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The End of the Wasp Season
Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, 2012
A savage murder with no apparent motive – DS Morrow’s most challenging case brings her work and home lives dangerously close… From the two-time winner of the prestigious Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.
When wealthy Sarah Erroll dies a violent death at her home in a posh part of Glasgow, the local community is stunned by what appears to be a truly gratuitous act. Heavily pregnant with desperately wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called in to investigate and soon discovers that there is more to Sarah’s murder than it first seems.
On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is called into the headmaster’s office at his boarding school to be told that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has committed suicide by hanging himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of numb shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief.
As Alex Morrow slowly unravels the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences.
When wealthy Sarah Erroll dies a violent death at her home in a posh part of Glasgow, the local community is stunned by what appears to be a truly gratuitous act. Heavily pregnant with desperately wanted twins, DS Alex Morrow is called in to investigate and soon discovers that there is more to Sarah’s murder than it first seems.
On the other side of town, Thomas Anderson is called into the headmaster’s office at his boarding school to be told that his tyrannical father – a banker responsible for the loss of many livelihoods in the recession – has committed suicide by hanging himself from the old oak tree on the lawn of their home. Thomas returns to the family home to find his mother and sister in a state of numb shock. The head of the household is dead, yet their initial reaction is not that of grief, but relief.
As Alex Morrow slowly unravels the connections between the two cases, she faces her greatest challenge yet as her work and home lives collide with potentially disastrous consequences.
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Reviews
A literary West Lothian question: why do Scottish writers dominate British crime fiction? With Denise Mina at least, the answer is pure class
Confirms Mina's place in the premier division ... atmospheric, intense and full of the disturbing flavour of inner-city lowlife
Thoughful attention to detail take the novel to another level...Scotland has produced some seriously good crime writers; THE END OF THE WASP SEASON places Denise Mina alongside Ian Rankin and Val McDermid
Splendidly written ... magnificently readable
Remember the name. This is a major talent heading for the top
Thoughful attention to detail take the novel to another level...Scotland has produced some seriously good crime writers; The End of the Wasp Season places Denise Mina alongside Ian Rankin and Val McDermid
One of Denise Mina's many attractions is her willingness to take risks with her characters. She delves deeper than most into emotions, whether of the police, victims or perpetrators; she eschews the usual formula of crime fiction....The financial and moral disintregration of families, the iniquities of the class system and prostitution all play a role. Mina's best
One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years
Splendidly written ... magnificently readable
Miss your bus stop....reading THE END OF THE WASP SEASON by Denise Mina, a gripping tale tracing the links between an elite private school, the suicide of a millionaire banker and the shocking murder of a wealthy young woman
Miss your bus stop....reading The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina, a gripping tale tracing the links between an elite private school, the suicide of a millionaire banker and the shocking murder of a wealthy young woman
One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years
Something special ... A tour de force
Something special ... A tour de force
Powerful, passionate and compelling. Mina can chill your blood and break your heart in the same sentence
A literary West Lothian question: why do Scottish writers dominate British crime fiction? With Denise Mina at least, the answer is pure class
Denise Mina is one of Scotland's most impressive crime writers. This dark, angry novel doesn't offer easy thrills or the intellectual diversion of a whodunnit. Instead it focusses on its deeply flawed characters, their motivations and the world they live in ... undeniably powerful
Powerful, passionate and compelling. Mina can chill your blood and break your heart in the same sentence
The plot is unrolled artfully ... the writing is lucid, and the minor characters breathe with an almost Dickensian life
Confirms Mina's place in the premier division ... atmospheric, intense and full of the disturbing flavour of inner-city lowlife
Denise Mina is one of Scotland's most impressive crime writers. This dark, angry novel doesn't offer easy thrills or the intellectual diversion of a whodunnit. Instead it focuses on its deeply flawed characters, their motivations and the world they live in ... undeniably powerful
One of Denise Mina's many attractions is her willingness to take risks with her characters. She delves deeper than most into emotions, whether of the police, victims or perpetrators; she eschews the usual formula of crime fiction....The financial and moral disintregration of families, the iniquities of the class system and prostitution all play a role. Mina's best
Remember the name. This is a major talent heading for the top
The plot is unrolled artfully ... the writing is lucid, and the minor characters breathe with an almost Dickensian life