A review by emckeon1002
The Dead Hour by Denise Mina

4.0

Leave it to me to begin in the middle. I somehow picked up book two of a series (though completely able to be read as a standalone), after reading some words of praise for Mina's writing. Those words were well-deserved. Mina is an accomplished writer. She brings the dark, dour, bleak streets of Glasgow to life with her artfully descriptive prose, and her characters roam the pages like flesh and blood. Paddy Meehan had a life before this book (and I guess I'll go backward and read book one before I skip forward to book 3), but she's a strong, compelling protagonist plagued with the kind of self-doubts we all can appreciate. While the complex story pulls the reader with steadfast intrigue, this is not your typical action detective novel. Mina draws a time and place in history, and places us there to "appreciate" it. Highly recommended but begin your companionship with Paddy Meehan in the Field of Blood.