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    The End of the Wasp Season: A Novel
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    The End of the Wasp Season: A Novel
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    The End of the Wasp Season: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    The End of the Wasp Season: A Novel

    Written by Denise Mina

    Narrated by Jane Macfarlane

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    When a notorious millionaire banker hangs himself, his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of selfishness is widespread, and the carnage most acute among those he ought to be protecting: his family.

    Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered. The community is stunned by what appears to be a vicious, random attack. When Detective Inspector Alex Morrow, heavily pregnant with twins, is called in to investigate, she soon discovers that a tangled web of lies lurks behind the murder. It's a web that will spiral through Alex's own home, the local community, and ultimately right back to a swinging rope, hundreds of miles away.

    The End of the Wasp Season is an accomplished, compelling and multi-layered novel about family's power of damage – and redemption.

    A Hachette Audio production.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateSep 26, 2011
    ISBN9781611136258
    Unavailable
    The End of the Wasp Season: A Novel
    Author

    Denise Mina

    Denise Mina was born in East Kilbride in 1966. Her first book, Garnethill, won the CWA Dagger for Best First Crime Novel. She has won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year twice, and the MacIlvanney Prize twice. She is a presenter of TV and radio programmes, and appears regularly in the media. 

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    Reviews for The End of the Wasp Season

