Still Midnight (Alex Morrow, Book 1) (Alex Morrow, 1)

Two young men ineptly break into a quiet Glasgow home, demanding someone named "Bob" and leave, after accidentally shooting one of the residents, with the family patriarch. Thus begins a fast-paced and very well written police procedural with interesting characters and an awful lot of local color. The story does not follow trite story lines. The characters have many layers and the plot has plenty of twists and turns. I particularly liked the ending, which surprised me and also was written in a somewhat unusual way. This was the first book I read by this author. After reading the first chapter I looked to see what other books she had written. By the end of the book I had ordered several of them. If you like British police procedurals like P.D. James or Elizabeth George, I highly recommend this author.

I "discovered" Denis Mina with her Garnethill series which features a really unusual protagonist, and I have steadily read each of her novels since then because I relish a quirky, damaged protagonist with lots of weird character traits and a few glaring faults. Her latest novel, "Still Midnight" continues in that tradition with Glasgow police officer, Alex Morrow. Murrow is a brusque, unpopular, brittle and largely friendless officer with a partner, Grant Bannerman, who gets on her last nerve. The two of them are called to a home invasion turned kidnapping but because the victims are Muslim Asians, Murrow is told to step aside and let Bannerman (the male) take the lead; of course this just adds to the stress. (I won't summarize the plot here, as others will no doubt already have done so.) What I love about Mina's writing style is that she jumps right into the action and lets the background stories unfold gradually. She never "writes down" to the reader, this style assumes an intelligent and patient reader who doesn't need every little detail spoon-fed them up front...we can wait and wonder and become part of the unfolding stories of the villains, the victims and the cops. Clearly Alex Murrow has a shadow past that she'd like to keep in the shadows. And it's possible that some of the "victims" aren't as innocent as they want to appear. Denis Mina is the antitheses of Alexander McCall Smith. They both write of contemporary Scotland, but their canvases couldn't be more different. Where Mina's characters and settings are dark and criminal, Smith's Scotland contains sunny tree-lined streets with lovable characters walking introspective dogs. And I love them both.

The emphasis in this engrossing crime novel is on conflicted but likeable characters involved in a kidnapping that didn't exactly go right. Like the wrong person's kidnapped, for one thing.The suspense is here, largely because of the likeability of the main characters. I especially applaud the author for her handling of an extremely unlikely romantic subplot which is made acceptably believable and definitely a point of interest in the novel.Highly recommended for those who can appreciate a rather gentle and subtle crime novel.

Mina delivers yet another fast-paced, morally-nuanced thriller, her protagonist a driven, complicated Glasgow detective, Alex Morrow, of the Strathclyde CID. For fan's of Mina's Garnethill trilogy, the author has set a standard that is hard to beat, but this thriller and this character come as close as any to the over-the-top personality and dramatic style of her first novels. Morrow stakes her claim with authority, a conflicted, instinctive detective with a feel for the city, its inhabitants and the crimes that assail it. There is poverty, drug abuse, racial animosity and an entrenched criminality that is pervasive in certain neighborhoods, not to mention police bureaucracy and particularly irritating partner, Grant Bannerman, who pushes Morrow into the background and claims the glory for himself. It all begins with a home invasion, when two hooded intruders burst into a tidy bungalow owned by a Pakistani family, demanding "Bob" and an exorbitant amount of money. Chaos ensues with a gunshot and a teenaged girl is left screaming at what is left of her hand. Then a helpless old man, Aamir Anwar, is snatched as the intruders leave in a panic of threats and demands. Avoiding home and a marriage in trouble, Morrow keeps her private life exactly that, applying herself to a case that makes no sense, an immigrant family with no resources but a shabby corner shop; an old man dragged from one terrifying hiding place to another, comforted only by memories of his mother's sacrifice years earlier; Omar Anwar, who gives chase to the intruders only to face the racial animus of the cops; an older son, Billal, with a frightened wife and new-born baby; and a police detective with her own secret past and a partner determined to sabotage her every move. Drugs, robbery, financial scams, religious bigotry, industrious neighborhood criminal enterprise and the politics of the police department collide in an edgy thriller that is relentlessly engaging, each new complication revealing the inconsistencies of human nature, the volatile mix of greed and fear and the natural instincts of a crack detective who hones in on the truth in spite of her personal demons. Mina scores a direct hit with Alex Morrow, her fresh style and appreciation of nuances a promise of more to come. Luan Gaines/2010.