Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 8 reviews on
William Watt's wife, daughter, and sister-in-law are dead, slaughtered in their own home in a brutal crime that scandalized Glasgow. Despite an ironclad alibi, police zero in on Watt as the primary suspect, but he maintains his innocence. Distraught and desperate to clear his name, Watt puts out a bounty for information that will lead him to the real killer.
Peter Manuel claims he knows the truth that will set Watt free and has information that only the killer would know. It won't come cheap. Manuel is an infamous career criminal, a degenerate liar who can't be trusted and will say, or do, anything to make a buck.
But Manuel has something that Watt wants, which makes him the perfect target for Manuel's consummate con. Watt agrees to sit down with Manuel and before they know it, one drink has turned into an epic, forgotten night of carousing across the city's bars and clubs that exposes the thin line between a good yarn and the truth.
The next time the unlikely pair meets is across the witness stand in court -- where Manuel is on trial for the murder of Watt's family. Manuel calls Watt to the stand to testify about the long, shady night they shared together. And the shocking testimony that Manuel coaxes out of Watt threatens to expose the dark hearts of the guilty...and the innocent.
Based on true events, The Long Drop is an explosive, unsettling novel about guilt, innocence and the power of a good story to hide the difference.
Mystery writer; crazy cat lady; lover of vegetarian cooking, true crime, 80s music, and more.
One of my resolutions for the year is to up my reading game. I'm really looking forward to The Long Drop by Denise Mina . I love her fiction and I love true crime, so this should be fun. If you don't know Mina's books, I'd start with The Field of Blood.
Author, attorney, translator, occasional lawprof @NYUGallatin. @MakeTheRoadNY Legal alum.
“He knows too much to be an honest man but says he wants to help.” – Denise Mina, The Long Drop https://t.co/tUg2BPD5Ot
Publishing Director of Raven Books. Lover of the gripping & the gothic, the contemporary & the cunning. Comprehensive school girl in literary world.
@RowanHLB I'd say ones like The Long Drop by Denise Mina (super dark); An Instance of the Fingerpost, Fingersmith; Bleak House (if that counts); anything really by Gillian Flynn (super obvious I know); Megan Abbott and also Tana French, who I think is just brilliant.
"An atmospheric, chilling thriller...The power of Mina's writing is such that she can transport readers from placidity to violent pandemonium in the space of a paragraph."
--Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post