    4/5

    243 ratings28 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This detective story goes far beyond the connected deaths of a Scottish call girl and a wealthy Kent businessman. It is a revealing drama of the lives of the dramatis personae. Well worth reading.
    • 5/5
      This is my favourite Denise Mina book so far. Simple on the surface, but with layers of intriguing complexity in the nature of family relationships and their effect on the mental health of their members. Loved it.
    • 5/5
      Blurb:A young woman is savagely murdered in her home in a wealthy Glasgow suburb.A notorious millionaire hangs himself from an oak tree at his Kent mansion, leaving behind two deeply damaged children and a broken wife.DS Alex Morrow is assigned to the Glasgow murder, which appears to be a random attack. But as she investigates, she soon discovers that behind the murder lurks a tangled web of lies - a web that will spiral through the local community, and ultimately right back to a swinging rope hundreds of miles away ...
    • 5/5
      Denise Mina's best book yet (although just away to start Gods and Beasts so that opinion may change).
      Liked the way that the reader is given details of the perpetrators of the crime within the first few chapters...an interesting concept.
      I would say that this book has a couple of themes as well as it being a crime novel...family, loyalty and perceptions of class; some parts shock you and others made me laugh.
      Loved the language of the book...Kay Murray is a brilliant character and I hope we may see her again in future books by Denise.
      And just when you think you have it all sewn up in your mind comes a twist near the end of the book.
      It's no wonder that this book won Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel of the year award. Well deserved win for one of the best crime novels I've read in a long time.
    • 5/5
      Awesomely good and with a wonderful feeling of creeping evil that made me uneasy when alone at night. So well-written I didn't figure it out til the end. Mina is a fantastic crime writer and she just gets better and better.
    • 5/5
      The suicide of Lars Anderson invokes little sympathy, even among his own family. He was once an extremely rich man, a man who caused a lot of people to lose their money before his creation fell apart, in fact, he was a man with a lot of enemies. But there is no mystery about his death.Then there is the horrible, brutal murder of 24 year old Sarah Erroll in her own home. Again, for us, the readers, there is not a lot of mystery about her death. From the opening pages we know who did it, even to a degree, why they did it. Yes, the viciousness of the murder is not fully understood until later in the book and the ultimate chilling truth of it all is not to be understood until the very last pages of the book. Still, we even find out fairly early in the book that there is some connection between these two deaths, or at least the individuals involved. We seem to know a good deal of what has happened.So is this book a mystery? Well, actually, I would describe this as a crime novel, emphasis on the novel. A novel that happens to be centered around some very nasty crimes.This is the second of Mina's book starring Detective Inspector Alex Morrow, charged with investigating the murder. And starring is the right word. She is an excellent character, tough and smart at her job while at the same time dealing with a potential coup happening among her fellow police officers. Yet she has another side, a vulnerable side, that we see when she has to deal with the burial of her father, forcing her once more to interact with her brother, the head of a criminal organization and a secret she has been trying to keep her whole adult life. He is part of a world she has tried so hard to leave behind but that she keeps getting dragged back into. And then there is the fact that she is five months pregnant, with twins no less, a wonderful, hopeful event yet one with just a bit of fear after the death of Morrow's first child, a son, just a few years ago.But Morrow is not the only great character in this story. Even the murder victim, Sarah, has more than a few secrets, not the least of which is the vast amount of money hidden under the kitchen table. What exactly was she into, and is that tied to her death? Then there is Kay, a house cleaner with four teenage children, just trying her best to scrape by, and protect her kids growing up in a less than ideal circumstance. But she too is key to the story, because it turns out she knew the murdered woman, was the principle caregiver for the murdered woman recently dead mother...and a childhood friend of DI Morrow. Kay is tough and smart too, just like her old friend, but could she somehow be involved in the murder..and just how far will she go to protect her kids? And speaking of protecting your kids, we will also meet the family of Lars Anderson, the man who committed suicide, a family that puts the dysfunction in dysfunctional. Yes, ultimately this book is all about family, about the family we grew up in and the family we create, about families that protect and families that destroy. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      I have read Mina's Meeghan series (3 books to date) and the first 2 in the next (Morrow) series. There is much I enjoyed about "Wasp" but I also thought it had some serious deficiencies. The storyline was very interesting. A home invasion leads to a brutal, senseless murder and along with 4 months pregnant with twins Morrow we slowly learn more about the victim, and we are also exposed to one of the killers, a 15 year old son of a recent suicide. Very interesting scenes, especially the interrogation of Kay - here Mina has us pulling for the underdog single Mom of 4 with some verbal exchanges that really sizzle. However, as we learn more and more about the home/family life of rich kid/killer Thomas the story starts to bog down....there is nothing happening, no tension, it becomes a lame procedural. But where I had the biggest problem with this book is the theme of "men are pigs, men are boobs" which is repeated and repeated....especially everytime a new key character is introduced. It's no contest when you line up on one side Morrow, female cop Leonard, victim Sarah who had a heart of gold (yes she was an escort, but her motives were pure), and Kay - and in the opposite corner, bully Bannerman, boss McKechnie, a husband recovering from a breakdown, and a male cop who looks like he wants to cry after harsh words from his boss Morrow. No contest. This is 70's feminism at its best....it's just too much, way too much. And what does that last sentence in the Acknowledgments mean?
