This is the third of Denise Mina’s novels to feature Paddy Meehan, the feisty reporter first introduced in ‘The Field of Blood’. We rejoin Paddy in 1990 where she is now a leading newspaper columnist with a flash car and a flat. Just as Paddy settles down on a Saturday night, intent on relaxing in front of the television in a comfortable pair of pyjamas, a knock on the door changes everything. Terry Patterson, her first lover and journalistic hero, has been found naked and executed in a ditch.
Who killed Terry and why? Paddy has been named as his next of kin, and he has left her everything in his will. Paddy believes that the answer to his murder is contained in his past and as she seeks to unravel the case, she realises that she and those closest to her are also in danger.
Paddy Meehan is an unlikely hero. She is brash, abrasive, doggedly determined, likeable and so very human.
While this novel can be read alone, I’d recommend reading the novels in order. The development of Paddy’s character in the earlier novels is an important part of the backstory. Many of the other characters have also been introduced in the earlier novels, and their relationships with each other are as much a part of the novel as solving the murder is.