Synopsis
Paddy Meehan returns in Denise Mina's most powerful mystery yet, nominated for a 2007 Edgar Award
When journalist Paddy Meehan investigates a domestic dispute, the well-dressed man who answers the door assures her the blonde in the shadows behind him is fine, and slips her money before he closes the door. In fact, the woman was tortured and left to die later that night, and Paddy has only days to uncover the truth before the newspaper learns of her bribe and the police close the case for reasons of their own. Only Paddy cares enough to pursue a dark and brutal story that could make her career-or kill her, in a novel that proves why Denise Mina is "some kind of magnificent" (Wall Street Journal).
"Brutally funny." -People
"Mina again demonstrates why she is one of the best mystery writers on either side of the Atlantic." -Miami Herald
"In all her insecurity, Paddy is achingly real . . . and Mina's note-perfect writing captures Paddy's voice dead-on." -Boston Globe
"A gloriously visceral style. . . . Mina excels at narrative and social commentary." -Newsday
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
In a book whose mystery plot is its least surprising aspect (though not its least forceful: Kate winds up killing someone with her stiletto heel), The Dead Hour takes its heroine a long way. She is nobody s hen by the end of the story. With regret but determination, she has edged at least part of the way out of the Meehan nest. And she is moving into the boys club dominated by her male colleagues.