    • 4/5
      The second in the Alex Morrow series, THE END OF THE WASP SEASON is a book that it would be possible to read before the earlier. The opening chapters of the book introduces the reader to the three women at the centre of this story - DS Alex Morrow, Kay Murray who worked for Sarah Erroll and Sarah herself, 24 years old, murdered in a house that she rarely used.Somehow, however, the focus of the book seems to be Lars Anderson, millionaire banker, disgraced financier, suicide hanging himself from a tree in the garden of his house. Father in a family that's about as dysfunctional as it can possibly get, his son returns from school to a family falling apart, not necessarily just because of his father's suicide, somehow the man's life seems to have had a more profound affect on a son, wife, daughter and mistress.Needless to say this is an intricate tale weaving together a tangle of lies, deceit, damage, power, influence and moral ambiguity. Mina is renowned for her ability to create a well-drawn, complex and memorable cast of characters - from the main protagonist through to many of the lesser cast members. There's no sign of that ability flagging in THE END OF WASP SEASON. The other element that I've come to expect, particularly following on from the first Alex Morrow book, is a sense of restraint, contemplation, almost a reluctance to get into the evil that human beings can do. That's enhanced by the fragility of so many of Mina's characters. From Kay Murray, childhood friend of Alex's, Kay is a battler. She's not had an easy life, and somehow the tension of her embarrassment at her circumstances viewed by Morrow; her reaction when one of her children is briefly a suspect for the killing of Sarah; her pride and her vulnerability were beautifully executed. As was the character of Thomas, son of Lars, a young man pulled from school to confront the reality of his father's legacy, and the implosion of his family and everything that he thought life was supposed to be. Even down to the surreal experience of he and his mother discovering freezers of food, and working out how to actually prepare a meal - Thomas grows up in front of the reader's eyes, and there's something really quite sad about the way that has to happen.The restraint of the storytelling in THE END OF WASP SEASON is the thing that really stays with me since I've finished the book. There was also something there - perhaps something about the way that sex and sexual politics started to play such a big part in the potential resolution, stacked up against Morrow's mostly male colleagues seeming disregard for this particular murder that could very well have been telegraphing something pointed. It could also be that I'm reading in something that wasn't ever supposed to be there, but there did just seem to be a little tale of attitude being told here, purposely underplayed, purposely observational and not conversational.It is, however, not a book that's necessarily devoted to solving the crime. That aspect of the plot, whilst investigated by Morrow, is somehow less important than the why, and the way that circles of influence emanate from the rich and powerful. Perhaps it's a plot for a post GFC world? The way that the ripples of one person's life choices, and influence based simply on their wealth and ruthless use of the power that money can bring, can have repercussions in the most unexpected places. The problem with picking up any book by Denise Mina is that she has hit so many heights with those that have come earlier, that somehow, sub-consciously there's always an expectation that perhaps this book could be the one that's not quite as good. For this reader, this wasn't that book. Denise Mina continues to write engaging, thought-provoking and always interesting stories.
    • 5/5
      The End of the Wasp Season is Denise Mina's second book featuring Glasgow detective Alex Morrow. Here she's in charge of investigating the brutal death of a young woman in her own home. Morrow's previous partner and rival, Bannerman, is now her boss and he's managed to alienate all the officers he now oversees, so that they are intent on doing as little as possible. Morrow has a difficult case on her hands and she's having trouble getting the men to care about the death of a rich prostitute with no relatives. She's also pregnant with twins, which is making it harder for her to be as badass as she usually is. Morrow also discovers an old school friend, Kay Murray, worked for the murdered woman. They were once close, but Morrow left the council flats and joined the police and Kay is a single mother to four teenagers, scraping by as a house cleaner. It's with Kay that Mina shows how very good a writer she is. Kay looks older than her age, working menial jobs while raising children alone. She's tough and honest and tired and determined and very, very likable. And Morrow's in a better place than she was in Still Midnight. She's still hard as nails, but she's determined to understand the victim and to navigate the shoals of poisonous office politics.She took a bite of her apple and tried to imagine allowing herself to be fucked by an unattractive stranger in an unfamiliar room. She found it hard to imagine allowing someone to even touch her without seeing herself punching a nose.I didn't entirely warm to Alex Morrow when she appeared as the protagonist in [Still Midnight]. She was prickly and defensive and lacked the spark that animated her previous heroines. But she's come into her own with this book and I'm eager to see what she does next.
    • 4/5
      I have never read a Denise Mina book before, and I understand this is the second in a series featuring DS Alex Morrow. However, it is a book that can be read quite well as a standalone novel.Alex is investigating the brutal murder of a young woman in Glasgow and how it may be linked to the suicide of Kent banker, Lars Anderson. Early on, the story seemed a little confusing and I kept wondering if I had missed something, but it was all explained later on and I realised I just needed to go with it and all would become clear.I really liked the character of Alex and her relationship with her colleagues. I also thought it was an interesting storyline and it unfolded very well. I'd certainly consider going back and reading the first in the series to find out more about Alex's back story.This is a very good example of a crime novel. Denise Mina is quite a hard-hitting writer, and is not really for the faint of heart, but I found myself wanting to pick up this book and find out what would happen next.
    • 5/5
