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The Less Dead
Margot is having a thirtysomething crisis: She's burning out at work, a public-health practice; she's just left her longtime boyfriend after discovering he was cheating; and her mother recently died. The only silver lining to her mother's death is that Margot, who was adopted, can finally go looking for her birth mother.
What she finds is an imcomplete family--the only person left is Nikki, her mother's older sister. Aunt Nikki brings upetting news: Margot's mother is dead, murdered many years ago, one of a series of sex workers killed in Glasgow.
The killer--or killers?--has never been found, Aunt Nikki claims. They're still at large... and sending her letters, gloating letters that include the details of the crime. Now Margot must choose: take the side of the world against her dead mother, or investigate her murder and see that justice is done at last.
Darkly funny and sharply modern, Denise Mina's latest novel is an indelible, surprisingly moving story of daughters and mothers, blood family and chosen family, and how the search for truth helps one woman to find herself.
What she finds is an imcomplete family--the only person left is Nikki, her mother's older sister. Aunt Nikki brings upetting news: Margot's mother is dead, murdered many years ago, one of a series of sex workers killed in Glasgow.
The killer--or killers?--has never been found, Aunt Nikki claims. They're still at large... and sending her letters, gloating letters that include the details of the crime. Now Margot must choose: take the side of the world against her dead mother, or investigate her murder and see that justice is done at last.
Darkly funny and sharply modern, Denise Mina's latest novel is an indelible, surprisingly moving story of daughters and mothers, blood family and chosen family, and how the search for truth helps one woman to find herself.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2020
About the author
Denise Mina
104 books2,349 followersDenise Mina was born in Glasgow in 1966. Because of her father's job as an Engineer, the family followed the north sea oil boom of the seventies around Europe
She left school at sixteen and did a number of poorly paid jobs, including working in a meat factory, as a bar maid, kitchen porter and cook.
Eventually she settled in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients.
At twenty one she passed exams, got into study Law at Glasgow University and went on to research a PhD thesis at Strathclyde University on the ascription of mental illness to female offenders, teaching criminology and criminal law in the mean time.
Misusing her grant she stayed at home and wrote a novel, 'Garnethill' when she was supposed to be studying instead.
She left school at sixteen and did a number of poorly paid jobs, including working in a meat factory, as a bar maid, kitchen porter and cook.
Eventually she settled in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients.
At twenty one she passed exams, got into study Law at Glasgow University and went on to research a PhD thesis at Strathclyde University on the ascription of mental illness to female offenders, teaching criminology and criminal law in the mean time.
Misusing her grant she stayed at home and wrote a novel, 'Garnethill' when she was supposed to be studying instead.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 524 reviews
July 8, 2020
Denise Mina returns to more familiar territory after the runaway success of Conviction as she once again atmospherically evokes the dark, dingy, and seedy underworld of a bygone Glasgow. Margo Dunlop, a doctor, has lost her adopted mother, Janelle, and whilst she is no longer in a relationship with the kind and caring Joe, she is pregnant. This has led to her strong desire to discover more about her birth mother, Susan Brodie, only she is dead, so she is meeting her aunt, Susan's sister, Nikki, who gives her a photograph of Susan, Margo is the spitting image of her. Nikki conveys the circumstances of 19 year old Susan's death, 4 months after giving birth to Margo. Susan was a street sex worker, addicted to drugs, abducted and murdered, her body discarded like rubbish at a bus stop in Easterhouse in 1989, one of 9 prostitutes killed by a serial killer at the time.
Nikki has been receiving creepy, abusive and malevolent letters from the murderer through the years, with the killer now beginning to send them to Margo too. In her search for identity, Margo, is hungry to know more about Susan, Nikki and her birth family, to know more about their world, what being a sex worker was like, coming to understand that to the police and the public at the time, Susan and the women killed were the 'less dead', never valued, trash, less than human, with their killer never found. Jack Robertson wrote a self published true crime bestseller on the killings, Terror on the Street, a tabloid style, salacious, poorly written book, theorising who he thinks the murderer is, for which he is now being sued. As Margo searches for the truth of what happened to Susan, danger stalks her every step.
Mina astutely observes the class differences between the middle class life Margo grew up in, with her adopted mother and brother, Thomas, where she has a voice that is taken seriously, in sharp contrast with Susan and her birth family, whose lives and voices barely register. There is a complexity and vitality to Susan and her birth family and those of other sex workers that defies any easy categorisation or superficial understanding of their lives, such as the ambitious Susan's refusal to see herself as a victim. Margo's relationship with her best friend, Lilah, who regularly steals, is similarly complicated, supportive but carrying competitive and malicious undercurrents. This is a brilliant read, as can be expected from a crime writer of Mina's calibre, thought provoking, with stellar characterisations, such as that of Margo, Nikki and Lilah. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.
Nikki has been receiving creepy, abusive and malevolent letters from the murderer through the years, with the killer now beginning to send them to Margo too. In her search for identity, Margo, is hungry to know more about Susan, Nikki and her birth family, to know more about their world, what being a sex worker was like, coming to understand that to the police and the public at the time, Susan and the women killed were the 'less dead', never valued, trash, less than human, with their killer never found. Jack Robertson wrote a self published true crime bestseller on the killings, Terror on the Street, a tabloid style, salacious, poorly written book, theorising who he thinks the murderer is, for which he is now being sued. As Margo searches for the truth of what happened to Susan, danger stalks her every step.
Mina astutely observes the class differences between the middle class life Margo grew up in, with her adopted mother and brother, Thomas, where she has a voice that is taken seriously, in sharp contrast with Susan and her birth family, whose lives and voices barely register. There is a complexity and vitality to Susan and her birth family and those of other sex workers that defies any easy categorisation or superficial understanding of their lives, such as the ambitious Susan's refusal to see herself as a victim. Margo's relationship with her best friend, Lilah, who regularly steals, is similarly complicated, supportive but carrying competitive and malicious undercurrents. This is a brilliant read, as can be expected from a crime writer of Mina's calibre, thought provoking, with stellar characterisations, such as that of Margo, Nikki and Lilah. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.
July 12, 2020
Margo is adopted, it’s a good adoption and she’s succeeded in life, becoming a doctor. Her birth mother was a drug addict and sex worker and was killed many years ago. Her sister Nikkie believes that her murderer is ex-police Officer Martin McPhail, that the Glasgow police force cover this up and so Nikkie wants Margo’s help in proving this. Margo is reluctant to get involved, her Aunt has never been in her life until now but she finds herself drawn into an unfamiliar world.
This is a dark and gritty novel that does not shy away from presenting the reality of life for a sex worker like Susan. These are the ‘less dead’ whose fates are not investigated fully as they are seen as unworthy of much effort. The author cleverly presents the contrasting worlds of Nikkie and Margo in every possible way. Margo has the advantages of a good education, an excellent career and high expectations of life versus Susan and Nikkie growing up in care, abused and then facing a life on the streets. It’s light and shade and initially Margo runs to the light but is drawn into a shadowy world to get the answers she craves. The characters are really good, I admire Nikkie who is brave and dogged and Margo becomes braver and bolder as the story progresses and becomes more likeable as a consequence. She is a very different person at the end of the book. , Margo’s friend is in an abusive relationship demonstrating that abuse has no barriers due social background but Lilah does not see herself as a victim, she stands up for herself which she has in common certainly with Nikkie and maybe also Susan. As the storyline progresses several very creepy and threatening events occur and the tension and suspense escalates. The quality of the writing is very good as it’s realistic and as dark as the places Margo’s search takes her to.
Overall, another very good novel from Denise Mina. It’s compelling and compulsive reading.
With thanks to NetGalley and Random House Vintage, Harvill Secker for the ARC.
This is a dark and gritty novel that does not shy away from presenting the reality of life for a sex worker like Susan. These are the ‘less dead’ whose fates are not investigated fully as they are seen as unworthy of much effort. The author cleverly presents the contrasting worlds of Nikkie and Margo in every possible way. Margo has the advantages of a good education, an excellent career and high expectations of life versus Susan and Nikkie growing up in care, abused and then facing a life on the streets. It’s light and shade and initially Margo runs to the light but is drawn into a shadowy world to get the answers she craves. The characters are really good, I admire Nikkie who is brave and dogged and Margo becomes braver and bolder as the story progresses and becomes more likeable as a consequence. She is a very different person at the end of the book. , Margo’s friend is in an abusive relationship demonstrating that abuse has no barriers due social background but Lilah does not see herself as a victim, she stands up for herself which she has in common certainly with Nikkie and maybe also Susan. As the storyline progresses several very creepy and threatening events occur and the tension and suspense escalates. The quality of the writing is very good as it’s realistic and as dark as the places Margo’s search takes her to.
Overall, another very good novel from Denise Mina. It’s compelling and compulsive reading.
With thanks to NetGalley and Random House Vintage, Harvill Secker for the ARC.
