Customer Reviews

Resolution: A Novel of Crime

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This novel is far and away the best of the entire trilogy. It is so good that it even rates on my "Top Books of All Time" list. Once you get past all the re-telling of backstory, the events which have occured in previous novels, this is a superb book. Newscomers who start with this one will not find themselves lost, because Mina recaps everything that has gone before quite ably. If you have read the previous two, the retelling could get a bit tedious, i suppose, but you can always just ignore it.

It's an excellent novel, full of wonderful, fully formed and likeable characters who just jump off the pages. Mina's descriptions of Glasgow are absolutely superb, and her way with words and turn of phrase is sometimes stunning. The plot is great, the double plot strand intertwine brilliantly. This is a story about less-than average people trying to get through life relatively unscathed and not always making a good job of it.

As i say, the plot is excellent, and the writing is brilliant and assured. It's an incredibly compelling novel which you cannot put down. I ploughed through this one in a single day, i enjoyed it so much. Maureen O'Donnell's story is finally at an end, and after it all, as with all good books, we still want to know more about what is going to happen to her.

The conclusion is great and there are a couple of really neat twists to lift the plot above the excellent.

If you're a fan of murder/mystery/swearing then don't buy this book, buy the first two in the series and start from the top, and come back later.
Good glad you bought both the first two, now this one, "resolution", simply put it's ******' brilliant. Sheer bloody genius, great story well told, what more can you want from a book. Muareen (the lead) is up to her usual shenanigans, but Denise Mina finds a way to round off the series in a way that leaves doesn't leave you disspointed. The only disspointment is waiting for the next book from this tallented young lady. 5 stars.

This book, the third in Denise Mina's GARNETHILL trilogy, was absolutely superb. Mina tells a gritty story that was as fascinating as it was disturbing.

Mina ties together all of the unresolved items from the previous two books (hence RESOLUTION) very nicely. I was totally satisfied with how things played out.

Mina is the writer that other authors such as Karin Slaughter wish they could be and I would hope in the future that Mina brings Maureen back, perhaps 10 or 15 years older. She is an interesting, intriguing character and it seems there is a lot more to her story that can be explored.

All the demons come home to roost in the third novel of Mina's brilliant trilogy (Garnethill, Exile, Resolution), intrepid protagonist Maureen O'Donnell finally confronted with the resolution of her past sexual abuse and subsequent breakdown, broken relationships, a chronic inability to commit and a pattern of diversion that has taken her to dangerous places to protect the innocent who cannot protect themselves. Finally, Angus Farrell is facing trial for two murders, Maureen's married boyfriend and another man unfortunate enough to have harbored incriminating information against Angus. Although Farrell's more disturbing crimes are his heinous sexual attacks against helpless young women under his care at the mental hospital where Maureen was taken after her breakdown, she is happy to see the monster held accountable, hopefully protecting the only eye witness to the abuse, Siobhan, from having to testify.

Filled with eccentric characters and vivid descriptions of life in Glasgow, this final novel brings Maureen to the end of her journey, increasingly self-destructive behavior no longer tolerable, nor is the crippling fear of her abuser, Maureen's father, Michael. Thanks to the efforts of Marie, Maureen's oldest sibling, Michael has returned to Glasgow, joyfully embraced by Una, the sister who gives birth to a girl, further ratcheting up Maureen's need to deal with Michael for the sake of the new baby. The trial, an abrasive press and the subtle threats sent by Angus to intimidate Maureen are exacerbated by the shadow of her father's presence, Maureen driven to one more detour in favor of the helpless as she prepares to reclaim her future: wee Ella McGee, in the process of taking her son to small claims court, is brutally beaten and hospitalized. Before Maureen can get to the bottom of Ella's attack, Ella is dead, her son by her side at the end.