      This is #2 of Mina's Alex Morrow series, with #3 planned for publication in 2013.I reviewed the debut title STILL MIDNIGHT a few weeks back.In that first title Alex Morrow had recently returned to work after a breakdown and period of convalescence. DS Morrow has secrets that she would rather colleagues and bosses didn't know about. THE END OF THE WASP SEASON relates another of those secrets - Alex is attending her father's funeral, and meets up with her half-brother, local crime boss Danny McGrath. In STILL MIDNIGHT Alex asked Danny for a favour. In THE END OF THE WASP SEASON he has one to ask of her.The opening pages of the novel though describe the death of Sarah Erroll at the hands of two gawky teenage boys. Sarah's attempt to phone 999 is treated as a prank call and Sarah signs her own death warrant when she tells one of the boys that she recognises him. The reader is really never given a clear description of how Sarah Erroll dies but a lot is made of using the blood spatters to determine which of the boys was responsible.One of the boys, Thomas Anderson, is later told that his father has hung himself, although this is not the motivation behind the murder. He has to return home to become "head" of the family at fifteen, and then it becomes obvious how damaged and dysfunctional this family really is.At work Alex's former DS colleague John Bannerman has been made DI, and he has resorted to bullying tactics with his team. The team on the other hand not only dislike Bannerman but they have no empathy with Sarah Erroll, the victim of the murder. The investigation by Morrow takes place against the background of police department politics. The fact that Alex Morrow is just over four months pregnant with twins is definitely a complicating factor.Alex Morrow finds that she actually went to school with a woman who was the primary carer for Sarah Erroll's mother. A little predictably Kay and her sons become prime suspects for Sarah's murder. The unempathetic Bannerman is keen to wrap the investigation quickly by charging Kay.I really enjoyed this novel, including the puzzle of the title. If you read it watch out for references to wasps. I love titles where the meaning is open to interpretation!So, do yourself a favour - read these in order, go looking for STILL MIDNIGHT, read that first, and then savour THE END OF THE WASP SEASON.
    • 5/5
      The End of the Wasp Season is 2nd in a series about DS Alex Morrow, a Glaswegian police detective who was introduced in Still Midnight, although I think it could be enjoyed by someone who has not read that book.It is a crime novel but there is not much of a mystery for the reader, as the story opens with the murder of a young woman, Sarah, in a big house by two teenage boys. One strand of the narrative is about Thomas, one of the killers, and the background to his action. Another is about the police investigation into the crime, led byMorrow, and also about the politics of her workplace.One of the strengths of Mina's writing is her depth of characterisation, especially of the female characters, and The End of the Wasp Season doesn't disappoint. Morrow is spiky to the point of being abrasive and normally very ambitious. Yet here, her ambition is tempered for several reasons. One is that she is pregnant with twins and still anxious that nothing should go wrong - while she doesn't plan to leave her job, she is well aware that she will be on maternity leave. Another is that this case will test her loyalty to old friends. She is coming to realise there may be other things that are more important to her than work.Mina has always been a very political, class conscious and avowedly feminist writer, never more so than in this book. The other women in the story provide a contrast to Morrow, and introduce a series of issues into this thought provoking novel about how horrible crimes reflect on society. It made me muse on how and why women take on different jobs and roles. When we first see Sarah, she appears to be a very successful young woman in a posh house, but she was there sorting it out after her mother's death, and the truth was rather more sordid. Then there is Kay, who helped run an army of carers looking after Sarah's mother, who was at school with Alex, now trying to bring up 4 teenagers on her own and fighting to defy the stereotypes of a working class single mum in a Council flat.Mina also works hard to engage the reader's sympathy for her less likely characters, such as Thomas Anderson, teenage killer and son of a millionaire businessman. Thomas' father Lars has just committed suicide, leaving behind his wife and Thomas and an equally messed up daughter. I didn't like Thomas but I did find myself drawn into feeling sorry for him and caring what happened.The End of the Wasp Season is not one of Mina's best novels - I preferred Still Midnight, her debut Garnethill and the Paddy Meehan series starting with The Field of Blood. However, that means it is just very good rather than outstanding.
    • 4/5
      Not your typical detective story. Tragedy abounds and knows no class barriers. Everyone pays dearly for poor choices made; some pay dearly through no choice of their own.
    • 5/5
      This was a great read. A young woman is murdered by two teens. Another two teens are suspected. The investigating detective is pregnant with twins. I honestly never knew where any of it was going. It was fascinating.
    • 4/5
      Interesting read, knowing who committed the murder early in the book didn't detract too much while the motives were being teased out, but it did make the "catch" slightly anticlimactic in my view
    • 5/5
      Another top-notch mystery by Mina featuring Alex Morrow. The reader is aware of who murdered a young woman, but the reason forms the mystery. This is a tangled web of secrets and lies, involving personal relationships both in the police force and in the families of everyone involved, and how they all affect each other. Morrow is five months pregnant with twins. Is this affecting the way she reacts to a grisly murder, to the officious senior officer, to her old friend Kay, and even her own family? Mina provides a different look at how gender, class, human emotion and even nationality can affect an investigation. Complex well-drawn characters, tight plot, attention-grabbing all the way through.
    • 3/5
      audible. fine Scottish writer. crime fiction. a ghastly murder. back and forth between detective--5 months pregnant w twins. and young man at center of brutal murder. finely drawn line of understanding, even empathy, for range of characters in the narrative. good strong writing.
    • 5/5
