The dead hour - Denise Mina

When Paddy Meehan, Glasgow's youngest aspiring journalist, is called to a domestic dispute at a house in a wealthy suburb in the north of the city, it seems like just another police call. The blonde bleeding from a head injury in the shadows doesn't want any help; and the well dressed man at the front door assures Paddy that everything's fine, and that she can leave.

And then he slips her a crisp 50 note to keep the story out of the paper.

By the next morning the woman's dead. Paddy may have found the story she's dreamed about, but she'll lose all credibility if the word gets out about her bribe. The police who attended the call are twisting the evidence for reasons of their own.

Only Paddy cares enough to pursue a dark and brutal truth that could make her career - or kill her.