I like you but not in that way – “Field of Blood” by Denise Mina

“Field of Blood” by Denise Mina, Published in 2004

I am not impressed. I really wanted to be but I am not.  The writing is there, the characters are good, the story was alright but something didn’t fall into place for me.

Paddy Meehan is an up and coming journalist in Glasgow in 1981.  Well that is a bit of a stretch, she is more of a coffee girl for the local paper.  Paddy is a young, insecure girl – engaged to the boy her family loves and headed down the road to marriage and all of the trappings of what a good catholic girl should want.  But she doesn’t. She wants a career in journalism. She wants to change the world.

None of this makes her family particularly happy and that makes Paddy feel incredibly ostracized.   It doesn’t help that her name is the same as a small time crook who was wrongfully imprisoned for killing a woman in the 60s. It is also not helpful that she is trying to lose weight and is stuck on a diet of boiled eggs in all of their filmy, slimy glory.

When a young three-year old is found murdered and two ten-year old boys are arrested all of Glasgow is talking about the case.  Paddy quickly learns that one of the boys who had been arrested is her fiance’s cousin. She becomes interested in the case and the possibility that things are not as simple as the police are making it out to be. Let the super-sleuthing begin.

Mina does a brilliant job of describing Glasgow in its grittiest, dankest parts.  She is able to make the reader experience, maybe even smell, the poverty and that is quite a feat.

But here is the thing – I thought the mystery was kind of boring.  It is fairly easy to figure out who did it but you never really understand why.  I liked the character of Paddy though. She was strong-headed but insecure in a way that made me want to hug her or tell her I was proud of her.  She brought out the mom in me.  And I really would like to read the other books in the series to see how she grows up.  But I won’t rush out and start on the next one.  I have a long list of other books begging to be read. So for now, what happens to our egg-eating-aspiring journalist will just have to remain a mystery.  And I am good with that.