November 22, 2020
Quick thoughts: The Less Dead is unique new psychological thriller set in Scotland.
I savored this one. What strikes me most is the characterization and the setting. Everyone and everything is vividly drawn, and it’s all so thoughtful and thought-provoking in how the story addresses social issues and how life choices can affect a family. It’s so much more than what you expect of a thriller in that way.
I bought Conviction after loving The Less Dead, and I can’t wait to savor it, too.
I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
I savored this one. What strikes me most is the characterization and the setting. Everyone and everything is vividly drawn, and it’s all so thoughtful and thought-provoking in how the story addresses social issues and how life choices can affect a family. It’s so much more than what you expect of a thriller in that way.
I bought Conviction after loving The Less Dead, and I can’t wait to savor it, too.
I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
February 1, 2021
Perhaps expectations were high, after reading author's wonderful, previous novel, Conviction. However, no such expectations could possibly account for the complete and absolute disappointment offered by this production. I am utterly confounded. And as such, I find myself unable to offer anything polite. So I'll keep this short. In all honesty, this was simply unrecognizable as a work from the same person who wrote "Conviction", or from any other decent book for that matter.
August 28, 2021
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The Less Dead is a gripping, if bleak, piece of tartan noir. When sex workers, drug addicts, migrant workers, and otherwise marginalised groups are victims of murder, they are called the 'less dead'. Their deaths are less important, not as 'impactful'. Denise Mina's novel, in a similar vein to recent releases such as Long Bright River, is less interested in its 'serial killer' storyline and more concerned with depicting the realities and experiences of women whose lives have been punctuated by sexual abuse, violence, and addiction.
Set in Glasgow, the novel introduces to thirty-something Margot Dunlop, a doctor still grieving the recent death of her mother. Margot is struggling to cope, with her break up from Joe, her longterm boyfriend, and with her pregnancy. She finds herself wanting to learn more about her birth mother, Susan, only to learn that she was brutally killed years before. Susan's was one of the nine victims of a serial killer who preyed on sex workers. Since Susan's death Nikki, Susan's older sister, has received a string of menacing letters who could only have been written by the murderer. While Nikki seems eager to get to know her niece, a disbelieving Margot is hesitant to venture into a 'world' she thinks little of. When Margot also starts to receive crude letters, she's forced to reconsider.
As Margot learns more of Susan, a young woman who refused to labelled as a victim, and her birth family, she finds herself challenging her own biases.
Mina presents her readers with a thought-provoking interrogation of class. The women she writes of, their struggles and traumas, are rendered with striking empathy. Margot, however, comes across as a far less nuanced character. Her remoteness seemed unwarranted and unexplained. She's curt to the point of being brusque, she makes a few decision that aren't truly delved into, making her seem out of character for the sake of the plot. Nikki, by comparison, not only felt truly real, but she's really admirable. Margot's relationship with her 'problematic' best friend and her ex detracted from the overall the story. These two characters didn't seem all that believable.
While the third person present tense narration did add a sense of immediacy, or urgency if you will, to the novel, it did occasionally did frustrate me. There are certain conversations that don't have quotations marks and they also became a bit gimmicky (it made sense in certain scenes, but the more this happened the less 'meaningful' it became). Another pet peeve of mine were the sections from the 'culprits' perspective. These were brief and struck me as salacious, as in 'glimpse the thoughts of a deviant mind' (as if this individual's letters didn't convey their state of mind).
Mina's story is certainly evocative and gritty. The scenes focused on Nikki were easily my favourite. Margot's 'personal' struggles, on the other hand, just didn't grab my interest. Perhaps this is because I didn't particularly warm to her character, whose wooden personality reminded me of the narrator of Long Bright River.
Nevertheless, I did find Mina's examination of the way in which women such as Nikki and Susan are treated by their society to be both incisive and affecting. While Mina doesn't shy away from portraying the stark realities and daily horrors of addiction and prostitution, she doesn't make her characters into 'pitiable' stereotypes. The thriller elements give the narrative an element of suspense, and the tension between Margot and those connected to Susan did gave the story a certain 'edge'.
Read more reviews on my blog / / / View all my reviews on Goodreads
The Less Dead is a gripping, if bleak, piece of tartan noir. When sex workers, drug addicts, migrant workers, and otherwise marginalised groups are victims of murder, they are called the 'less dead'. Their deaths are less important, not as 'impactful'. Denise Mina's novel, in a similar vein to recent releases such as Long Bright River, is less interested in its 'serial killer' storyline and more concerned with depicting the realities and experiences of women whose lives have been punctuated by sexual abuse, violence, and addiction.
Set in Glasgow, the novel introduces to thirty-something Margot Dunlop, a doctor still grieving the recent death of her mother. Margot is struggling to cope, with her break up from Joe, her longterm boyfriend, and with her pregnancy. She finds herself wanting to learn more about her birth mother, Susan, only to learn that she was brutally killed years before. Susan's was one of the nine victims of a serial killer who preyed on sex workers. Since Susan's death Nikki, Susan's older sister, has received a string of menacing letters who could only have been written by the murderer. While Nikki seems eager to get to know her niece, a disbelieving Margot is hesitant to venture into a 'world' she thinks little of. When Margot also starts to receive crude letters, she's forced to reconsider.
As Margot learns more of Susan, a young woman who refused to labelled as a victim, and her birth family, she finds herself challenging her own biases.
Mina presents her readers with a thought-provoking interrogation of class. The women she writes of, their struggles and traumas, are rendered with striking empathy. Margot, however, comes across as a far less nuanced character. Her remoteness seemed unwarranted and unexplained. She's curt to the point of being brusque, she makes a few decision that aren't truly delved into, making her seem out of character for the sake of the plot. Nikki, by comparison, not only felt truly real, but she's really admirable. Margot's relationship with her 'problematic' best friend and her ex detracted from the overall the story. These two characters didn't seem all that believable.
While the third person present tense narration did add a sense of immediacy, or urgency if you will, to the novel, it did occasionally did frustrate me. There are certain conversations that don't have quotations marks and they also became a bit gimmicky (it made sense in certain scenes, but the more this happened the less 'meaningful' it became). Another pet peeve of mine were the sections from the 'culprits' perspective. These were brief and struck me as salacious, as in 'glimpse the thoughts of a deviant mind' (as if this individual's letters didn't convey their state of mind).
Mina's story is certainly evocative and gritty. The scenes focused on Nikki were easily my favourite. Margot's 'personal' struggles, on the other hand, just didn't grab my interest. Perhaps this is because I didn't particularly warm to her character, whose wooden personality reminded me of the narrator of Long Bright River.
Nevertheless, I did find Mina's examination of the way in which women such as Nikki and Susan are treated by their society to be both incisive and affecting. While Mina doesn't shy away from portraying the stark realities and daily horrors of addiction and prostitution, she doesn't make her characters into 'pitiable' stereotypes. The thriller elements give the narrative an element of suspense, and the tension between Margot and those connected to Susan did gave the story a certain 'edge'.
Read more reviews on my blog / / / View all my reviews on Goodreads
August 21, 2020
Margot is having a thirty something crisis: she's burning out at work; she's just split with her boyfriend who was cheating on her; her mother had recently died. Margot was adopted. She can finally find out who her birth mother was.
This story examines what it's like being adopted and the impact it has on the birth family members. The pace flows along smoothly and the characters and plotline are believable. Set in Glasgow, the descriptions of the city were spot on. Denise Mina knows how to pull a reader in and not let go until you've turned the last page. This is a quick, easy and enjoyable book to read.
I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and the author Denise Mina for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This story examines what it's like being adopted and the impact it has on the birth family members. The pace flows along smoothly and the characters and plotline are believable. Set in Glasgow, the descriptions of the city were spot on. Denise Mina knows how to pull a reader in and not let go until you've turned the last page. This is a quick, easy and enjoyable book to read.
I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and the author Denise Mina for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
December 15, 2020
3.5 stars
Margot is at a crossroads in her life. Her mother has recently died, she’s left her boyfriend, her best friend is in a dangerously unhealthy relationship, and she’s just found out that she’s pregnant.
The loss of her mother and her own impending motherhood lead Margot to finally seek out her birth mother. What she finds instead is her Aunt Nikki who dumps a lot of heavy information on her immediately: Margot’s mother Susan was one of several young sex workers murdered in Glasgow when Margot was just a baby. Nikki believes a former police officer is responsible for the murders but has never been able to prove it. After all these years, Nikki still receives letters from the killer that are cruel, taunting, and threatening.
Margot doesn’t know what to make of her Aunt Nikki’s rough lifestyle or the news about her birth mother. She’s reluctant to try to build a relationship with Nikki but Margot is pulled in to her life when she receives a threatening letter hand delivered to her home.
I enjoyed this story, it was an interesting plot that builds tension between characters that kept me engaged, along with the short chapters which made it a fast read. Mina does an exceptional job of humanizing sex workers through the conversations Margot has with Nikki.
