The End of the Wasp Season
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Review
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 (Marcel Berlins THE TIMES )
A literary West Lothian question: why do Scottish writers dominate British crime fiction? With Denise Mina at least, the answer is pure class (Jake Kerridge DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Perceptive and insightful at both ends of the social scale, Mina eschews cliffhangers and plot twists - here, pathos provides the fuel for real suspense. Marvellous (Laura Wilson THE GUARDIAN )
...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 (Christopher Fowler FINANCIAL TIMES )
This wonderfully plotted combination of police procedural, psychological thriller and social comment leap-frogs Denise Mina to the top rank of Scotland's crime-writing scene (Myles McWeeney IRISH INDEPENDENT )
She has immeasurably widened the scope of Scottish crime fiction, dragging its cliches out of the dark alleys and beating them to death in broad daylight (David Robinson THE SCOTSMAN )
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 (GRAZIA )
A wealthy single woman wakes up in her mother's house to the sound of intruders creeping up the stairs. From this gripping start, Mina seizes our attention, and holds it until the final shocking twist in the tale (PSYCHOLOGIES )
both a police procedural and a psychological thriller. Deftly plotted and, as with Mina's other work, always anchored by a strong seam of compassion for those characters at the sharp end of the class divide; who in this novel have the extra burdens of recession and cuts to social services to bear...A rewarding read which explores the significance of love in childhood and the dreadful damage wrought by its absence (Cath Staincliffe TANGLED WEB )
It dispels with the whodunnit format, instead revealing everything at the start, and brilliantly spends the novel delving into the motivations and problems of a wide range of diverse characters (Doug Johnstone THE BIG ISSUE )
A glamorous young woman is brutally murdered in her home while a disgraced banker hangs himself in his garden. The heavily pregnant Morrow chases the case methodically, and we are also given narratives by Kay, a single mum down on her luck, and Thomas, the dead financier's spoilt teenage son. Mina's great skill is in keeping the reader hooked despite the lack of cliffhangers and twists, something she achieves through perceptive social insight and a refreshing eye for odd detail (Doug Johnstone THE LIST )
'Truly intriguing' **** (STAR MAGAZINE )
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; in a way, the plot is of secondary importance. The result is bleak and perhaps a little misandrous, but it's undeniably powerful (Andrew Taylor THE SPECTATOR )
Denise Mina rarely relies on the usual formulae of lesser crime writers. Her Glasgow-set novels do not depend on serpentine plot twists and precision-tooled narrative, preferring instead to concentrate on developed characters and sharp social insight (Paul Connolly METRO - 4 stars )
Mina is an edgy, very Scottish crime writer whose stories are often pretty raw and do not flinch from making political and moral judgements (Carla McKay DAILY MAIL )
the incisive Mina presents a helix-with-a-twist: there are above-board crimes, like murder, and then there's another kind, inflicted by parents on vulnerable children. There's no let-up in this fast-paced thriller, as connections are relentlessly tugged on until they turn up deception on several levels (Daneet Steffens TIME OUT )
'"A pregnant detective, a slaughtered Glasgow socialite, the Kentish suicide of a detested banker: worlds converge for Mina's DS Alex Morrow. Behind the mystery, it sheds a fierce light on damaged childhoods" (i (Independent) newspaper )
Denise Mina takes the grimmest material and makes it bearable with the warmth of her voice and the compassion with which she reveals her characters in all their inadequacy, cruelty or distress (Natasha Cooper TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT )
Mina has the gentle sinister brio of one who has gained mastery of the form and is lightly tap-dancing over her great puddle of blood. There is such an undertone of unremitting horror in this examination of how the upper class and the underclass, and possibly everyone in between, mess up their children, that it does sometimes seem as if we are watching wasps die (GLASGOW SUNDAY HERALD )
What she is really writing about, it seems to me, is the moral and practical resilience of the much-despised "ordinary people". (Mat Coward MORNING STAR )
Mina's skill in blending the darkest storylines with the humanity of relatable characters reminds us why she is one of the stars of the Scottish thrillerati (Shari Low DAILY RECORD )
This is one of those rare books where sleep, however much needed, can't tear you away (WOMAN'S WAY (Ireland) )
A vibrant, thought-provoking read and one that is an excellent addition to this talented author's oeuvre (CRIME SQUAD )
Highly recommended (Gloria Feit CRIME SPREE )
A new Mina is not something you would want to miss (REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE.COM )
Philosophical, social and financial issues raised include the class system, the disintegration of families, the moral status of sex workers and the treatment of troubled juveniles. And it's all totally entertaining and not a bit too heavy (Marcel Berlins THE TIMES )
DS Alex Morrow investigates a murder in a posh Glasgow suburb, discovering a link with a dead millionaire banker - and all while she's pregnant with twins. Superb (Kate Saunders SAGA )
The terse prose is ostensibly functional, but Mina's sleight of hand is such that she has the capacity to turn the entire tale on its head with a single, telling phrase, as she does on a number of occasions in a hugely satisfying read (Declan Burke IRISH TIMES )
Mina's new novel addresses the financial crisis, mega-rich bonuses and the toxic nature of inequality face-on, and also tackles suicide in a frank and shocking manner. (Stuart Kelly THE SCOTSMAN )
A literary West Lothian question: why do Scottish writers dominate British crime fiction? With Denise Mina at least, the answer is pure class (Jake Kerridge DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Perceptive and insightful at both ends of the social scale, Mina eschews cliffhangers and plot twists - here, pathos provides the fuel for real suspense. Marvellous (Laura Wilson THE GUARDIAN )
...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 (Christopher Fowler FINANCIAL TIMES )
This wonderfully plotted combination of police procedural, psychological thriller and social comment leap-frogs Denise Mina to the top rank of Scotland's crime-writing scene (Myles McWeeney IRISH INDEPENDENT )
She has immeasurably widened the scope of Scottish crime fiction, dragging its cliches out of the dark alleys and beating them to death in broad daylight (David Robinson THE SCOTSMAN )
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 (GRAZIA )
A wealthy single woman wakes up in her mother's house to the sound of intruders creeping up the stairs. From this gripping start, Mina seizes our attention, and holds it until the final shocking twist in the tale (PSYCHOLOGIES )
both a police procedural and a psychological thriller. Deftly plotted and, as with Mina's other work, always anchored by a strong seam of compassion for those characters at the sharp end of the class divide; who in this novel have the extra burdens of recession and cuts to social services to bear...A rewarding read which explores the significance of love in childhood and the dreadful damage wrought by its absence (Cath Staincliffe TANGLED WEB )
It dispels with the whodunnit format, instead revealing everything at the start, and brilliantly spends the novel delving into the motivations and problems of a wide range of diverse characters (Doug Johnstone THE BIG ISSUE )
A glamorous young woman is brutally murdered in her home while a disgraced banker hangs himself in his garden. The heavily pregnant Morrow chases the case methodically, and we are also given narratives by Kay, a single mum down on her luck, and Thomas, the dead financier's spoilt teenage son. Mina's great skill is in keeping the reader hooked despite the lack of cliffhangers and twists, something she achieves through perceptive social insight and a refreshing eye for odd detail (Doug Johnstone THE LIST )
'Truly intriguing' **** (STAR MAGAZINE )
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; in a way, the plot is of secondary importance. The result is bleak and perhaps a little misandrous, but it's undeniably powerful (Andrew Taylor THE SPECTATOR )
Denise Mina rarely relies on the usual formulae of lesser crime writers. Her Glasgow-set novels do not depend on serpentine plot twists and precision-tooled narrative, preferring instead to concentrate on developed characters and sharp social insight (Paul Connolly METRO - 4 stars )
Mina is an edgy, very Scottish crime writer whose stories are often pretty raw and do not flinch from making political and moral judgements (Carla McKay DAILY MAIL )
the incisive Mina presents a helix-with-a-twist: there are above-board crimes, like murder, and then there's another kind, inflicted by parents on vulnerable children. There's no let-up in this fast-paced thriller, as connections are relentlessly tugged on until they turn up deception on several levels (Daneet Steffens TIME OUT )
'"A pregnant detective, a slaughtered Glasgow socialite, the Kentish suicide of a detested banker: worlds converge for Mina's DS Alex Morrow. Behind the mystery, it sheds a fierce light on damaged childhoods" (i (Independent) newspaper )
Denise Mina takes the grimmest material and makes it bearable with the warmth of her voice and the compassion with which she reveals her characters in all their inadequacy, cruelty or distress (Natasha Cooper TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT )
Mina has the gentle sinister brio of one who has gained mastery of the form and is lightly tap-dancing over her great puddle of blood. There is such an undertone of unremitting horror in this examination of how the upper class and the underclass, and possibly everyone in between, mess up their children, that it does sometimes seem as if we are watching wasps die (GLASGOW SUNDAY HERALD )
What she is really writing about, it seems to me, is the moral and practical resilience of the much-despised "ordinary people". (Mat Coward MORNING STAR )
Mina's skill in blending the darkest storylines with the humanity of relatable characters reminds us why she is one of the stars of the Scottish thrillerati (Shari Low DAILY RECORD )
This is one of those rare books where sleep, however much needed, can't tear you away (WOMAN'S WAY (Ireland) )
A vibrant, thought-provoking read and one that is an excellent addition to this talented author's oeuvre (CRIME SQUAD )
Highly recommended (Gloria Feit CRIME SPREE )
A new Mina is not something you would want to miss (REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE.COM )
Philosophical, social and financial issues raised include the class system, the disintegration of families, the moral status of sex workers and the treatment of troubled juveniles. And it's all totally entertaining and not a bit too heavy (Marcel Berlins THE TIMES )
