Customer Reviews

Still Midnight

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a huge fan of Denise Mina's books, for the simple reason that she is able to make mystery/thriller types of books more layered and atmospheric than just your average procedural. This book is one of those, as Glasgow comes alive on the page with Mina's deft descriptions.

Still Midnight takes place over approximately a 2-day period, and follows several threads told from different perspectives: the story of the police as they try to discover who has kidnapped an elderly shopowner, the man's family as they struggle with the crime, the kidnappers, and victim himself. With her usual flair, the author creates an atmosphere and characters that go much deeper than just the mystery at the book's center, and includes examinations of race and class in present-day Scotland.

In summary: I very much enjoyed the new lead character, Alex Morrow, and look forward to seeing her in more books, but the too-tidy ending kept this one from getting 5 stars from me.

One final note for buyers who are not fans of naughty language: beware. To me, the language lends credibility and atmosphere to the book, but others may not enjoy it.

With the focus on perpetually angry DS Alex Morrow, the working and criminal class neighborhoods of Mina's Glasgow provide the gritty atmosphere of this dark, but almost slapstick thriller.

The story opens as three fairly dim thugs botch a home invasion, Pat and Eddy going in screaming for a guy named Bob. Who is not among the three generations of Islamic Asians who live in the house. One of whom is a rebellious girl. "Aleesha was a teenager and therefore interested in the world only as it spoke about her. She saw Pat like her, long for her to like him back, and despite her bewilderment and terror, his frank admiration warmed her."

But things are not yet done going wrong. After an accidental shooting, the men grab the oldest and smallest of the household - the patriarch Aamir. Thrust into their van with a pillowcase over his head, "Time began to melt." He finds himself back in a world of terror, escaping from Uganda as a child with his mother.

Meanwhile the lead on the case has been given to the squad's male DS, Bannerman, a devious blockhead and her junior, but a smoother soul altogether. Morrow is furious, but then she's always furious. "She knew her anger was disproportionate and scattered, leaking from her like water through a sock. It was being noticed, remarked upon in her assessments. It's nothing, she said, it's about nothing."

The plot is a suspenseful procedural interwoven with scenes from the viewpoints of the hapless criminals and their captive, but as with all Mina's work, plot defers to character, which unfolds in tandem with the story. Even the perps, with their Three Stooges ineptitude, become real people before Mina is done with them.

Though Morrow is a little too prickly to inspire the affection of, say, journalist Paddy Meehan (A Field of Blood, The Dead Hour, Slip of the Knife), readers will look forward to seeing more of her.

A home invasion seemingly pulled off by "the gang who couldn't shoot straight" is how Denise Mina opens STILL MIDNIGHT. Two thugs push their way into a small, quiet house and demand to see "Bob," someone who evidently doesn't belong to this Muslim family. The miscreants demand two million pounds in ransom for the patriarch whom they kidnap. And in the panic and confusion, one of the men shoots the teenage daughter by mistake.

Det. Sgt. Alex Morrow, a troubled and very angry cop, believes the case should be hers but is betrayed by her superior when the honors go to her rival, Grant Bannerman, an arrogant careerist who takes credit for work done by his underlings. Morrow is smarter and faster on her feet than Bannerman, but she still must march to his tune, at least this time. She had to work her way into her new promotion while he used other tactics to become a detective sergeant.

Both Bannerman and Morrow harbor secrets they would rather their bosses didn't untangle. Bannerman is very uncertain of himself and has a sick mother. Morrow knows she is too mad at the world but finds it hard to hold her tongue or temper. She also would prefer that the powers-that-be not learn about her criminal half-brother.

Eddy, Pat and Malki (the getaway driver) are the criminals and take poor Aamir Anwar to Shugie's house, a pigsty beyond all belief. They keep him there shrouded in a pillowcase, which is how they begin to think of him and thus call him "the pillowcase." When they finally decide to move him, it's to a huge rusted container of some sort. They lock him in, with Malki as the guard, another plan that goes terribly awry and has a deadly outcome.

In the meantime, Morrow and Bannerman discover that the "Bob" who the kidnappers were looking for is really Omar, one of Anwar's sons. He is a hoodlum who dreams of owning his own business, but all who know him are certain this is never going to happen. Throw some drugs, alcohol, dirty money and an "importing-exporting" business into this mix of diverse characters, and add a plot that twists and turns, and you get a suspenseful read.

STILL MIDNIGHT is engaging from the first few lines, and the pace keeps speeding up. Denise Mina's style is approachable and entertaining. Her reputation has been built upon strong characters and tight plots; she doesn't disappoint here.