My issues with this book are Margot’s relationship with her best friend Lilah and the underwhelming climax. The friendship dynamic is confusing because it’s toxic - Margot and Lilah are more like “frenemies” - and both are going through highly emotional and potentially damaging situations. It just felt like a mess that didn’t add much to the main plot.
While I was anticipating a showdown between Margot and her mother’s killer as the story escalates, it ends before it even begins. I finished reading the scene and started re-reading, thinking, “Wait… that’s it??”
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
Margot is at a crossroads in her life. Her mother has recently died, she’s left her boyfriend, her best friend is in a dangerously unhealthy relationship, and she’s just found out that she’s pregnant.
The loss of her mother and her own impending motherhood lead Margot to finally seek out her birth mother. What she finds instead is her Aunt Nikki who dumps a lot of heavy information on her immediately: Margot’s mother Susan was one of several young sex workers murdered in Glasgow when Margot was just a baby. Nikki believes a former police officer is responsible for the murders but has never been able to prove it. After all these years, Nikki still receives letters from the killer that are cruel, taunting, and threatening.
Margot doesn’t know what to make of her Aunt Nikki’s rough lifestyle or the news about her birth mother. She’s reluctant to try to build a relationship with Nikki but Margot is pulled in to her life when she receives a threatening letter hand delivered to her home.
I enjoyed this story, it was an interesting plot that builds tension between characters that kept me engaged, along with the short chapters which made it a fast read. Mina does an exceptional job of humanizing sex workers through the conversations Margot has with Nikki.
My issues with this book are Margot’s relationship with her best friend Lilah and the underwhelming climax. The friendship dynamic is confusing because it’s toxic - Margot and Lilah are more like “frenemies” - and both are going through highly emotional and potentially damaging situations. It just felt like a mess that didn’t add much to the main plot.
While I was anticipating a showdown between Margot and her mother’s killer as the story escalates, it ends before it even begins. I finished reading the scene and started re-reading, thinking, “Wait… that’s it??”
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
May 26, 2020
Denise Mina is one of the most reliable crime writers working today. I've been reading her for more than a decade and she never disappoints. You always know you will get something full and complex and interesting and different.
Like one of her other recent books, THE LONG DROP, THE LESS DEAD changes up the typical crime novel structure. It's not a procedural and it's only sort of a mystery. What Mina is interested here is the way women are victimized, how they accept or refuse that role, and how class in particular is at play. The title refers to prostitutes who are murder victims, the police refer to them as "less dead" since they weren't really human to begin with.
Our entry point into the world is Margot, a doctor whose life is in transition. Her mother has just died after a long illness and Margot is unable to clear out the house she left behind. She has just left her boyfriend, but hasn't yet told him that she's pregnant. And in the midst of all of this she goes through the adoption agency that placed her in her family to have a meeting with Nikki, her biological aunt. Nikki is not really who Margot expected and she is reeling even more after Nikki tells her that her mother Susan was a prostitute and drug addict, and that not long after Margot's birth, she was murdered, one of a string of murders that weren't solved.
Margot is our amateur detective for the book, trying to learn more about Susan's life. Amateur detectives (and real ones, for that matter) in mysteries often try my patience because they are so incredibly dumb all the time. They make terrible decisions, they talk to people they shouldn't talk to, they don't think to protect themselves. And Margot is definitely one of these, but Mina wisely works it in as part of Margot's character. She is firmly middle class and is confused and bewildered by much of what she learns about Susan's life. She has encountered addicts only through her work, and only in the kind of brief encounters that end nearly as quickly as they begin. There is a whole other world that Margot doesn't know but one that is intimately connected with her whole existence.
The subplots here work quite well, tying in to Margot's state of inbetweenness. Especially the one of her best friend Lilah, who is escaping an abusive ex but won't really call him that. The contrast between Lilah and Susan is subtle but notable, the ways they won't see themselves as victim, but that similarity leads to drastically different attitudes and possibilities.
I would also like to call the attention of basically every thriller writer to how Mina executes the occasional chapter from a definite bad guy. This has become so common in thrillers and yet it almost always makes the book worse instead of better. Sometimes it's clearly The Killer, sometimes it's unclear, but it rarely actually increases the dread of the book and often it reveals things that would have been better held back. Here, Mina executes it perfectly. It takes us into the very thing Margot is trying to understand, so it helps us understand just how in over her head she is. It underlines the central theme of how detested women like Susan are. And it never gives away too much. One time it actually made me gasp aloud, which I don't think has ever happened in that kind of chapter before.
The third act here isn't at all standard, but I liked it even more for that refusal to give us the typical pacing and climax. I did get frustrated with Margot the closer we got to the end, and wanted very much for her to just do something reasonable please, but I got why she didn't and even if I wanted to shake her, I never wanted to shake Mina.
I hope a lot more readers have found Mina after the big success of CONVICTION. This is a pretty different book, but a worthwhile one for sure.
Like one of her other recent books, THE LONG DROP, THE LESS DEAD changes up the typical crime novel structure. It's not a procedural and it's only sort of a mystery. What Mina is interested here is the way women are victimized, how they accept or refuse that role, and how class in particular is at play. The title refers to prostitutes who are murder victims, the police refer to them as "less dead" since they weren't really human to begin with.
Our entry point into the world is Margot, a doctor whose life is in transition. Her mother has just died after a long illness and Margot is unable to clear out the house she left behind. She has just left her boyfriend, but hasn't yet told him that she's pregnant. And in the midst of all of this she goes through the adoption agency that placed her in her family to have a meeting with Nikki, her biological aunt. Nikki is not really who Margot expected and she is reeling even more after Nikki tells her that her mother Susan was a prostitute and drug addict, and that not long after Margot's birth, she was murdered, one of a string of murders that weren't solved.
Margot is our amateur detective for the book, trying to learn more about Susan's life. Amateur detectives (and real ones, for that matter) in mysteries often try my patience because they are so incredibly dumb all the time. They make terrible decisions, they talk to people they shouldn't talk to, they don't think to protect themselves. And Margot is definitely one of these, but Mina wisely works it in as part of Margot's character. She is firmly middle class and is confused and bewildered by much of what she learns about Susan's life. She has encountered addicts only through her work, and only in the kind of brief encounters that end nearly as quickly as they begin. There is a whole other world that Margot doesn't know but one that is intimately connected with her whole existence.
The subplots here work quite well, tying in to Margot's state of inbetweenness. Especially the one of her best friend Lilah, who is escaping an abusive ex but won't really call him that. The contrast between Lilah and Susan is subtle but notable, the ways they won't see themselves as victim, but that similarity leads to drastically different attitudes and possibilities.
I would also like to call the attention of basically every thriller writer to how Mina executes the occasional chapter from a definite bad guy. This has become so common in thrillers and yet it almost always makes the book worse instead of better. Sometimes it's clearly The Killer, sometimes it's unclear, but it rarely actually increases the dread of the book and often it reveals things that would have been better held back. Here, Mina executes it perfectly. It takes us into the very thing Margot is trying to understand, so it helps us understand just how in over her head she is. It underlines the central theme of how detested women like Susan are. And it never gives away too much. One time it actually made me gasp aloud, which I don't think has ever happened in that kind of chapter before.
The third act here isn't at all standard, but I liked it even more for that refusal to give us the typical pacing and climax. I did get frustrated with Margot the closer we got to the end, and wanted very much for her to just do something reasonable please, but I got why she didn't and even if I wanted to shake her, I never wanted to shake Mina.
I hope a lot more readers have found Mina after the big success of CONVICTION. This is a pretty different book, but a worthwhile one for sure.
May 24, 2021
Does it sound weird to say Denise Mina tops my very short list of the murdered girl-mystery-writers I can whole-heartedly recommend?*
Trust Mina to write a thoughtfully victim-centered murder mystery. As a Mina fan, I was thrilled to see the author revisit favorite themes in revealing new ways. We get:
💠A realistic and realistically conflicted heroine
💠Fiercely tough older women
💠Detailed snapshots of Mina's beloved Glasgow neighborhoods, past and present, both gritty and not
💠Spot-on depictions of friendships between women
💠An absorbingly twisty plot
💠Focus on and exploration of women's issues (yay!)
I wish I could do this book justice in my review. I read it nearly cover-to-cover while blessedly ignoring my real life : D
*Tana French, Kate Atkinson, and Jesse Walters are the other authors I would suggest.
7.8 hours, 177 wpm
Trust Mina to write a thoughtfully victim-centered murder mystery. As a Mina fan, I was thrilled to see the author revisit favorite themes in revealing new ways. We get:
💠A realistic and realistically conflicted heroine
💠Fiercely tough older women
💠Detailed snapshots of Mina's beloved Glasgow neighborhoods, past and present, both gritty and not
💠Spot-on depictions of friendships between women
💠An absorbingly twisty plot
💠Focus on and exploration of women's issues (yay!)
