A review by tasmanian_bibliophile
Still Midnight by Denise Mina

3.0

 

‘It was Eddy who had come up with the scheme and he had bought the kit.’ 

One night in suburban Glasgow, two masked and armed men (Pat and Eddy) burst into a home occupied by Ugandan immigrants. They are looking for a man named Bob.  The panicked family who lives there tell them that no-one by that name is a resident. Flustered, one of the thugs accidently shoots one family member in the hand and then kidnaps the elderly father. They leave, promising that the father will be returned once a £2,000,000 ransom is paid. 

The case should have been assigned to DI Alex Morrow, but instead is assigned to her associate DI Bannerman. Morrow is instructed to follow Bannerman’s lead on the case, which really rubs salt into the wound. 

Incompetent thugs, tensions between the police working the case, a family under pressure. Have Eddy and Pat targetted the wrong house? The family father owns a convenience store, and the family has nothing like the £2,000,000 requested. DI Morrow may be a prickly character, but she is thorough and persistent. She discovers a clue which leads her to some investigate further (and the reader to learn more about Alex Morrow and why she might be so prickly). 

While I found the story interesting enough that I’ll add this series to my reading list, I found it difficult to feel much sympathy for most of the characters. And yet, the grim hopelessness (for many) that pervades the story, the opportunism of some and the undercurrent of menace held my attention. The story unfolds through the points of view of several characters: the most interesting of whom where Alex Morrow and the kidnapped father. 

While not my favourite of Ms Mina’s novels, I am interested to find the next instalments in the series to see how Alex Morrow develops. 

 

Jennifer Cameron-Smith