I have to admit that, because I have been a fan of Denise Mina's Paddy Meehan and Garnethill books for a while now, I began "Still Midnight" with high expectations. I also have to admit that the book was a bit of a disappointment to me - in some part, probably, because I did expect so much from it going in.

Denise Mina's Glasgow has always been a dark and dangerous city but she has outdone herself this time. This Glasgow is a wet, cold city surrounded by swampy grounds and abandoned buildings and filled with some of the unhappiest people in the world.

Her story begins when two rather incompetent thugs invade a family home in search of a young man they are being paid to kidnap. Things begin to go bad for Eddy and Pat almost from the moment they enter the home to find that none of its residents have even heard of the man they want. After the would-be kidnappers, armed with handguns neither man has ever fired before, accidentally shoot a teenage girl, they settle for snatching the girl's father in place of their intended victim and flee the home in near-panic.

At the crime scene, DS Alex Morrow, of the Strathclyde CID, senses this is more than a case of two incompetent criminals banging on the wrong door. The kidnap victim is Aamir Anwar, patriarch of the large family living under his roof: wife, teenage daughter, and two sons (one a recent university graduate and the other whose own wife and baby share a bedroom with him). Morrow senses that the younger son and his friend know more about the crime than they are admitting and she begins her investigation by interrogating the two at police headquarters.

Alex Morrow is stunned that same night to learn that what should have been her investigation is, instead, being given to her less competent departmental rival, Grant Bannerman, a man hand-picked to move up the ranks ahead of her. Sexism is alive and well in the ranks of the Strathclyde CID. Alex has no intention of being a team player but still manages to contribute most of the breaks in the investigation. The reader will have to decide whether she is rewarded for her efforts - or not.

"Still Midnight" is long on atmosphere - and that is a strong point of the book. Mina takes it so far this time, however, that it is also one of the book's weaknesses. There are simply no happy or content people in this book. Criminals are as unhappy with their lot as their victims; polis are backstabbing cutthroats or burned out zombies; husbands and wives are sick of each other; businessmen hate their customers, and children hate their fathers. Even the kidnap victim is sick of himself.

Despite the violence, and ever present potential for more, it is at times difficult to take the "Still Midnight" as seriously as it is meant to be taken because of the comic nature of Eddy, its chief villain. Eddy is such a bumbler that most readers will wonder how the man survived the mean streets of Glasgow long enough to reach adulthood. He is almost a parody of a real criminal. The novel's ending, one I will not spoil here, is also such a stretch that it provides a jarring contrast to the rest of the book. This one does not quite work for me because it never feels real.

Back in the late '90s I was on a kick where I was reading every Scottish author I could get my hands on, and in the course of that, came across Denise Mina's excellent 1998 debut, Garnethill. Since then, I've moved on to other reading jags, but when I saw her latest crime novel was available, I thought I should see if she's as good as I remember. While this one didn't blow me away like her debut did, it does succeed as a very good police procedural stocked with interesting characters and good pace.

The story kicks off when a trio of amateur hoodlums force their way into a Glasgow home trying to kidnap a man named "Bob" for a two million pound ransom. The only problem is that the house they break into belongs to Aamir Anwar, a Ugandan Pakistani shopkeeper, and Scottish-raised family ("Nae Bobs here, mate"). Despite this, they take a hostage and attempt to salvage something out of the fubared situation, all under the apparent direction of a mysterious Irishman they periodically call with updates.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the law, D.S. Alex Morrow is struggling to keep her footing in the treacherous sexist waters of police politics in the aftermath of her young son's death (which is implied several times before being made explicit toward the end of the book). Relegated to supporting a colleague who is given the career-making case, she can barely contain her rage and frustration in the face of the careerist coppers surrounding her at the Strathclyde CID.

The story suffers a little bit from a rather improbable, and ultimately sappy, romantic subplot involving one of the kidnappers. There's also a family connection established between D.S. Morrow and local gangster that's a little too convenient, and appears to exist mainly to set the table for conflict in further books. There's also a running thread where the middle-aged Aamir Anwar recollects his terror as a child in 1972, when his family was forced to flee Uganda, which, while illuminating a slice of semi-forgotten history, feels totally out of place.

Nonetheless, the book does a very nice job of portraying the psychology of the inept criminals as they struggle to make their scheme work, and the cold backstabbing going on within the police force. In that sense it's very reminiscent of Bill James' "Harpur & Iles series" -- albeit without the biting humor. If you like your crime stories bleak, gritty, and grounded in their setting, this is well worth checking out.

Denise Mina is well known to most of us who love crime drama and in particular those from Glasgow. She has won acclaim for her novels and a John Creasey Prize for her first novel. In 'Still Midnight' she initiates a new series and it should be smashing.