I wish I could do this book justice in my review. I read it nearly cover-to-cover while blessedly ignoring my real life : D
*Tana French, Kate Atkinson, and Jesse Walters are the other authors I would suggest.
7.8 hours, 177 wpm
June 6, 2021
Denise Mina had my attention and kept it with this gripping story in gritty Glasgow. I loved her description of the first meeting between Margot and Nikki, her birth mother's sister, which highlighted their different backgrounds and class. I also enjoyed Katie Leung's narration.
Mina's description of Margo's relationship with Lila was particularly interesting and authentic considering that they were teenagers at the time. Mina writes, "slimness was suddenly a currency between them. They got thin at each other." Theirs was a friendship of intense emotions and "the competitive undercurrent was occasionally tinged with malice."
Another passage that was poignant was the intense feeling of injustice that someone could so cruelly treat another person and take steal their life from them, yet still go about the business of living free as a bird. Indeed, "they are still out there walking around eating biscuits, drinking tea, having Christmases. She feels the injustice of it deep in her gut."
Example of enthralling scene setting:
"She can't move, she's too frightened of doing the wrong thing. The terror rises up through the floorboards. She's powerless. It comes in heavy black waves that stun and drown her dragging her down to her frozen place."
Descriptive phrases that were music to my ears:
"The tip of the bat scumbling noisily along the ground."
"Time stretches, the seconds drag out so far that the end of each is lost to view."
"Night hangs softly over the river."
"cold veil of rain."
Mina's description of Margo's relationship with Lila was particularly interesting and authentic considering that they were teenagers at the time. Mina writes, "slimness was suddenly a currency between them. They got thin at each other." Theirs was a friendship of intense emotions and "the competitive undercurrent was occasionally tinged with malice."
Another passage that was poignant was the intense feeling of injustice that someone could so cruelly treat another person and take steal their life from them, yet still go about the business of living free as a bird. Indeed, "they are still out there walking around eating biscuits, drinking tea, having Christmases. She feels the injustice of it deep in her gut."
Example of enthralling scene setting:
"She can't move, she's too frightened of doing the wrong thing. The terror rises up through the floorboards. She's powerless. It comes in heavy black waves that stun and drown her dragging her down to her frozen place."
Descriptive phrases that were music to my ears:
"The tip of the bat scumbling noisily along the ground."
"Time stretches, the seconds drag out so far that the end of each is lost to view."
"Night hangs softly over the river."
"cold veil of rain."
November 8, 2020
3.5 - rounded up. It's a true 7/10 for me though - what I wouldn't give for a ten star system!
The cops are there to protect the public. Folk like us, we're not the public. We're a nuisance to the public.
Starting with the meeting of an adopted woman and her birth mother's sister, The Less Dead was an uncomfortable, but still compelling story of - well, less a series of killings, and more the fallout surrounding that series.
This is the third book I've read this year that takes the attitude that the killer himself is the least interesting part, and long may the trend continue (These Women and The Nothing Man, if you're after more).
The writing style left me somewhat cold, and I think the characters made it worse; there's not many that are easily likeable, however much I may have grown to admire them. There's a certain of-the-moment feel to this book, too - we're dropped into the middle of things at the start, and straight back out again at the end; I'm sure there's readers who'll handle it better than me, but I just never quite knew where I stood with the book. And I'm someone already subscribed to the message it's trying to send, rather than a reader who needs to be won over!
But I do think that what it has to say is much, much more important than how it said it, and thus the round upwards. Our main character is certainly more privileged than most of the victims themselves; but it's not used to give her an advantage. Instead it allows her to question what's obvious to anyone used to desperation, to be given revelations that the system really can fail someone completely if they don't consider them as quite human. And through her, perhaps the reader. All I'm really certain of, is if people keep writing like sex workers, and anyone else easily slapped with the "other" label, are worth the focus of the story, then maybe the message will get out that it's them we should be caring about. And that's more than enough to be worth an uncomfortable read.
The cops are there to protect the public. Folk like us, we're not the public. We're a nuisance to the public.
Starting with the meeting of an adopted woman and her birth mother's sister, The Less Dead was an uncomfortable, but still compelling story of - well, less a series of killings, and more the fallout surrounding that series.
This is the third book I've read this year that takes the attitude that the killer himself is the least interesting part, and long may the trend continue (These Women and The Nothing Man, if you're after more).
The writing style left me somewhat cold, and I think the characters made it worse; there's not many that are easily likeable, however much I may have grown to admire them. There's a certain of-the-moment feel to this book, too - we're dropped into the middle of things at the start, and straight back out again at the end; I'm sure there's readers who'll handle it better than me, but I just never quite knew where I stood with the book. And I'm someone already subscribed to the message it's trying to send, rather than a reader who needs to be won over!
But I do think that what it has to say is much, much more important than how it said it, and thus the round upwards. Our main character is certainly more privileged than most of the victims themselves; but it's not used to give her an advantage. Instead it allows her to question what's obvious to anyone used to desperation, to be given revelations that the system really can fail someone completely if they don't consider them as quite human. And through her, perhaps the reader. All I'm really certain of, is if people keep writing like sex workers, and anyone else easily slapped with the "other" label, are worth the focus of the story, then maybe the message will get out that it's them we should be caring about. And that's more than enough to be worth an uncomfortable read.
May 24, 2021
Ever since I read the fantastic "Garnethill" trilogy I have been a devout fan of Denise Mina. Deemed the 'Queen of Granite Noir', she is one of my favourite authors.
This is more a social commentary than a crime novel, though of course crimes, and their investigation lie within its pages. The title really says it all, "The Less Dead". This is how the police, and to a large extent the public, seemed to view the killing of sex workers in 1980s Glasgow. As though the women were worthless, as though their death mattered much less. They were the 'less dead' and not worth a thorough investigation. These disregarded and disdained women were viewed with apathy. They were unremarkable and unmemorable and their murder investigations were given the very lowest priority.
The Glasgow setting is intrinsic to the story and is almost a character unto itself. Well described by an author who clearly loves her home city - warts and all. "The Less Dead" was inspired by the real life murders of sex workers in Glasgow in the late 1980s and early 90s.
Margot's reluctance to keep the police apprised of her situation was frustrating, though understandable in a way - especially in light of Lilah's frequent run-ins with the law. She puts herself in jeopardy in a foolhardy way, yet you can understand her motivation.
The ending didn't surprise me. The journey to the ending was compelling. Recommended!
This is more a social commentary than a crime novel, though of course crimes, and their investigation lie within its pages. The title really says it all, "The Less Dead". This is how the police, and to a large extent the public, seemed to view the killing of sex workers in 1980s Glasgow. As though the women were worthless, as though their death mattered much less. They were the 'less dead' and not worth a thorough investigation. These disregarded and disdained women were viewed with apathy. They were unremarkable and unmemorable and their murder investigations were given the very lowest priority.
The Glasgow setting is intrinsic to the story and is almost a character unto itself. Well described by an author who clearly loves her home city - warts and all. "The Less Dead" was inspired by the real life murders of sex workers in Glasgow in the late 1980s and early 90s.
Margot's reluctance to keep the police apprised of her situation was frustrating, though understandable in a way - especially in light of Lilah's frequent run-ins with the law. She puts herself in jeopardy in a foolhardy way, yet you can understand her motivation.
The ending didn't surprise me. The journey to the ending was compelling. Recommended!
October 5, 2020
Hmm. This book was a little bit all over the place for me.
Margo's adoptive mother, Janette, has passed away recently. When Margo was cleaning out her house, she discovered letters from her biological aunt which Janette had not shared with her. Curious about her origins, Margo arranges to meet Nikki through an adoption agency that facilitates family meetings. Nikki's roughness is unsettling for Margo and she learns that her mother, Susan, was a prostitute that was murdered. Shortly after the meeting with Nikki, she receives a threatening letter and has a break-in at her apartment. This leads Margo on a pseudo search for the murderer who Nikki believes is still out there.
A parallel story line involves Margo's best friend, Lilah, who has recently left her abusive partner, Richard, who is the half brother of Margo's ex-partner. She seems to have ended their relationship out of solidarity with Lilah.
Then the book ends very oddly, leaving me with a what was that all about look on my face.
Margo's adoptive mother, Janette, has passed away recently. When Margo was cleaning out her house, she discovered letters from her biological aunt which Janette had not shared with her. Curious about her origins, Margo arranges to meet Nikki through an adoption agency that facilitates family meetings. Nikki's roughness is unsettling for Margo and she learns that her mother, Susan, was a prostitute that was murdered. Shortly after the meeting with Nikki, she receives a threatening letter and has a break-in at her apartment. This leads Margo on a pseudo search for the murderer who Nikki believes is still out there.
A parallel story line involves Margo's best friend, Lilah, who has recently left her abusive partner, Richard, who is the half brother of Margo's ex-partner. She seems to have ended their relationship out of solidarity with Lilah.
