister and quite spine chilling story that absolutely jumps from the pages. From the very first page, I really felt as though I were there; in the Glasgow backstreets, the Gorbals. Sitting in a smoky pub, with sticky floors and the eyes of the the locals fixed upon me.
The reader is introduced to the main players; William Watt, Peter Manuel and Lawrence Dowdall as they meet in a pub. Dowdall is an acclaimed lawyer; called upon by the most notorious of criminals and he's enabled a meeting between Watt and Manuel. Watt is determined to get as much information from Manuel about the murders of his wife, daughter and sister-in-law.
What follows is a vividly written account of a pubs and drunkenness, leading up to what has been called the 'trial of the century'. Mina really excels at portraying these characters for what they really were; hardened, tough, unforgiving, just like the area that they come from.
Bleak, with touches of humour and characters who will make your skin crawl. This is dark, crime fiction at its very best.
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The Long Drop
After a peripatetic childhood in Glasgow, Paris, London, Invergordon, Bergen and Perth, Denise Mina left school early. Working in a number of dead end jobs, all of them badly, before studying at night school to get into Glasgow University Law School.
Denise went on to study for a PhD at Strathclyde, misusing her student grant to write her first novel. This was Garnethill, published in 1998, which won the Crime Writers Association John Creasy Dagger for Best First Crime Novel.
She has now published 12 novels and also writes short stories, plays and graphic novels.
In 2014 she was inducted into the Crime Writers’ Association Hall of Fame.
Denise presents TV and radio programmes as well as regularly appearing in the media, and has made a film about her own family.
She regularly appears at literary festivals in the UK and abroad, leads masterclasses on writing and was a judge for the Bailey’s Prize for Women’s Fiction 2014.
Find out more at www.denisemina.com
Follow her on Twitter @DameDeniseMina
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