06/15/2020
In this disappointing psychological thriller set in Glasgow from Edgar finalist Mina (Conviction), physician Margo Dunlop discovers undelivered letters in her late mother’s belongings that lead her to Nikki, the sister of Margo’s previously unknown birth mother, Susan, and the information that Susan’s murder soon after Margo’s birth, while Susan and Nikki were both working as prostitutes, remains unsolved. Margo, terrified after getting a threatening letter from a person claiming to be Susan’s killer that’s similar to ones Nikki has received for years, is drawn into Nikki’s world as she seeks answers, while also dealing with her best friend, Lilah, and Lilah’s increasingly abusive boyfriend, and considering whether to tell her own ex-boyfriend that she’s pregnant. Mina skips most of the everyday details of Margo’s career, using her identity as a doctor only as a vague plot device, and leans too heavily into the sordid details of life on the streets. A new violent death trails away without ongoing impact. This garish story offers shock without substance under the thinnest guise of compassion. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (Aug.)
Riveting . . . Mina is matchless at building suspicion and creeping dread. A bold and bracing twist on the fallen-woman-as-victim story.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Gasps are inescapable."—People
“The Less Dead is at once a gripping thriller and an examination, and vindication, of a group of women who are often faceless, unsympathetic victims.”—BookPage
"The menacing atmosphere . . . effectively supports the novel's themes of reconciliation, class divides, and violence against women. Mina is a master of the genre, with wide appeal, especially for those who appreciate character-driven stories with literary weight, like those of Tana French, Karin Slaughter, and Laura Lippman."—Booklist (starred review)
“As the plot gains speed to a startling and abrupt end, readers will be left agasp and wanting more."—Library Journal
"The Less Dead isn't a typical thriller. At its heart, this is a story of mothers and daughters, and the ties that bind them.”—PopSugar
PRAISE FOR DENISE MINA
"One of the most talented, most daring, most humane writers of the past twenty years."—A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
"Denise Mina is superbly talented — witty, original, and a mastermind of mystery. Absolutely terrific."—Hank Phillippi Ryan, national bestselling author of Trust Me
"If you haven't read Denise Mina yet, you should."—Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister
"Denise Mina brilliantly manages to be funny, heart-wrenching, gut-punching and addictive all at once."—Nicci French, author of the international betseller Day of the Dead
07/01/2020
Physician Margo Dunlop has a lot going on when she first meets her birth family. Her adoptive mother, Janette, has died, leaving Margo just days to clean out Janette's house (where she found hidden letters from her birth aunt, Nikki Brodie, asking for her help). Margo also just broke up with her partner, Joe, then discovered that she's pregnant. Margo learns from Nikki that her birth mother, Susan Brodie, a prostitute who got clean of drugs during her pregnancy, was murdered at the age of 19, months after Margo was born, becoming the fourth of nine prostitutes killed in Glasgow during that time. Now Nikki wants Margo's help in finding the murderer. Initially ambivalent about having a relationship with Nikki, Margo starts receiving anonymous letters from the same person, with an intimate knowledge of Susan's murder, who has been writing Nikki and is now watching her. VERDICT Mina's (Conviction; The Long Drop) concern with the effects of class on individual lives is evident, as Margo learns about sex workers, coming to admire Susan as she ferrets out the reason for her death. As the plot gains speed to a startling and abrupt end, readers will be left agasp and wanting more. [See Prepub Alert, 11/25/19.]—Michele Leber, Arlington, VA
Narrator Katie Leung's Scottish burr adds atmosphere to this harrowing Tartan Noir. Driven by her pregnancy and the recent loss of her adoptive mother, Dr. Margo Dunlop searches for her birth mother. Instead she finds an aunt who drags her into the cold case of her mother's murder during a Glasgow crime wave. Leung's subdued delivery of the present-tense writing is mesmerizing. She excels at letting emotional tension build in her vivid character voices. As Margo becomes engrossed in the hunt for the killer, the perspective of a stalker is interspersed, enhanced by a chilling shift in Leung's tone to something low and hollow. This genre bender combines thoughtful examinations of class and society's treatment of women with a gritty mystery. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Narrator Katie Leung's Scottish burr adds atmosphere to this harrowing Tartan Noir. Driven by her pregnancy and the recent loss of her adoptive mother, Dr. Margo Dunlop searches for her birth mother. Instead she finds an aunt who drags her into the cold case of her mother's murder during a Glasgow crime wave. Leung's subdued delivery of the present-tense writing is mesmerizing. She excels at letting emotional tension build in her vivid character voices. As Margo becomes engrossed in the hunt for the killer, the perspective of a stalker is interspersed, enhanced by a chilling shift in Leung's tone to something low and hollow. This genre bender combines thoughtful examinations of class and society's treatment of women with a gritty mystery. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
★ 2020-06-16
Finding out about the long-ago murder of her teenage mother fills a woman’s life with terror in this riveting story.
The latest from the prolific Mina is a stand-alone novel. Glasgow doctor Margo Dunlop is grieving the death of her adoptive mother and the breakup of her relationship with the eccentric but affable Joe when she learns she is pregnant. She goes in search of her biological mother and drops right into a nightmare. Months after Margo’s birth and adoption, her mother was brutally murdered. Susan Brodie was a 19-year-old sex worker and former junkie, making her one of the “less dead” of the title, victims the police shrug off as disposable. Margo hears the grisly story when she meets her aunt, Nikki, a survivor of the same desperate circumstances that killed her sister. Nikki might be sober now, but she still has an addict’s deviousness. She is also sure she knows who murdered Susan—a corrupt cop named Martin McPhail—and she urges Margo, who has the money and status Nikki lacks, to help bring him down. The killer, Nikki says, still sends her threatening letters with objects related to Susan’s murder. Margo has barely begun to absorb this disturbing information when she starts getting such letters herself. As she struggles to figure out whom to trust, she’s also dealing with the nasty breakup between her best friend, flighty Lilah, and her obsessive ex, Richard, who is Joe’s brother. Margo meets Jack Robertson, a slickly charming true-crime writer, and Diane Gallagher, an impressive retired police detective, who both know more about Susan’s death than they’re saying. Mina is matchless at building suspicion and creeping dread. Susan might have been a victim, but the novel is filled with strong, resourceful women who won’t let her life and death render her “less."
A bold and bracing twist on the fallen-woman-as-victim story.