Then the book ends very oddly, leaving me with a what was that all about look on my face.
September 25, 2020
Denise Mina has used her native Glasgow as background in all of her books, deconstructing the changes she's witnessed, and producing works of amazing originality and purpose. This, her latest, addresses the vicious circle of need to addiction to either making do or attempting to escape via the only means available. Susan Brodie met her end while on the job, but her story picks up 30 years later through the daughter she gave up for adoption. Margot Dunlop, a doctor thanks to fortunate placement, attempts to discover the truths of her birth family, and finds she's inherited more than a wild head of hair. Mina really shines in her depictions of characters and location, all of which are vividly, memorably presented. She gives meaning and dignity to those, mostly women, who have been marginalized due to circumstances of life, beyond their control. Hats off to her for her compassion and for seeing the possibilities.
June 25, 2020
"The Less Dead" by Denise Mina was a depressingly real and descriptive read!
First of all, I do want to thank Goodreads for the generosity of this ARC Kindle ebook I received from a recent giveaway. A disclaimer at the beginning of this ebook stated it contained "uncorrected advance content" so I was forgiving of misspelled & missing words and the grammatical errors throughout the copy! I was grateful for what I received and the current condition of the content did not distract from the story one bit!!
Margo Dunlap is the main character. She's a doctor, an adopted daughter, recently separated from her significant other and pregnant! If that isn't enough, her adoptive mother has just passed, spurring her to search for her birth mother who, she soon discovers, was murdered years ago, the murderer never found. What a way to get a book rolling, right?
This book is definitely a thriller and I loved the twists & turns and the mounting suspense from one chapters end to the beginning of the next. I found myself continuing on long after I told myself I was going to stop. However, it was also the topics concerning relationships between mothers & daughters, friends & lovers, brothers & sisters that held my interest. How life's choices, right or wrong, can impact the remainder of your life and the lives of so many others, as well.
This is the first book I have read from the author, Denise Mina and I really enjoyed it from cover to cover! At the end of this book, I felt hopeful instead of sad for the main character. Margo was stronger and had found most of the answers she needed to continue on to her future.
First of all, I do want to thank Goodreads for the generosity of this ARC Kindle ebook I received from a recent giveaway. A disclaimer at the beginning of this ebook stated it contained "uncorrected advance content" so I was forgiving of misspelled & missing words and the grammatical errors throughout the copy! I was grateful for what I received and the current condition of the content did not distract from the story one bit!!
Margo Dunlap is the main character. She's a doctor, an adopted daughter, recently separated from her significant other and pregnant! If that isn't enough, her adoptive mother has just passed, spurring her to search for her birth mother who, she soon discovers, was murdered years ago, the murderer never found. What a way to get a book rolling, right?
This book is definitely a thriller and I loved the twists & turns and the mounting suspense from one chapters end to the beginning of the next. I found myself continuing on long after I told myself I was going to stop. However, it was also the topics concerning relationships between mothers & daughters, friends & lovers, brothers & sisters that held my interest. How life's choices, right or wrong, can impact the remainder of your life and the lives of so many others, as well.
This is the first book I have read from the author, Denise Mina and I really enjoyed it from cover to cover! At the end of this book, I felt hopeful instead of sad for the main character. Margo was stronger and had found most of the answers she needed to continue on to her future.
February 13, 2021
I tried so so so hard to finish this book because ultimately I loved the premise of it but it really bored me to tears. The main character is weak and boring yet still believes she is better than everyone. I got around halfway and really struggled to both enjoy the book and not put it down. I even checked the ending reading the last chapter or so and the ending seemed woefully uninteresting
A book that started with so much promise but fell flat of delivering. I couldn’t empathise with Margo it was like part of her personality was missing and there were too many plot problems for me.
A book that started with so much promise but fell flat of delivering. I couldn’t empathise with Margo it was like part of her personality was missing and there were too many plot problems for me.
June 25, 2022
The less than perfect Denise Mina. Or; it's probably me, not this book.
So I love Denise Minas writing and the stories usually spellbind me, but not so much this time. I'm well aware this may be on me and at times I certainly got sucked in. For much of the book though, I had a hard time to see the characters clearly before me (and sometimes to remember who was who).
All in all, a perfectly good read, narrative is great as always and I'd never give less than the 'liked it' 3 stars. I will re-read it though at another point in time and see if I'm better receptive.
So I love Denise Minas writing and the stories usually spellbind me, but not so much this time. I'm well aware this may be on me and at times I certainly got sucked in. For much of the book though, I had a hard time to see the characters clearly before me (and sometimes to remember who was who).
All in all, a perfectly good read, narrative is great as always and I'd never give less than the 'liked it' 3 stars. I will re-read it though at another point in time and see if I'm better receptive.
July 27, 2020
Denise Mina is a brilliant writer and I have loved much of her work, but I don’t think The Less Dead is one of her best.
Margo, a Glasgow GP, was adopted at a few days old and has now arranged to meet the sister of her birth mother in order to find out more about her background. This leads Margo into dark territory among Glasgow’s heroin addicts, sex workers and also sparks some very sinister threats to her personally.
Mina, as always, writes very well, but overall I found the book rather unsatisfactory. It opens with a long passage in which Margo, is waiting to meet her birth mother’s siter, who is very late. A lot of pages pass before she finally appears, which rather sets the tone of the book, in which not much happens for pretty long periods. There’s a great deal of atmospheric scene-setting and exploration of Margo’s internal state, which Denise Mina does exceptionally well, of course, and a very good, insightful and compassionate portrait of the life of sex workers and people’s attitudes to them, but it’s all within a structure which didn’t really work for me.
It turns out that Margo’s mother was an addict and a sex worker who was murdered. Gradually it emerges that someone is stalking Margo and that they know a great deal about her mother’s killing. This too is quite well done, but there are so many other fragmented plot strands that the whole thing seemed a bit of a mess to me. There’s an unrelated story about a friend in an abusive relationship, which may be intended to illustrate aspects of the main story but to me just seemed to be a major distraction. There are some red herrings which didn’t really convince at all and, frankly, I found it a bit of a mess.
I’m sorry to be critical of a very fine writer whose work I usually love, but I can only give this one a very qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to Harvill, Secker for an ARC via NetGalley.)
Margo, a Glasgow GP, was adopted at a few days old and has now arranged to meet the sister of her birth mother in order to find out more about her background. This leads Margo into dark territory among Glasgow’s heroin addicts, sex workers and also sparks some very sinister threats to her personally.
Mina, as always, writes very well, but overall I found the book rather unsatisfactory. It opens with a long passage in which Margo, is waiting to meet her birth mother’s siter, who is very late. A lot of pages pass before she finally appears, which rather sets the tone of the book, in which not much happens for pretty long periods. There’s a great deal of atmospheric scene-setting and exploration of Margo’s internal state, which Denise Mina does exceptionally well, of course, and a very good, insightful and compassionate portrait of the life of sex workers and people’s attitudes to them, but it’s all within a structure which didn’t really work for me.
It turns out that Margo’s mother was an addict and a sex worker who was murdered. Gradually it emerges that someone is stalking Margo and that they know a great deal about her mother’s killing. This too is quite well done, but there are so many other fragmented plot strands that the whole thing seemed a bit of a mess to me. There’s an unrelated story about a friend in an abusive relationship, which may be intended to illustrate aspects of the main story but to me just seemed to be a major distraction. There are some red herrings which didn’t really convince at all and, frankly, I found it a bit of a mess.
I’m sorry to be critical of a very fine writer whose work I usually love, but I can only give this one a very qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to Harvill, Secker for an ARC via NetGalley.)
June 1, 2021
Depressing & Grim
Review of the Little, Brown & Company audiobook edition (August 2020) released simultaneously with the Mulholland Books hardcover
Perhaps I should have known what I was getting into with this latest from Denise Mina, who is tagged as the "Queen of Tartan Noir," but early signs had been encouraging. The Less Dead was the 1st book in talk show host/comedian Graham Norton's Book Club Podcast (2021). Most Reviews and Ratings for Mina's previous book Conviction (2019) were positive. Finding this as a quick borrow from the Toronto Public Library's audiobooks on Overdrive was the next sign (several holds would have been ahead of me on the paperback edition).
Mina's examination of the deaths of Glasgow sex workers is set off by her protagonist Dr. Margot Dunlop seeking out her birth mother after her adoptive mother's death. She discovers that her mother Susan had been a sex worker and learns all this from her birth aunt Nikki, also a prostitute. This then appears to trigger the original murderer who proceeds to taunt them both with misogynist messages and threats. A subplot has Margot's friend in an abusive relationship. It all repeats ad infinitum with some predictable conclusions and an 11th hour revelation with little satisfaction or hope.
