Customer Reviews

Slip of the Knife: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have only one complaint about Scottish author Mina's terrific Paddy Meehan series - her heroine is getting older way too fast.

In her first appearance, "Field of Blood," set in 1981, Paddy is an ambitious, working class, insecure teenage copy-boy at the "Daily News;" in "The Dead Hour, three years later, she's a 21-year-old rookie reporter.

Now, in her third appearance, it's 1990, she's a successful and controversial columnist and the single mother of a five year old boy, Pete. She's still independent, prickly and self-conscious about her weight, but now she's the one pushing aside the rookies.

Mina sets her stories in the ugly thicket of sectarian conflict between Catholic (Irish) and protestant, which is nearly as volatile in Glasgow as in Northern Ireland. Though Paddy's background is as Irish and Catholic as they come, she has never been a believer and aligns herself strictly on the side of justice.

The story opens with the murder of an old boyfriend - and former mentor and colleague - Terry Hewitt. Terry, middle class, educated, and coolly confident, had left the paper to become a hotshot foreign correspondent. Now, found naked in a ditch, shot through the head, Terry's murder has the hallmarks of an IRA hit.

Though things ended rather badly with Terry, he has named her as his executor and left her a crumbling house in a smart area. As the story proceeds and Paddy delves into his life and work, she begins to understand Terry's defensive personality in a way that was beyond her as a young girl. As her sympathy grows, so do her suspicions.

As the number of deaths mount and Paddy's son is threatened, her determination grows in proportion with her fear. As always Mina is subtle, developing the grit and politics of the city and her characters along with the mystery. She perfectly captures the thrill and desperation of a mother's love, Paddy's growing comfort with herself, the anguish and joy of her family ties, and the roil and backbiting of her professional life.

Though it's not necessary to read the Paddy Meehan novels in order, Mina's character development is so nuanced and thoughtful that it enhances the enjoyment to start at the beginning.

I've read all of Denise Mina's books and believe she's one of the best mystery writers out there. She's the kind of writer Karin Slaughter wishes she could be. But, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed in SLIP OF THE KNIFE.

I think one of the problems with this book is that too much time has passed in between the last book in the series and this one. At the end of THE DEAD HOUR we find out that Paddy is pregnant. As SOTK begins, we find that her son Pete is approaching six years old. In TDH, Paddy still has a supreme lack of confidence. Here, she's a tough as nails, respected journalist that already has one book to her credit. The gap of time between the two books left me feeling somewhat lacking.

Also, I admit I had a difficult time following the story. I was two-thirds of the way through the book when it finally occurred to me what was going on. Although I never felt like giving up, it made for a slow read. The amount of Scottish dialect in the book didn't help matters, but I recognize that was my own difficulty and should not be interpreted as a complaint against the author.

Still, a sub-par Denise Mina book is better than most. A reluctant 3-star review for this one.

Denise Mina's newest book opens with the shocking murder of Terry Hewitt, former boyfriend of her protagonist, Paddy Meehan. They had known each other since they were both in their teens, eleven years ago, but it had been six months since they had seen each other. Paddy is now 27, and has graduated from her lowly position at the Daily News to her present celebrity status with a regular column of her own, in addition to being a published author. Terry, in turn, had just signed a book deal of his own, and Paddy is told by the police that his killing "had all the hallmarks of an IRA hit...his body found stripped naked in a ditch, single shot to the head." He had been a journalist as well, later "went to war zones, conflict zones, did hard reporting on a world stage...the last of a dying breed...had witnessed corruption and brutality, women raped and murdered, children mutilated, whole villages put to the torch...a fifteen-year-old Angolan boy, shot between the eyes right in front of him." But in the moments before he is killed, after thinking that he "had been arrested in Chile, seen a woman necklaced in Soweto, stood on the edge of a riot in Port-au-Prince," he has no idea why he is about to be murdered on a road on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland.

In many respects Paddy has changed little over the years since she first appeared in Ms. Mina's books, of which this is the third: She still hates her appearance, believing she is too fat; still feels she has to prove herself to the misogynistic men around her; though she attends Mass, she still rebels against her family's Catholicism--her sister is a nun, "wasn't even prepared to take communion and had had a child out of wedlock," a son, Pete, now nearly six years old, who she adores. When she is told by the police that Terry had listed her as his next of kin, with her new address that she didn't even realize he had known, she has no choice. When the effects of that investigation threaten not only Paddy but her son as well, the stakes are raised all the way around.

A parallel story line deals with the release after nine years in prison of young Callum Ogilvy, who with another boy had been found guilty of the brutal murder of a toddler, following Paddy's investigation - she had been engaged to Callum's cousin, Sean - described in an earlier book.

Ms. Mina's descriptions conjure up her characters precisely, e.g., someone's wife is "blond, tall, and so thin she could have opened letters with her chin;" in a photo she sees "a woman of eighty, arms crossed, grinning, the folds in her skin deep enough to lose change in;" and, of her editor: "Nature, time and his temperament had conspired to perfect McVie's glower. His face and posture fitted around misery as neatly as cellophane over a cup." The author maintains an undercurrent of menace. Paddy is a gutsy, slightly vulgar and very human protagonist, the characters and the setting very well drawn, the writing and the story taut with a hold-your-breath quality. Highly recommended.

