Grave-shift reporter for the Scottish Daily News, Paddy Meehan does the best she can in a job seemingly going nowhere.  With the daunting task of bringing home the only income her family knows, Paddy feels mired in responsibility.  Glasgow is a work-depressed city with few prospects and she’s doing all she can to not end up like her father—unemployed for over 2 years—or her brothers who never work.  Paddy dreams of writing a best seller and having a career instead of being a punching bag to a husband like one sister or devoted to God like her other sister.  There is more to life, she just has to find it and not give up.

One night on the job, she follows a police call to a possible domestic disturbance in one of the posh neighborhoods.  The man answering the door tells the police that everything is fine, and the woman in the house with blood on her face concurs. Since it’s the early 1980s, the cops don’t push the matter and leave.  There’s nothing Paddy can do, but events from that night escalate into murder, suicide, drugs, police corruption and more.  Paddy is the unknown element who can’t shake her guilt over leaving Vhari Burnett to her doom.  She keeps digging, trying to bring the truth to light even when she fears for her own existence.

Author Denise Mina has written a multi-layered suspense with a true original in Paddy Meehan.  The written flavor of the people, landscape and era surround the reader.  There are plots within plots in this story, and each character leads you in another direction.   The Dead Hour is an engrossing and intricate tale of suspense and murder.

Reviewed by Lisa D. Guest
7/26/2006

Back to "M" - Review look-up by Author

Back to "D" - Review look-up by Title

Back to "4-Books" - Review look-up by Rating

Back to "Suspense" - Review look-up by Genre