I don't know if I would have found this more intriguing or dramatic under better circumstances, but as it was I had only recently read a more impressive and compulsive variation on a similar plot in Ivy Pochoda's These Women (2020) which also examined serial cold case murders of sex workers (although in set in Los Angeles, USA). Pochoda's portrayal of survivors, victims, relatives, exploiters and authorities was so much more compelling, even if it was on a similar grim topic. Mina's account in contrast became simply tedious and depressing. I know it's not fair to compare books in this way, but just as chance put Mina's book on my radar, it was also chance that I had read Pochoda's only several weeks ago. Perhaps I'll still give Mina's Conviction a try at some point.
Trivia and LInk
Mina based her fictional story on a true series of Glasgow sex worker murders from the 1990s/2000s, which are still mostly unsolved.
Review of the Little, Brown & Company audiobook edition (August 2020) released simultaneously with the Mulholland Books hardcover
Perhaps I should have known what I was getting into with this latest from Denise Mina, who is tagged as the "Queen of Tartan Noir," but early signs had been encouraging. The Less Dead was the 1st book in talk show host/comedian Graham Norton's Book Club Podcast (2021). Most Reviews and Ratings for Mina's previous book Conviction (2019) were positive. Finding this as a quick borrow from the Toronto Public Library's audiobooks on Overdrive was the next sign (several holds would have been ahead of me on the paperback edition).
Mina's examination of the deaths of Glasgow sex workers is set off by her protagonist Dr. Margot Dunlop seeking out her birth mother after her adoptive mother's death. She discovers that her mother Susan had been a sex worker and learns all this from her birth aunt Nikki, also a prostitute. This then appears to trigger the original murderer who proceeds to taunt them both with misogynist messages and threats. A subplot has Margot's friend in an abusive relationship. It all repeats ad infinitum with some predictable conclusions and an 11th hour revelation with little satisfaction or hope.
I don't know if I would have found this more intriguing or dramatic under better circumstances, but as it was I had only recently read a more impressive and compulsive variation on a similar plot in Ivy Pochoda's These Women (2020) which also examined serial cold case murders of sex workers (although in set in Los Angeles, USA). Pochoda's portrayal of survivors, victims, relatives, exploiters and authorities was so much more compelling, even if it was on a similar grim topic. Mina's account in contrast became simply tedious and depressing. I know it's not fair to compare books in this way, but just as chance put Mina's book on my radar, it was also chance that I had read Pochoda's only several weeks ago. Perhaps I'll still give Mina's Conviction a try at some point.
Trivia and LInk
Mina based her fictional story on a true series of Glasgow sex worker murders from the 1990s/2000s, which are still mostly unsolved.
October 12, 2020
Didn't love this effort by Denise Mina, who I usually like. Aren't we over having heroines who continually do stupid things and get themselves in trouble? Surely there are other ways to move the plot forward, with menace and threat, without having foolish decisions by vulnerable women be the cause? Also, although we're told over and over again that the protagonist is a doctor, throughout the time frame of the book we never actually see her at work...maybe she was taking her annual leave and I missed that. Pretty disappointing, this one.
April 2, 2022
This author is so unique in her characters and storylines. I really enjoyed this audiobook, set in Scotland, and highly recommend it as a good thriller and mystery, but warn there is some very dark matter. Mina doesn’t waste time giving you every gory detail thankfully, but women are demeaned bc of their lower class and have been abused. Contemporary setting with flashbacks to 20-30 years earlier.
September 10, 2020
This is a novel about women. The struggles of the have nots, the women most of us think we know but we're not really familiar with the hard realities of their lives. It's also about the haves, and how each of them has an unexpected story, too.
What I like most about Denise Mina's work is that her stories are so well done. The voice is comforting and easy on the ear. Her stories are clever and inventive and original. They're not pandering or formulaic or repetitive. And they always convey the truth of things, how life really works, even the bits people try to hide. No exception with THE LESS DEAD: it's a good solid read.
What I like most about Denise Mina's work is that her stories are so well done. The voice is comforting and easy on the ear. Her stories are clever and inventive and original. They're not pandering or formulaic or repetitive. And they always convey the truth of things, how life really works, even the bits people try to hide. No exception with THE LESS DEAD: it's a good solid read.
February 14, 2021
A tale of two cities…
Two things conspire to make Margo Dunlop decide to seek out her birth mother: the recent death of her adoptive mother, and her own pregnancy which, as a doctor, has led her to worry about the possibility of unknown genetic issues. She’s too late, however – her mother, Susan, died shortly after giving Margo up for adoption. But the counselling service puts her in touch with her mother’s sister, Nikki, and they arrange to meet. Nikki has a strange story to tell, and a request to make. Like Nikki herself, Susan was a street prostitute on the Drag – Glasgow’s red light zone – back in the late1980s, when sex workers were still mostly local women (as opposed to trafficked girls from abroad), driven to the trade by a combination of poverty, lack of opportunity and, often, addiction to drink or drugs. Susan was brutally murdered and left lying naked in the street – one of a spate of murders of prostitutes over the course of a few years. Nikki is convinced the murders were carried out by one man, although the police disagree. The man in question had an alibi for the time of Susan’s murder, but Nikki hopes that Margo will be able to use her privileged position as a doctor to help break the alibi. At first, Margo thinks Nikki is some kind of fantasist, but events soon convince her that there may be some truth in her story…
I’ll start by saying the murder plot and its solution are by far the weakest part of the book. They feel like little more than a vehicle to allow Mina to discuss what clearly interested her far more – the lives of those involved in the sex trade at that time, and how they were treated by a society that preferred to ignore their existence, and by a police force who saw them as third-class citizens. Hence the title – murdered prostitutes were considered “the less dead”, and the investigations into their deaths were perfunctory and under-resourced. The general feeling was that they “asked for it”.
Fortunately, I was also far more interested in that aspect, so the weakness of the murder plot didn’t spoil the book for me. Mina’s knowledge of Glasgow appears to be encyclopaedic and, although she is dealing mostly with a section of society that I knew and still know very little about, the city she describes feels entirely authentic. This was a time of huge change for Glasgow, dragging itself out of the poverty and gang violence of the post-war era and recreating itself as a modern, vibrant cultural centre. Mina’s story straddles this transformation, Susan a product of the old times and Margo of a new, more affluent and perhaps more hopeful future, but still saddled metaphorically as well as literally by the city’s past. Of course there are still major problems of poverty and inequality as in all large cities, and Mina is as clear-sighted about the present as the past. Street prostitution may not be as commonplace, but only because it’s now carried on indoors – still largely driven by addiction, still as prevalent, still as sordid, but better hidden from disapproving eyes.
Nikki is a wonderful creation – too strong to be pitied or demeaned, but with no attempt to glorify her or the trade she worked in either. The book isn’t done as a dual timeline, so that we learn about the past wholly through the eyes of those in the present who were there at the time. Nikki is around fifty now, a survivor who made it through mostly by her own efforts but helped a little by the general improvement in standards of life over the recent decades. There are enough touches of Glaswegian dialect in her speech to make it authentically distinctive, while causing no problems for a non-Glaswegian reader. Margo’s middle-class upbringing provides a reason for Nikki to explain things about her very different life naturally, as one would to anyone who hadn’t shared one’s life experiences, and this of course means that she explains it to the reader too.
I found Margo and her middle-class friends slightly less well portrayed, but only in comparison. As she tries to work out what happened to the mother she never knew, Margo’s drives around the city and visits to various houses in different parts of it give the reader a real sense of a place of contrasts – wealthy and poor, old and new, respectable and seedy. I wondered, though, if my fascination for this deep gaze at my own city would be shared by people who don’t know it, or if they might find themselves wishing that the drives didn’t last as long and fewer street names and street histories were given. However, this is a far more accurate depiction of Glasgow than in the vast majority of contemporary crime fiction, written, I feel, with unromanticized affection, and the strength of the story of these despised and disregarded women well outweighs the weaknesses in the mystery plot. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Random House Vintage.
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Two things conspire to make Margo Dunlop decide to seek out her birth mother: the recent death of her adoptive mother, and her own pregnancy which, as a doctor, has led her to worry about the possibility of unknown genetic issues. She’s too late, however – her mother, Susan, died shortly after giving Margo up for adoption. But the counselling service puts her in touch with her mother’s sister, Nikki, and they arrange to meet. Nikki has a strange story to tell, and a request to make. Like Nikki herself, Susan was a street prostitute on the Drag – Glasgow’s red light zone – back in the late1980s, when sex workers were still mostly local women (as opposed to trafficked girls from abroad), driven to the trade by a combination of poverty, lack of opportunity and, often, addiction to drink or drugs. Susan was brutally murdered and left lying naked in the street – one of a spate of murders of prostitutes over the course of a few years. Nikki is convinced the murders were carried out by one man, although the police disagree. The man in question had an alibi for the time of Susan’s murder, but Nikki hopes that Margo will be able to use her privileged position as a doctor to help break the alibi. At first, Margo thinks Nikki is some kind of fantasist, but events soon convince her that there may be some truth in her story…
I’ll start by saying the murder plot and its solution are by far the weakest part of the book. They feel like little more than a vehicle to allow Mina to discuss what clearly interested her far more – the lives of those involved in the sex trade at that time, and how they were treated by a society that preferred to ignore their existence, and by a police force who saw them as third-class citizens. Hence the title – murdered prostitutes were considered “the less dead”, and the investigations into their deaths were perfunctory and under-resourced. The general feeling was that they “asked for it”.