DS Alex Morrow investigates a murder in a posh Glasgow suburb, discovering a link with a dead millionaire banker - and all while she's pregnant with twins. Superb (Kate Saunders SAGA )
The terse prose is ostensibly functional, but Mina's sleight of hand is such that she has the capacity to turn the entire tale on its head with a single, telling phrase, as she does on a number of occasions in a hugely satisfying read (Declan Burke IRISH TIMES )
Mina's new novel addresses the financial crisis, mega-rich bonuses and the toxic nature of inequality face-on, and also tackles suicide in a frank and shocking manner. (Stuart Kelly THE SCOTSMAN )
Book Description
In this stunning new novel DS Alex Morrow discovers that nothing is sacred, even human life...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
mina is a very talented writer , wonderful with characters and i thought at the beginning this book was going to be perfect and break the sterotyped mould again . But it just falls apart; she gives thanks at the beginning to friends "for sorting out the second half of this book which was , ahem , a bit messy". It is still a mess and the chief reason , i think , is her failure with the Catholic public school boy whose father has hanged himself . i am not giving anything away : the problem is there is nothing to give away . you might enjoy it more if you don't assume it is a crime story
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
What I like about Denise Mina's writing is that she doesn't judge her characters, or write about them condescendingly -her characters are not 'good' or 'bad', and all have their reasons for acting the way that they do. As she showed in the Garnethill trilogy (highly recommended), Mina is acutely attuned to characters' mental states and this creates a multi-layered and complex cast of people who all play some part in how the narrative unfolds. She humanises characters, whether the perpetrators of the crime or the victim whose death kickstarts the narrative. The victim is often underwritten and underdeveloped in crime fiction -the reader usually encounters them after death, when all that can be offered up are bland platitudes from friends and colleagues (something that exasperates DS Alex Morrow when she is trying to get a sense of the dead woman's personality). But in 'The End of the Wasp Season', Morrow's attempts to piece together something of the victim, to add a human dimension to get her team interested (class and profession distance the dead woman from the people investigating her death), render the dead woman lifelike once again. There are a couple of sequences where we experience Sarah Erroll as she was in life (through recordings that are listened to / watched by Morrow, or someone who really knew her), and she is humanised: "It struck Morrow very suddenly: Kay was right. Sarah Erroll wasn't just a battered jigsaw puzzle. She was a young lassie and she was dead. It was sad."
The other aspect that sets Mina apart is that the police investigation (and the character of Morrow) is only one facet of the narrative; chapters alternate between different points of view, such as the perpetrator, and others who find their lives touched by the impact of the crime (it doesn't simply go back and forth between police and perpetrator -there is a sense of the ripple effect that a crime and its aftermath have). I read an interview with Mina recently where she said that she is not much of a plotter, and admittedly the reader does know who committed the crime from early on in the book (it's not a whodunnit), but the way that people's lives are interwoven around events is skillfully done and I think that it makes the narrative more compelling.
The way that Mina structures the book around several characters means that you can't really describe Morrow as the protagonist because equal emphasis is given to others as well, but she is the route into the story for the reader. This is the second book to feature DS Alex Morrow, but you don't need to have read 'Still Midnight' first (although this book may pique your interest in the first book). I found 'The End of the Wasp Season' to be a compelling read.
The other aspect that sets Mina apart is that the police investigation (and the character of Morrow) is only one facet of the narrative; chapters alternate between different points of view, such as the perpetrator, and others who find their lives touched by the impact of the crime (it doesn't simply go back and forth between police and perpetrator -there is a sense of the ripple effect that a crime and its aftermath have). I read an interview with Mina recently where she said that she is not much of a plotter, and admittedly the reader does know who committed the crime from early on in the book (it's not a whodunnit), but the way that people's lives are interwoven around events is skillfully done and I think that it makes the narrative more compelling.
The way that Mina structures the book around several characters means that you can't really describe Morrow as the protagonist because equal emphasis is given to others as well, but she is the route into the story for the reader. This is the second book to feature DS Alex Morrow, but you don't need to have read 'Still Midnight' first (although this book may pique your interest in the first book). I found 'The End of the Wasp Season' to be a compelling read.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Mina's second book about her Glaswegian DS heroine Alex Morrow put me strongly in mind of Larkin's famous lines about what your Mum and Dad do.
Here we have Alex, very pregnant (twins) working her way through the investigation of a murder. A very nasty murder. Alex cares about getting and outcome, but struggles to bring her team on board (explaining why would spoil the story). We know fairly early on who committed the crime, but not why. Learning why takes us on a journey through family life, dwelling in turn on Alex's nephew, son of the gangster brother whose connection to her is still a secret, on Alex's old friend Kay, struggling to raise her family of four in a Council flat and on Thomas, whose wealthy financier father, having ruined thousands with his schemes, hangs himself, leaving a vicious note for his wife. We see the various ways in which parents can muck up their children's lives - or build them up.
Mina has a great talent for sketching the awkward corners of lives, here delineating the factions in Morrow's police station: the unconfident Bannerman, promoted above his ability, polarising the officers under him and pushing for results. Or describing the uneasy relationship between Alex and Kay. In Alex Morrow, she has created a fascinating, complex woman, with her own failings and with a burden of guilt about her nephew. And there is Thomas's truly grotesque family, illustrating the old saying that if you want to know what God thinks of money, you should look at the people he gives it to.
I had been waiting for this book since reading Still Midnight, Morrow's first outing, and wasn't disappointed - this is, if anything, even better than the earlier volume and I'm glad to see that another is on the way Untitled Mina 1 of 3.
Here we have Alex, very pregnant (twins) working her way through the investigation of a murder. A very nasty murder. Alex cares about getting and outcome, but struggles to bring her team on board (explaining why would spoil the story). We know fairly early on who committed the crime, but not why. Learning why takes us on a journey through family life, dwelling in turn on Alex's nephew, son of the gangster brother whose connection to her is still a secret, on Alex's old friend Kay, struggling to raise her family of four in a Council flat and on Thomas, whose wealthy financier father, having ruined thousands with his schemes, hangs himself, leaving a vicious note for his wife. We see the various ways in which parents can muck up their children's lives - or build them up.
Mina has a great talent for sketching the awkward corners of lives, here delineating the factions in Morrow's police station: the unconfident Bannerman, promoted above his ability, polarising the officers under him and pushing for results. Or describing the uneasy relationship between Alex and Kay. In Alex Morrow, she has created a fascinating, complex woman, with her own failings and with a burden of guilt about her nephew. And there is Thomas's truly grotesque family, illustrating the old saying that if you want to know what God thinks of money, you should look at the people he gives it to.
I had been waiting for this book since reading Still Midnight, Morrow's first outing, and wasn't disappointed - this is, if anything, even better than the earlier volume and I'm glad to see that another is on the way Untitled Mina 1 of 3.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not for me
There was something about the style of writing that didn't work for me, hard to put my finger on it but I felt the narrative lacked flow and the plotting was jerky. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Pusateri
One of her best
I took this away as holiday reading and it certainly worked for me with an intriguing and well-worked plot line, and a very contemporary critique of the emotional life of families... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jenny Jones
Scottish police procedural with plenty of social comment
The second novel in the series begun last year with Still Midnight is a more traditional affair. DS Alex Morrow of the Strathclyde police has calmed down considerably, mellowed by... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Maxine Clarke
better to be stung than hung
Yet again Ms Mina has crafted a book which keeps you riveted from the beging. Like an onion each layer peels back to uncover a little more, but, also pull you deeper in. Read more
Published 6 months ago by archie stevenson
Character Driven Crime.
The police procedural really isn't my favorite slice of crime fiction pizza. Probably because it's usually more about puzzles than people. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Paul D Brazill
Great crime story
I have never read a Denise Mina book before, and I understand this is the second in a series featuring DS Alex Morrow. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nicola
The End of the Wasp Season
Each of the first three chapters of this newest novel by Denise Mina, author of the Garnethill trilogy among other wonderful books, introduces the reader to three women, each of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Gloria Feit
Good plot for this police procedural mixed with a pschological...
There is no preamble to this book, it starts with two boys entering Sarah Erroll's house in a wealthy suburb in Glasgow, but what did they want? Read more
Published 9 months ago by C. Bannister
Not the author's best
Having greatly enjoyed two of the author's earlier books Deception (Unabridged) and The Dead Hour I was keen to read this new book. I'm sorry to say I was disappointed. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Bluebell
Rather unfulfilling read.
The blurb says there will only be one book everyone is talking about this summer. maybe so, but it won't be this one. A rather pedestrian read, in my opinion. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Beansmummy
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