A successful Glasgow journalist for the Daily News, Paddy Meehan is the unmarried mother of a son, Pete, daughter of a strict Catholic family and overweight, pleased with the direction her life has taken of late. Paddy has few regrets, save the loss of a long relationship with fellow journalist Terry Hewitt; but when Terry's nude body is found in Glasgow, a bullet in his head, execution style, Paddy is shocked, dismayed to find herself the recipient of all of Terry's worldly goods. Recently traveling the world as a correspondent, Terry has been to the dark side, but why he should be murdered is a mystery, despite the suggestion that it is an IRA hit. Approached by a cold-eyed man who reeks of threat, Paddy's first instinct is to protect herself and her son, her second to learn the identity of the stranger and the part he plays in this eerie drama.

Clearly, Paddy Meehan has grown into a larger-than-life personality, her quirky predilections as charming and unpretentious as ever. But in her latest incarnation, Paddy's plate is full: the responsibility and blind love of motherhood; the release of baby killer Callum Ogilvy, himself only a child when imprisoned; Paddy's sister, Mary Ann's moment of reckoning with her vocation; the unfinished business of the original Paddy Meehan, who spent years paying for a crime from which he was later exonerated; a new love interest, flat-mate Dub; and the shocking murders of Terry Hewitt and his photographer friend, Kevin Hatcher.

It is the menace behind the killings that overshadows everything else, delivering violence to Paddy's doorstep, threatening the safety of her child. Wild to protect five-year-old Pete, Paddy is driven to extremes, willing to do anything to stand between her son and harm. And with her usual deftness, Mina manipulates all of the issues confronting her spunky protagonist, weaving disparate threads into a complicated web that brings Paddy closer to the edge of the acceptable than ever before. Motherhood has changed this ambitious young journalist, eliciting a vulnerability that is both unnerving and affecting. Walking straight into the lion's den, Paddy invades the male-only drinking spot of old guard IRA members, their natural hostility untempered by age.

While the police and a competing reporter look elsewhere, Paddy follows her gut instinct in search of Terry's killer, the man's cold eyes burned into her consciousness. In a surprising twist, Paddy is challenged by the past in the form of Callum Ogilvy, the press snapping at his heels. It is Callum's dilemma, in a changed environment, that brings Paddy to the precipice, weighing the future safety of her son against an assassin's determination. A fateful and shocking denouement delivers Paddy into another dimension, as irrevocable as Terry's death. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

This is the third book in a series, and the first two (FIELD OF BLOOD and THE DEAD HOUR) really need to be read to get the full flavor of Paddy Meehan's story. Her situation has changed since her last appearance. She is better off financially, and now has a 5-year old son, and that fact fuels everything for her. The earlier Thatcher-era setting was more definitively used in the earlier books. But motherhood has intervened, and all bets are off. Mina crafts a fine mystery and adds nuanced psychological under- and over-tones with both parts of this well written novel. Her former protagonist in the Garnet Hill Trilogy only had three books to examine her life. Let's hope that Mina doesn't limit Paddy Meehan to a trilogy, but continues -- her character is too fascinating not to followup on.

I started reading Denise Mina's crime novels because they are recommended by her fellow Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin. (At his peak, which I judge to be Dead Souls, I think Rankin is unsurpassed.) I have not been disappointed with his recommendation, to say the least. Mina's are not only suspenseful mysteries; they are full-fledged novels, describing in almost painful detail the lower strata of Glasgow society, which is even better. Slip of the Knife (titled The Last Breath in the U.K.) is so well written that I had to read parts of it out loud to my husband. In that respect Mina is almost as good as Ruth Rendell. It's rare to find a mystery with good plot, good characterization, realism, and excellent, witty writing. (About the realism: Another reviewer said Mina is the writer Karin Slaughter would like to be. Much as I enjoy Slaughter, I agree with that comparison. Slaughter's chief---perhaps only---weakness is the sensationalism that weakens realism and strains belief.)

I do not understand reviewers who found the plot or dialect difficult, though I think a new reader should begin with the first Paddy Meehan novel, Field of Blood, and progress from there to number two, The Dead Hour, before opening Slip of the Knife. The development of the very sympathetic character Paddy from book to book is an important part of the appeal of this series, which I hope Mina will continue.

I found this book to be an absolute delight to read. The primary characters are three-dimensional, fallible yet honorable. The dialogue is often hysterical and the main character's thoughts and conversations sparkle with wit, sarcasm, charm and well-chosen Scottish profanity. As a reader, you'd love to spend some time with these people. The setting, Port Glasgow, Scotland, is another place I would love to visit after reading this book, just to sit and hear people talk. I should add (embarrassingly?) that I was skeptical about reading a novel in a first-person female voice, but it wasn't off-putting at all. In fact, I feel I learned something about the female condition. This is the first book by Denise Mina I've had the pleasure to read, but you can bet that I'll be devouring her other books as well.

