Field of Blood
by Denise Mina
List Price:
Our Price: $4.15
You Save: $3.35 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Denise MinaEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-07-01
ISBN: 031615458X
Number of pages: 456
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Book Reviews of Field of Blood
Book Review: "She wondered how these graceless, ruined men had come to be her only allies."
Summary: 4 Stars
There are two Paddy Meehan's': one a criminal from the 1960s and the other a copyboy-cum-journalist, an ambitious young woman determined to make her mark as a reporter for the Scottish Daily News. The more infamous Paddy has been released after long incarceration for a murder he didn't commit; the younger Paddy (Patricia) has just been confronted with a moral dilemma that pits her career against her personal life. When two young boys are arrested for killing three-year-old Brian Wilcox, Paddy learns one of them is cousin to Paddy's fiancé, Sean Ogilvy. The child-murdering boy, Callum Ogilvy, is in custody with his accomplice, the public stunned by the mindless brutality of the crime and the age of the perpetrators. Adding to Paddy's discontent, religious matters remain divisive in 1980s Glasgow; her Catholicism chafes on Paddy like ill-fitting brogans, ingrained and unwieldy, perhaps the reason for the impetuous engagement to Sean, both untested by the world-at-large.
Mina's Glasgow is riddled with tenements and bruised ambitions, whole neighborhoods defeated by a stumbling economy and the constant jockeying of those clinging to survival, crime grinding away at good intentions. Poverty a breeding ground for man's inhumanity to man, Paddy stumbles upon a link to the Baby Brian murder, a eight-year old crime buried in the newspaper archives that sparks her true instincts as a reporter, fledgling or not. Fairly oblivious to danger until submerged in it, Paddy plunges ahead, suffering the ire of her family and fiancé for even touching a story that may involve one of them. It is in her nature to follow family dictates, to give in at any sign of displeasure, but the desire to establish herself as a respectable journalist is strong in this overweight young woman, certain that this is the work she is meant to do: "The possibility that suffering could defeat people disturbed Paddy."
As the story moves back and forth, from the original Paddy Meehan to the current incarnation, it becomes clear that the police are once again embracing the most obvious explanation for the child killing, even if some of the details strain credulity, a fact journalist-to-be Paddy recognizes but is unable to prove. Striking out on her own, Paddy is shadowed by another reporter, the duplicitous Heather Allen, hungry for the glory and reputation as well; but Heather is not as lucky as Paddy, overweening ambition leading her straight into the mouth of hell. Although guided by impulse rather than common sense, Paddy emerges the better woman for her travails, but only after some ethical missteps and a brush with death, another spunky Mina heroine shouting her truth to a bleak Glasgow sky. Luan Gaines/2007.
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.76
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Exileby Denise Mina
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-10-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops:
The End of the Wasp Season: A Novelby Denise Mina
Reagan Arthur Books; Published: 2011-09-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops:
Still Midnightby Denise Mina
Reagan Arthur Books; Published: 2010-03-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Slip of the Knife: A Novelby Denise Mina
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-02-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.40
Price in other shops:
Exileby Denise Mina
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-10-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.69
Price in other shops:
Slip of the Knife: A Novelby Denise Mina
Back Bay Books; Published: 2010-03-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
Deception : A Novelby Denise Mina
Back Bay Books; Published: 2005-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.70
Price in other shops:
The Dead Hourby Denise Mina
Back Bay Books; Published: 2008-02-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Resolutionby Denise Mina
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-11-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops:
Garnethillby Denise Mina
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-09-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.15
Price in other shops: