Exile - Denise Mina

From the two-time winner of the THEAKSTONS OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD - a Scottish crime novel with a difference.

The last time Maureen O'Donnell saw Ann Harris, she was in the Glasgow Women's Shelter smelling of a long binge on cheap drink.

A month later Ann's mutilated body, stitched into a mattress, is washed up on the banks of the Thames.

No-one seems to care what happened to her, and Maureen is the only person who thinks Ann's husband is innocent. But solving Ann's murder comes as light relief. Maureen's father is back in Glasgow, her best friend is sloping about like a nervous spy, and then there's Angus, Maureen's old therapist, who's twice as bright as she is and making her play a dangerous game with the police.

In the long tradition of Scots in trouble, Maureen runs away to London where she becomes embroiled in a seedy world of deceit and violence. Alone in a strange city, Maureen starts to piece together Ann's final days. But time is not on her side, and Maureen needs just 12 hours, just 12, to put things right, and she doesn't care what it costs...

Denise Mina is a critically acclaimed Glaswegian crime writer. Her novels includeThe End of the Wasp Season and Gods and Beasts, both of which won the prestigious Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award in consecutive years. Denise also writes short stories and in 2006 wrote her first play. She is a regular contributor to TV and radio.

Find out more at www.denisemina.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @DameDeniseMina

Head and shoulders above the superficial gangster glamour of much contemporary British crime fiction
Val McDermid

Confirms Mina's place in the premier division... atmospheric, intense and full of the disturbing flavour of inner-city lowlife
GUARDIAN

Mina, a feisty new crime-writing voice, carves a taut, humane whodunit into Glasgow's impassive face
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