Fortunately, I was also far more interested in that aspect, so the weakness of the murder plot didn’t spoil the book for me. Mina’s knowledge of Glasgow appears to be encyclopaedic and, although she is dealing mostly with a section of society that I knew and still know very little about, the city she describes feels entirely authentic. This was a time of huge change for Glasgow, dragging itself out of the poverty and gang violence of the post-war era and recreating itself as a modern, vibrant cultural centre. Mina’s story straddles this transformation, Susan a product of the old times and Margo of a new, more affluent and perhaps more hopeful future, but still saddled metaphorically as well as literally by the city’s past. Of course there are still major problems of poverty and inequality as in all large cities, and Mina is as clear-sighted about the present as the past. Street prostitution may not be as commonplace, but only because it’s now carried on indoors – still largely driven by addiction, still as prevalent, still as sordid, but better hidden from disapproving eyes.
Nikki is a wonderful creation – too strong to be pitied or demeaned, but with no attempt to glorify her or the trade she worked in either. The book isn’t done as a dual timeline, so that we learn about the past wholly through the eyes of those in the present who were there at the time. Nikki is around fifty now, a survivor who made it through mostly by her own efforts but helped a little by the general improvement in standards of life over the recent decades. There are enough touches of Glaswegian dialect in her speech to make it authentically distinctive, while causing no problems for a non-Glaswegian reader. Margo’s middle-class upbringing provides a reason for Nikki to explain things about her very different life naturally, as one would to anyone who hadn’t shared one’s life experiences, and this of course means that she explains it to the reader too.
I found Margo and her middle-class friends slightly less well portrayed, but only in comparison. As she tries to work out what happened to the mother she never knew, Margo’s drives around the city and visits to various houses in different parts of it give the reader a real sense of a place of contrasts – wealthy and poor, old and new, respectable and seedy. I wondered, though, if my fascination for this deep gaze at my own city would be shared by people who don’t know it, or if they might find themselves wishing that the drives didn’t last as long and fewer street names and street histories were given. However, this is a far more accurate depiction of Glasgow than in the vast majority of contemporary crime fiction, written, I feel, with unromanticized affection, and the strength of the story of these despised and disregarded women well outweighs the weaknesses in the mystery plot. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Random House Vintage.
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February 4, 2022
2.5 stars
Margot's adoptive mother has just passed away and she's gotten in touch with her biological family. She learns that her biological mother passed away many years ago and meets her aunt through the adoption agency.
Her aunt tells her that her mother was murdered and needs her help to prove her suspicions about who did it. Margot learns about the difficult lives of the prostitutes in the area while she does some investigating of her own. She then starts to receive disturbing letters and knows that someone is following her.
I was intrigued by this one, and was probably leaning toward 4 stars all the way through, but the end was rushed and confusing and I was lost. So 2.5 stars overall. It had potential, but needed that extra polish at the end.
Margot's adoptive mother has just passed away and she's gotten in touch with her biological family. She learns that her biological mother passed away many years ago and meets her aunt through the adoption agency.
Her aunt tells her that her mother was murdered and needs her help to prove her suspicions about who did it. Margot learns about the difficult lives of the prostitutes in the area while she does some investigating of her own. She then starts to receive disturbing letters and knows that someone is following her.
I was intrigued by this one, and was probably leaning toward 4 stars all the way through, but the end was rushed and confusing and I was lost. So 2.5 stars overall. It had potential, but needed that extra polish at the end.
August 31, 2020
This is a very clever thriller with its roots in the dark days of Glasgow; especially around drugs and prostitution.
It approaches an old serial killer case from a modern day person looking back to understand her birth mother. When her adoptive mother dies Margo comes across her aunt’s letters trying to make contact with her. These letters were hidden and the correspondence is a total surprise.
Margo decides to respond, through an adoption agency that supervises reconciliation meetings, to find out about her birth mother.
This takes her down a path that she could never have imagined. Her mother gave her up because of her life of drug dependency and lifestyle of prostitution.
Initially frightened by her new found family she becomes determined to find out about her mother’s life choices and who murdered her. Margo disorientated becomes immersed into a world she is unprepared for; where she struggles to understand why women worked the streets and is horrified to learn how in little regard, lives like here mother’s, were held. Margo feels she can look into matters, ask questions and perhaps find out what happened to her mother and why.
Meanwhile, the reader becomes aware that someone is stalking her; threatening her with obscene letters and could pose a series threat to her life.
The author has the police remaining impotent still in modern times which is telling as Margo leads the investigation into these old murders, especially her own mother’s case. 8
A true thriller. Well researched piece into street prostitution. Motives, reasons the women continue this life and the men around them.
The book is strong on female characters and the bond between the women outlined grows as the novel progresses. Margo is on a steep learning curve and it becomes very personal to her. As readers we are given fleshed out characters and as a result we can better appreciate the subject matter beyond serial killer murders prostitutes as in similar stereotype investigations since Jack the Ripper.
The writing is balanced and well paced allowing conflicting thoughts to come and go as understanding forms.
The whole story can be unpacked in terms of these distinctive roles of men and women around attitudes to sex, sex work and pornography. But it tells more than just a bleak story of exploitation, control and male violence. It demonstrates women being enabled, supported and taking back control.
You fear for Margo as the stalker gets closer to her and you wonder just how it will end. Margo it seems has gained strength through learning about her birth mother but can she avoid her ultimate fate at the hands of the same or some copy-cat murderer.
Denise Mina writes gritty crime thrillers without wasting her words. This is a book full of insight and passion. Without judgement on the lives portrayed the storytelling is tense and thrilling, Glasgow is seen to be changing but in this novel we are reminded of how lives were blighted in the past and how some in society were deemed less than human.
Problems and uncaring attitudes still impact on the lives of some in society today. Violence of men to women remains as unreported; women left without justice and especially among some disadvantaged groups. In this wonderful novel the spotlight has been shone briefly on such issues but in the art of good storytelling the reader was kept in the dark about who would survive the violence, endure the thrilling moments and reach the end of book. A must read both as a crime thriller and as a social mirror - I like a book that scares me but also makes me think.
It approaches an old serial killer case from a modern day person looking back to understand her birth mother. When her adoptive mother dies Margo comes across her aunt’s letters trying to make contact with her. These letters were hidden and the correspondence is a total surprise.
Margo decides to respond, through an adoption agency that supervises reconciliation meetings, to find out about her birth mother.
This takes her down a path that she could never have imagined. Her mother gave her up because of her life of drug dependency and lifestyle of prostitution.
Initially frightened by her new found family she becomes determined to find out about her mother’s life choices and who murdered her. Margo disorientated becomes immersed into a world she is unprepared for; where she struggles to understand why women worked the streets and is horrified to learn how in little regard, lives like here mother’s, were held. Margo feels she can look into matters, ask questions and perhaps find out what happened to her mother and why.
Meanwhile, the reader becomes aware that someone is stalking her; threatening her with obscene letters and could pose a series threat to her life.
The author has the police remaining impotent still in modern times which is telling as Margo leads the investigation into these old murders, especially her own mother’s case. 8
A true thriller. Well researched piece into street prostitution. Motives, reasons the women continue this life and the men around them.
The book is strong on female characters and the bond between the women outlined grows as the novel progresses. Margo is on a steep learning curve and it becomes very personal to her. As readers we are given fleshed out characters and as a result we can better appreciate the subject matter beyond serial killer murders prostitutes as in similar stereotype investigations since Jack the Ripper.
The writing is balanced and well paced allowing conflicting thoughts to come and go as understanding forms.
The whole story can be unpacked in terms of these distinctive roles of men and women around attitudes to sex, sex work and pornography. But it tells more than just a bleak story of exploitation, control and male violence. It demonstrates women being enabled, supported and taking back control.
You fear for Margo as the stalker gets closer to her and you wonder just how it will end. Margo it seems has gained strength through learning about her birth mother but can she avoid her ultimate fate at the hands of the same or some copy-cat murderer.
Denise Mina writes gritty crime thrillers without wasting her words. This is a book full of insight and passion. Without judgement on the lives portrayed the storytelling is tense and thrilling, Glasgow is seen to be changing but in this novel we are reminded of how lives were blighted in the past and how some in society were deemed less than human.
Problems and uncaring attitudes still impact on the lives of some in society today. Violence of men to women remains as unreported; women left without justice and especially among some disadvantaged groups. In this wonderful novel the spotlight has been shone briefly on such issues but in the art of good storytelling the reader was kept in the dark about who would survive the violence, endure the thrilling moments and reach the end of book. A must read both as a crime thriller and as a social mirror - I like a book that scares me but also makes me think.