One of the charms of this trilogy is Mina's ability to draw the reader into Maureen's intimate daily dilemmas, at the same time adding the predicaments that seduce Maureen into rescuing those who have fallen through the cracks in an indifferent society: in Garnethill, it is the mental patients who fall prey to Farrell's abuse and Douglas's murder; in Exile, the disappearance and murder of a woman caught in the nightmare world of the drug trade; and in Resolution, the inexplicable death of a feisty old woman and the fate of innocent females exploited by powerful men. Mina brings immediacy to each of these issues, the sordid details of each situation compelling and deeply relevant; meanwhile, we witness Maureen's helpless descent into alcoholism to cope with her rage and a desperate need to regain control of her life. The characters are oddly familiar, dysfunctional siblings, an alcoholic mother who denies Maureen's abuse, a loyal brother-cum-former-drug-dealer, a best friend through every dangerous escapade and the protagonist's reluctant embrace of a more hopeful future, albeit at a terrible cost.

Mina strikes another blow for the common man, her main characters acting out the small dramas and tragedies of life on the edge: "Labels matter most on the margins". Filled with pithy observations and a real appreciation for the struggles of ordinary people with dreams and aspirations, this is a world filled with desperation, sorrow, hope and forgiveness, human drama writ bold. Luan Gaines/2007.

Denise Mina concludes her extraordinary trilogy with a superb book. Resolution matches Garnethill and brings to full circle the saga of Maureen O'Donnell, the most interesting character, male or female, to emerge in crime fiction in recent years. Resolution stands on its own, although it is best read in sequence.

This third volume featuring Maureen O'Donnell would, in anyone else's hands, have been serious overkill. However, it is a testament to Mina's writing talent that she manages to keep the reader's interest in the self-destructive heroine. In large measure, it's the secondary characters who help to achieve this. Maureen's friends Kilty and Leslie, her brother Liam, and sundry others supply enough contrast to keep one from becoming exhausted by Maureen's drinking, dark thoughts, and generally alcoholic behavior. There are moments of wonderful humor and, as in the two previous books, a fine evocation of Glasgow. That said, much of the action is fairly predictable and there are no great surprises. But the novel has such good momentum that it carries the reader through to a rather tepid conclusion. Definitely worth reading. And it'll be of interest to see what Mina does next.

"Resolution," (2002) is third and last in what has come to be known as "The Garnethill Trilogy," a series of British mysteries by increasingly well-known Scottish-born author Denise Mina, now a leading practitioner, in company with Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, of the Scottish crime writing school that has come to be known as "tartan noir," for its high level of violence, sheer bloody-mindedness, and grisly, witty humor. Mina burst on the scene with her debut novel, Garnethill that won the John Creasey Memorial Award; she was born in the vicinity of Glasgow, where all her novels have so far been set. As a child, her father's work took her all over the world: she has, since her return to that city, worked in the field of health care, studied law at the University of Glasgow, and taught criminal law and criminology.

The book at hand picks up, and resolves, the untidy story of hard-drinking Maureen O'Donnell, who has known some good, and some bad, luck in her time. She is currently finding her life difficult: as a result of a generous gift from her former, murdered, married, therapist boyfriend, Douglas Brady, she owes more money in back taxes than she now makes on her job selling bootleg cigarettes in Paddy's Market. Her abusive father Michael has again shown up in town, destabilizing her hard-won sanity; Angus Farrell the psychologist who brutally murdered Doug - in Maureen's apartment-- is soon to go on trial for that murder, and another, with Maureen as star witness. And she has chosen to get herself involved in the untidy life of another unhappy family, that of Ella McGee, former prostitute, now an elderly stallholder at the same market as Maureen: the older woman has taken her son to small claims court over unpaid wages; she turns up beaten in Albert Hospital.