The theme of this novel is the crime of kidnapping, the characters involved in the crime itself, and the detectives who follow and solve this crime. What Denise Mina has done is to give us the thoughts and actions of all involved, so that we follow the crime as it evolves and the detective work that pursues. The characters are so well drawn that we feel that we have come to know them. There are Pat and Eddy the main criminals, one is too eager and the other is too reluctant. The family of the kidnapped father, Amir, a dysfunctional one at best. DS Alex Morrow who is a woman in a man's business. She has problems at work and at home. Not much information is divulged and slowly her story ekes out. DS Bannerman, a man who thinks he deserves the job, he was born into it, and if he can't find the clues himself, he takes credit for anyone else's job. The blokes at Morrow's workplace are so well described that I could see them in my mind's eye. Each character provides a rich and sometimes humorous side in the novel.

As the kidnapping takes place and the investigation moves on, the story is more fully developed. The twists and turns are relevant and sometimes surprising. The relationship between Morrow and Bannerman is so well drawn that we can imagine the thoughts and actions that are not expressed. The Asian community is well developed, and it is a welcome side. The countryside of Glasgow takes precedent and it is a joy to read. The crime itself is so well done and the climax is so delectable that the reader is given a surprise. The pace is fast and furious, and this novel delivers!

Highly recommended. prisrob 03-28-10

Exile

Field of Blood

STILL MIDNIGHT continues the delight I've found in the dark, carefully-nuanced, and illuminating fiction of Denise Mina. I have read all of her books, starting with Garnethill and right up to the one just before STILL MIDNIGHT, SLIP OF THE KNIFE. I think I respect and admire Mina's work so much because she gives us deeply flawed, yet sympathetic characters, and even her villains are never simple black versus white caricatures, but fully-realized human beings with credible motivations. We understand them as we despise them. STILL MIDNIGHT is no different than Mina's previous outings in that she gives us a strong, sympathetic, yet human female protagonist (in this case, Alex Morrow, spearhead of a new series; side note: I hope Paddy, the journalist, returns someday) and a true-to-life, colorful yet grim portrait of modern-day Glasgow you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in literature. Every word, every line of dialogue, and every description rings true, conjuring up a picture without ever giving us reason to think: "wow, this author sure knows how to turn a lovely phrase." STILL MIDNIGHT is a worthwhile crime novel and an even better study of dark human character and motivation.

Still Midnight is a dark, tense thriller set in the suburbs of Glasgow. The heroine Alex Morrow, is a deeply troubled police officer struggling with personal sorrow, career discrimination, and people from her past that can destroy everything she values. Alex is assigned to a kidnapping with an unclear motive complicated by religious and cultural differences. The case evolves to include drugs, organized crime, and murder set in a dreary, gray backdrop of some of the less appealing portions of Glasgow.

Still Midnight is full of interesting characters that behave in believable and consistent ways. Alex is a talented but difficult officer and she has lost the support of her boss, who favors Alex's male partner. Along with poor relationships with her colleagues, Alex's marriage is in trouble and her connections with her family are distant. The character of Alex is well developed, with both her flaws and strengths presented in ways to gain empathy, if not understanding, from the reader.

The kidnapping victim and his family are a complicated mix of religious fervor, assimilation, confusion, and lies. Their respective stories build slowly, adding disbelief, richness, and eventually understanding to the story.

The plot of Still Midnight is complex, and unfolding in uneven spurts that draw the reader into the frustration of the both the police and the victims. Several story strands are artfully drawn together, leading to a logical and satisfying conclusion that would have been difficult to guess. Denise Mina is an expert in creating dark, taut mysteries full of imperfect characters and challenging situations. Still Midnight is well-written and engaging--a must read for fans of Denise Mina and for anyone that enjoys thrillers and female detective stories.

This is my favorite book of the year. Mina excels at tightening the screw with each page, and you can see how mistake after mistake lead these characters down a very bad road. The suspense comes not just from the procedural aspect, but from the mystery of character--who are these people and what brought them here? I think in Alex Morrow Mina has created one of the most nuanced and believable female cops in crime fiction, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

STILL MIDNIGHT begins with a disaster: masked men bursting into an Islamic household, demanding a guy named Bob who isn't there, and leaving with the patriarch of the family after demanding an enormous, seemingly impossible sum of money as ransom. Alex Morrow should be assigned to the case but because she is a woman and there are Muslims central to the case, it is given to her partner, a man named Bannerman. Morrow is actually far better suited to handle the case because she is familiar with the neighborhood and the general nature of the people involved. As Bannerman and Morrow investigate, Morrow confronts aspects of her past that she'd just as soon ignore. Still, it is her past that enables the team to solve the crime. There are some VERY unbelievable sub-plots. Other than that, Mina still has the touch.