August 18, 2020
Margot's mother has died and she's left her partner because, having become pregnant, she's not sure he's someone to raise a child with. In the middle of that upheaval, she meets her birth mother's sister. Her birth family is very different from Margot. She's a GP with a quiet middle-class life and her aunt and mother were both drug-addicted prostitutes with unstable childhoods and while her aunt is now clean, she's still part of Glasgow's underclass. Margot wanted to find out about her mother's health history but what she gets instead is a plea to help bring her mother's murderer to justice. Margot is torn between a fascination with her mother's life and murder and a wariness about her rediscovered family. And her best friend is having trouble leaving her abusive husband, she's getting threatening letters slipped under her door and someone may be following her.
Denise Mina writes with heart and compassion about Glasgow's underclass, and in this novel that skill is well-deployed. Here, the bad guys are both very bad and very human, the protagonist is flawed, yet brave and the many characters, from Margot herself to those we encounter for only a sentence or two are complex and real. There's a terrifying scene with a drunk mugger in which the mugger is both menacing and pitiful. This is Mina at her best, a well-plotted noir set in the back streets and hidden closes of Glasgow.
Denise Mina writes with heart and compassion about Glasgow's underclass, and in this novel that skill is well-deployed. Here, the bad guys are both very bad and very human, the protagonist is flawed, yet brave and the many characters, from Margot herself to those we encounter for only a sentence or two are complex and real. There's a terrifying scene with a drunk mugger in which the mugger is both menacing and pitiful. This is Mina at her best, a well-plotted noir set in the back streets and hidden closes of Glasgow.
September 19, 2020
After firmly establishing herself as a Crown Princess of Tartan Noir thanks to three outstanding series (Garnethill, Paddy Meehan, Alex Morrow), Glasgow scribe Denise Mina has poured her immense storytelling talents into unique standalones in recent years. Her latest tale, The Less Dead, is another brilliant novel that takes readers into some uncharted waters. A fascinating read, it's quite bleak and grim in its content, yet compelling and heartfelt too. Set in Glasgow but exploring issues that resonate globally.
It takes readers into the lives of those who struggle on the margins, who work or live on the streets, the type of people whose deaths have been marked ‘No Humans Involved’ on NYPD case files. Or the ‘less dead’, as Nikki shares with Margo. While there’s a whodunnit aspect to Mina’s latest, it shines brightest in how it takes us into others’ lives. A fine novel, more focused on characters (and society) than the solving of a crime.
It takes readers into the lives of those who struggle on the margins, who work or live on the streets, the type of people whose deaths have been marked ‘No Humans Involved’ on NYPD case files. Or the ‘less dead’, as Nikki shares with Margo. While there’s a whodunnit aspect to Mina’s latest, it shines brightest in how it takes us into others’ lives. A fine novel, more focused on characters (and society) than the solving of a crime.
July 7, 2021
Terribly written book, from the beginning to the end! From useless vacant characters in the book (i.e. Margo's ex-partner, why?!), to why the main character Margo was doing what she was doing in obvious dumbness! It's one of the worst books I have read in years, SO predictable; prostitutes / Glasgow / drugs), lame (...again; prostitutes / Glasgow / drugs), pathetic and I have no understanding how (or why!) this got published! I do a buddy book read in a club and this book was picked, phew I struggled to get through it but needed to for discussions with my reading buddy and we both thought the same thing about the writing, content, characters etc., it truly is TERRIBLE! A 10 year old could write a better crime novel.
August 6, 2020
This is a great mystery told quickly and concisely, but I still have a feel for all the characters. GOod plot, and not the ending I expected ;)
August 19, 2020
I loved Conviction so I was eager for the opportunity to read Denise Mina’s newest release, The Less Dead.
In the wake of her adoptive mother’s death, newly separated and pregnant. Glasgow GP Margo Dunlop, decides she wants to meet her biological family. She learns that her biological mother is long dead, but her Aunt Nikki, her mother’s older sister, is eager to connect with her. Their first meeting, in a small room at the reconciliation center, leaves Margo reeling when she is told that her mother, Susan, was a drug addicted prostitute who was brutally stabbed to death just months after Margo’s birth, and Nikki wants Margo’s help to solve her murder.
“It’s a cruel story to tell a stranger. Asking for things. Demanding things. It’s not her problem, all these long-ago things. She’s got enough going on.”
A compelling novel with a noir sensibility, The Less Dead sees Margo reluctantly drawn into her Aunt’s quest to hold someone responsible for Susan’s murder. Uncomfortable with Nikki’s intensity and her biological family’s unsavoury past, Margo’s commitment is half-hearted until she too becomes a target of vile, anonymous letters that appear to be from the killer.
“'When we get killed they call us the 'less dead', like we were never really alive to begin with.”
‘We’ refers to sex workers, drug addicts, migrants and the poor, women like Susan and Nikki, and ‘they’ the Glasgow police who routinely turned a blind eye when it came to crimes against women on the street. Susan was one of nine sex workers from the same small area murdered in the eighties. The women themselves feared a serial killer, the police were uninterested, Nikki later became convinced the murderer was a cop. Whomever it is, he has continued to taunt Nikki over the last thirty plus years, and now Margo has his attention and the tension rises as the killer grows increasingly obsessed.
“It doesn’t feel as if she’s looking at someone else at all but a younger self, a splinter Margo.”
Honestly I found Margo to be a frustrating character who, even with the recognition she was under an enormous amount of stress, often made inexplicable decisions. However, I was impressed with the way the author explored the contrast between Margo’s adopted middle class life, and that of her struggling biological family through her. Margo may look almost exactly like her late mother but she had no understanding of life she lead, or the environment she grew up in, and the way in which she is forced to confront her own prejudice, assumptions and authority is intelligent and thought-provoking.
“... we made being outsiders the thing we were. They couldn’t break us or make us lie. We knew who we were.”
It was Nikki who I found the most interesting and authentically portrayed, along with Lizzy and Susan (even though she is not actually present). I felt sorry about the hardships the women experienced, but never found them pitiable, in fact I admired them.
Though not a fast-paced book, The Less Dead is thrilling, with a pervasive sense of unease and a steady increase in tension. Gritty, insightful and absorbing, it’s only the character of Margo that unfortunately let it down for me.
In the wake of her adoptive mother’s death, newly separated and pregnant. Glasgow GP Margo Dunlop, decides she wants to meet her biological family. She learns that her biological mother is long dead, but her Aunt Nikki, her mother’s older sister, is eager to connect with her. Their first meeting, in a small room at the reconciliation center, leaves Margo reeling when she is told that her mother, Susan, was a drug addicted prostitute who was brutally stabbed to death just months after Margo’s birth, and Nikki wants Margo’s help to solve her murder.
“It’s a cruel story to tell a stranger. Asking for things. Demanding things. It’s not her problem, all these long-ago things. She’s got enough going on.”
A compelling novel with a noir sensibility, The Less Dead sees Margo reluctantly drawn into her Aunt’s quest to hold someone responsible for Susan’s murder. Uncomfortable with Nikki’s intensity and her biological family’s unsavoury past, Margo’s commitment is half-hearted until she too becomes a target of vile, anonymous letters that appear to be from the killer.
“'When we get killed they call us the 'less dead', like we were never really alive to begin with.”
‘We’ refers to sex workers, drug addicts, migrants and the poor, women like Susan and Nikki, and ‘they’ the Glasgow police who routinely turned a blind eye when it came to crimes against women on the street. Susan was one of nine sex workers from the same small area murdered in the eighties. The women themselves feared a serial killer, the police were uninterested, Nikki later became convinced the murderer was a cop. Whomever it is, he has continued to taunt Nikki over the last thirty plus years, and now Margo has his attention and the tension rises as the killer grows increasingly obsessed.
“It doesn’t feel as if she’s looking at someone else at all but a younger self, a splinter Margo.”
Honestly I found Margo to be a frustrating character who, even with the recognition she was under an enormous amount of stress, often made inexplicable decisions. However, I was impressed with the way the author explored the contrast between Margo’s adopted middle class life, and that of her struggling biological family through her. Margo may look almost exactly like her late mother but she had no understanding of life she lead, or the environment she grew up in, and the way in which she is forced to confront her own prejudice, assumptions and authority is intelligent and thought-provoking.
“... we made being outsiders the thing we were. They couldn’t break us or make us lie. We knew who we were.”
It was Nikki who I found the most interesting and authentically portrayed, along with Lizzy and Susan (even though she is not actually present). I felt sorry about the hardships the women experienced, but never found them pitiable, in fact I admired them.
Though not a fast-paced book, The Less Dead is thrilling, with a pervasive sense of unease and a steady increase in tension. Gritty, insightful and absorbing, it’s only the character of Margo that unfortunately let it down for me.
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