The tales, grim and dark, somehow resolve themselves happily for Maureen. They present us with exciting courtroom drama; illegally imported Polish sex slaves, yet again; a Scottish wedding in a fancy hotel on Loch Lomond, apparently a body of water not nearly so benign as the famous old song would have us think; and an explicit, vivid incestuous rape scene that may be a bit much for some readers. Fortunately for all concerned, the darkness is plentifully leavened with Mina's exhilarating love for and knowledge of her city, and dry wit. For example, listen to her set her scene: "Usually Glasgow's weather vacillates between freezing rain and not-so-freezing rain but sometimes, on a five-to-ten-year cycle, the weather turns and the city doesn't know itself. This was such a time. Unconditional sunshine had arrived one week ago. Virulent, fecund plant life had sprung up everywhere: trees and bushes were heavy with deep green leaves, growth appeared on buildings, between cracks in the pavement, on bins. The city burst into life and everyone began to farm their skin. Water-white cheeks and necks withered and puckered with relentless exposure. Casualty departments heaved under the strain of sunburn and heat stroke. Everyone in the unaccustomed city was dressing as if they'd woken up naked in a bush and had to borrow clothes to get home: old women wore young women's summer dresses, vest tops were stretched over belly rolls, short sleeves showed off straps from industrial bras. Every night felt like Friday night and parties went on too long. Fantastic blood-alcohol levels were attained by conscientious individuals. Everyone was dangerously out of character." Mind you, this book surely isn't everyone's cup of tea, nor thimbleful of whiskey, for that matter: only you know what you look for in a book.

I friend lent me the first book in this Denise Mina Trilogy, and I approached it as a chore - since she LOVES English/Scottish authors, I was prepared for one of her usual that put me to sleep while waiting for some action ... well ... I was hooked after a few pages. I was not prepared for sucn a touching book, for such a well written novel, a story well-delivered , a story that attacks reality ... when she casually asks if her friend was "Mental" , it could have addressed anyone of us. Not only does the story grips the reader, but we also fall into their lives and recognize those around us. I lent this book to my friend, and part-way through, she called and said the Mother is SIMONE ( fake name ) - she turns all of life back to her ... If you haven't read Mina before, and I had not, statrt with the first book ... get all three, you'll want to have the next one in the wings...

Resolution is the final book in Denise Mina's Garnethill trilogy and, although it makes for a powerful and disturbing standalone novel, it has an even greater impact if the three books are read in the order in which they were released. Sadly, as Resolution opens, not much has changed for Maureen O'Donnell and her friends. Everyday life in Glasgow can be tough enough, but Maureen, still recovering from the murder of Douglas Brady, her former lover, seems to be having way more bad days than good ones.

Never comfortable with the idea that Douglas left her a substantial amount of money when he died, Maureen blew through all of it before she realized that she would be taxed on her windfall. Now she owes more in back taxes than she makes in a year selling bootleg cigarettes in her little stall at Paddy's Market. The trial of her lover's killer is fast approaching, and Maureen feels certain that the man is somehow behind the mysterious packages that have started to appear at her door. And, just when she thinks things cannot possibly get worse, Maureen learns that the man who abused her when she was a child, her own father, is back in Glasgow - living with her sister and newborn niece. Maureen's drinking is worse than ever, so bad that her friends are worrying about her blackouts and the mysterious bruises on her face that come and go (the source of those bruises is finally revealed at the very end of the book).

To say the least, Maureen needs a distraction if she is to save herself. She finds one in the person of an old woman she knows from Paddy's Market. Sensing that the old woman is being physically and mentally abused by her gangster son, Maureen and her two friends decide to help the woman. After the older woman ends up in the hospital with broken bones, the trio of wannabe do-gooders stumble onto a complicated scheme involving forced prostitution and political collusion that they are determined to expose. Maureen, already feeling threatened by the potential release of Douglas's killer, has now doubled the number of men who wish her dead.

Denise Mena's downtown Glasgow is not a pretty place because Mena pulls no punches in portraying life there for those at the bottom of Glasgow's economic and social ladders. It is a bleak setting filled with people the reader would not willingly choose to associate with in the real world. Even Maureen is someone most would avoid if they encountered her on a downtown street. Aggressive, down-and-out alcoholics with chips on their shoulders are simply best avoided. Mina's talent is to make her readers care about people like Maureen, care enough about them to want to understand and accept them for what they are.

Denise Mina is a gem.

This is another excellent book by Denise Mina ... part of a fabulous series.