Some reviewers express minor disappointment with the continuity between "Slip of the Knife" and the two previous books of Mina's with the same character, Paddy Meehan. Big deal; get over it, I say. It's great fiction and a superb stand-alone novel. Also, I did not find the plot too plodding or opaque at all. It's not an Elmore Leonard novel that is written sparsely, but the description of characters and settings is, once again, a pleasure to read. I didn't skip a single paragraph and I couldn't put this book down. Mina is one of the all-time best at her craft.

I have enjoyed the majority of this author's works. Slip of a Knive did not disappoint.

Terry Patterson is kidnapped, stripped naked and then executed on a dark night in a dark place. He has no idea why he's been shoved into the trunk of a car by a man he doesn't know, who certainly "has plans" of his own for him. "Assassins depend on...hope...it was the assassin's accomplice," but Terry couldn't help but try to plan his escape. He didn't have a chance: "he didn't feel the muzzle on his temple because it wasn't touching [and] he didn't feel the cold metal crack of the pistol shot." His body was found in a "ditch by the side of the road [where] his corpse splashed into a trickling stream."

Terry is a former reporter who had left the local scene years ago to work as a photojournalist. He focuses his camera on the faces and landscapes of war-torn countries as he chronicles the death of nations and their people. Upon his return home, he and writer Kevin Hatcher collaborates on a `"big book' of glossy photos and text." They have a publisher and a contract and are out on the town celebrating when Terry is snatched from outside his front door. Could it have been some kind of retribution for something he published or caught on a picture he took? Could this slaying have been an assassination by the IRA? After all, his body was found "on the Stranraer road [where] the ferry to Belfast" [takes off.]

One of the first people notified about the killing is Paddy Meehan, a journalist who had gained minor celebrity when she had written a story years ago about one of the most horrific child murders in 20 years. Cullum Olgivy and another boy had been convicted of conspiracy. The demons that egged them on were caught and received more serious sentences. At the time the murder occurred, Paddy was set to marry Sean, Olgivy's cousin. Now, Cullum was getting out of jail and needed a place to stay. Circumstances made it clear that, at least for a little while, he was going to be Paddy's guest. This frightened her and made her uncomfortable on several levels, not the least of which was the fact that she has a five-year-old son.

But Paddy is a veteran reporter from the "old school" of devoted journalists for whom the story comes first. She is the author of a true-crime book and has earned herself a column called "Misty." She has the respect of her colleagues and is known for her anger, salty language, honesty, tenaciousness, talent, humanity and fairness. She is older and wiser than when she began work years ago as a copyboy. She has had her share of personal grief and yet maintains a healthy level of optimism. Her family and friends also have changed over the course of the series, and this adds verisimilitude to the characters.

One evening, when Paddy, her flat mate Dub and her son are home watching television, a steady knock of a certain timbre --- "rhythmic, steady...slow and steady" --- echoes through Paddy's apartment. "She had shadowed the police often enough to know what a death knock looked like: two uniformed officers, stony faced, one of them a woman, turning up at an unexpected hour. Someone close to her had died. They had died violently." When told of Terry's death, Paddy couldn't take it in. All of the usual questions and emotions of shock rush through her being.

As soon as she gathers her thoughts, Paddy confronts her editor and insists that she be given the scoop and allowed to handle the exclusive. He agrees to let her write the story that first day. But Terry's murder didn't happen in a vacuum, and as the body count rises, Paddy finds herself lost in a maze of coincidences and danger. When she learns that Terry left his papers and a small cottage to her in his will, she is determined to find his killer. Then her son Pete is threatened and Terry's collaborator is murdered. As soon as Paddy makes sure that Pete is safe, she steels herself to face whatever danger or impediment she encounters in her quest to solve the case. But why do the police seem not to want this case to just go away?

SLIP OF THE KNIFE is a riveting and complex book with several subplots and an interesting cast of characters. Denise Mina has developed "personalities" as opposed to cut-out players. She limns them fully, and as each one acts out her/his role in the story, readers can form images of them from their description and actions. As always, Mina uses her words carefully, in a decisive and commanding manner. Her plots have always been "tricky" in that the reader is drawn into the backstory of each event. SLIP OF THE KNIFE is another gem in Mina's body of work. Here, as in the past, she carries the show with panache and chutzpah.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

These Glaswegian mysteries are populated with strong single women characters with complicated love lives and dysfunctional families and Scottish slang. The personalization of the heavy set, "ball busting" heroine (think Roseanne Barr or Kathy Bates) coupled with a strong story line makes for an intriguing read. This mystery is tense and tender but at times humorous. Her heroine, a notable local columnist, enters a classy restaurant to meet a gay editor of a rival paper and is hooted by her fellow reporters, hanging at the bar, in a hilarious scene. A thought comes to mind: this is Mina playing payback with her Glasgow journalistic community whom she may love and hate in varying degrees. A young man comes out of prison for killing a child a decade earlier; the treatment is delicate, sensitive and insightful into his personal timidity. The ending is neither rushed nor forced nor implausible. Complications in plot are worked out to the reader's satisfaction. Some minor strands of the story line are left hanging but it is of little matter with this fine mystery. Wait for the next one.