Paddy Meehan Series

Book 1

Set in Glasgow in 1981, a time of hunger strikes, riots and unemployment that decimated the old industrial heartlands, The Field of Blood is the first in the tense Paddy Meehan series from Scotland's princess of crime, Denise Mina.

The vicious murder of a young child provides rookie journalist Paddy Meehan with her first big break when the suspect turns out to be her fiance's 11-year old cousin. Launching her own investigation into the horrific crime, Paddy uncovers lines of deception deep in Glasgow's past, with more horrific crimes in the future if she fails to solve the mystery.

Infused with Mina's unique blend of dark humor, personal insights and social injustice, the story grips the reader while challenging our perceptions of childhood innocence, crime and punishment, and right or wrong.

The Dead Hour

by Denise Mina

Published 26 June 2006

The domestic dispute in a wealthy suburb seems like nothing unusual. The elegant blonde bleeding in the shadows doesn't want help; and the well-dressed, ingratiating man at the front door tells investigative journalist Paddy Meehan everything's fine. Then he asks her to make sure nothing appears in the paper, slipping cash into her hand. The next morning Paddy sees on TV: the blond woman had been tortured, beaten, and left to die. The untraceable man was neither her boyfriend nor her husband. Soon Paddy begins to make connections, and after a suicide is pulled from the river, she finds links between the two deaths. It's the story she's dreamed of, but she'll lose all credibility if word gets out about the bribe, and her boss at the newspaper is impatient with her hunches. Only Paddy cares enough to pursue a brutal truth that could make her career--or kill her.--From publisher description.

The Last Breath

by Denise Mina

Published 1 May 2008

Glasgow, 1990. Paddy Meehan is home alone when there's a knock at the door. It's the police and they have bad news. Former boyfriend Terry Patterson's naked body has been found in a ditch. He's been tortured, hooded, then shot through the head: all hallmarks of an IRA assassination. Paddy is devastated: Terry was her first lover; the sort of journalist she's always aspired to be. But why have the police come to her? Although she and Terry have had an on/off affair since they first worked together in the 1980s, she hasn't seen him for over a year. She is therefore horrified to find that not only has Terry named her next of kin, but he has left her a huge Georgian house in Ayrshire and several suitcases full of notes. What was Terry trying to tell her? As Paddy begins her investigation into his death, she realises that if the secret he was about to expose was worth killing for, she is next in line...