      The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina is the second book in her DS Alex Morrow series. I found this to be an excellent blend of a police procedural and a psychological thriller. Her plotting and timing are spot on, and she doesn’t hesitate to take chances with both the story and the people in them. I wasn’t as enamoured with the first book in the series, but this second one shows why Denise Mina is considered one of the top crime writers of Scotland.A young woman is brutally murdered in her home and DS Alex Morrow, five months pregnant, has to figure out who and why this was done. Her investigation leads her to a exclusive boy’s school and to another death, a suicide of a prominent investor. Meanwhile Alex’s boss has his own ideas and steers the investigation in another direction. The reader knows full well who committed the crime and it is fascinating to follow this case from multiple sides.I have long been a fan of Denise Mina from her Patty Meehan and Garnet Hill trilogies, and I am so happy that her Alex Morrow books are a series with six books already. The End of the Wasp Season was a powerful story, with well defined characters and a story that had me doing nothing but reading throughout the morning just so I could find out what happens.
    • 5/5
      What a great book. I don't even like police procedurals, but [[Denise Mina]] manages to examine class and gender from so many sides and in so many honest ways that she is an absolute treasure. I could do without the bloody corpses, but I just have to forgive her for her genre and enjoy the way she writes.
    • 4/5
      The story isn't as tight and as real as Mina's books usually are, but the characterizations, dialog, and use of words are so incredibly good that it didn't matter.
    • 4/5
      I have long been a Denise Mina fan. I devoured-- and was spellbound-- by her Garnethill and Paddy Meehan trilogies, and enjoyed the first Alex Morrow mystery, Still Midnight, when it was first released. When I began reading The End of the Wasp Season, I almost felt as though I needed a re-read of that first book because Alex Morrow wasn't quite as I remembered her. Far from putting me off, I just dug in and lost myself in the story. I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few readers didn't care for this book. Likable characters are scarce on the ground, and we know the identity of the young woman's killer very early on. This didn't bother me however because there's no such thing as a two-dimensional character in a book written by Denise Mina. As she's already proven, she's a master at shining the spotlight on the disenfranchised, the outsiders, the broken souls that walk among us, and-- if not making them likable-- she makes them understandable and even, to a degree, sympathetic. To me, understanding a person is oftentimes more important than liking them, and I think Mina might agree. Occasionally shifting the point of view from Morrow to a troubled young boy named Thomas, the author helps us to comprehend the worlds both characters inhabit.A lot of Alex Morrow's troubles in this book stem from in-house feuding. The superior officer is hated-- to the point that very few want to do anything at all that could possibly put the man in a good light. Morrow doesn't want to get mired in that bog, but as the investigation progresses at a slow crawl, she realizes that she's been cutting everyone too much slack because she's subconsciously marking time until her maternity leave. She's got to try her best to get everyone actively involved in the case, and she begins at the morning meeting in the incident room: "Right," she said, and they settled. "Sarah Erroll was rich, pretty, young and leaves no family. Who cares? I do, but I think I'm the only one here." It was an unconventional start, surprising enough to make them sit up and listen. "My job is extra hard today because I have to try and manipulate you into giving a toss." She looked at them. "That's annoying."I enjoyed this look at a dedicated homicide detective and at the havoc one selfish person can inflict on those around him. I enjoyed it a lot. But with its rushed ending and an overall sense of malaise, I can't rank The End of the Wasp Season in the top tier of Denise Mina's books. But even "second tier" is finer than many other writers' books. I have two more Alex Morrow books to read, and I'm definitely looking forward to them.
    • 4/5
      Wow! This was one of those murder mysteries that I could NOT put down. It was the first book I've read by Denise Mina but not the last. I can't wait to read more by her. I'd classify this book as a literary detective thriller. Mina uses beautiful language to describe both the mundane and the gruesome. I highly recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      The End of Wasp Season is part police procedural and part psychological thriller. When shady business man, Lars Anderson, commits suicide by hanging , his death sets several events in motion including a brutal homicide. Alex Morrow is called upon to investigate and discovers a complicated web of secrets, lies and family dysfunction. Denise Mina does a fabulous job with the character development in this book. The characters aren't portrayed as all good or all bad but rather a realistic mix. I enjoyed this book and the rich language and beautiful prose. The author paints a rich story that catches your attention and pulls you within its pages. I haven't read the first Alex Morrow book but I plan on checking it out after enjoying the second book so much.
    • 4/5
      Wow! This was one of those murder mysteries that I could NOT put down. It was the first book I've read by Denise Mina but not the last. I can't wait to read more by her. I'd classify this book as a literary detective thriller. Mina uses beautiful language to describe both the mundane and the gruesome. I highly recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoy this authorBook DescriptionRelease date: January 29, 2013When a notorious millionaire banker hangs himself, his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of selfishness is widespread, and the carnage most acute among those he ought to be protecting: his family.Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered. The community is stunned by what appears to be a vicious, random attack. When Detective Inspector Alex Morrow, heavily pregnant with twins, is called in to investigate, she soon discovers that a tangled web of lies lurks behind the murder. It's a web that will spiral through Alex's own home, the local community, and ultimately right back to a swinging rope, hundreds of miles away.THE END OF THE WASP SEASON is an accomplished, compelling and multi-layered novel about family's power of damage-and redemption.
    • 4/5
      I have only recently discovered Denise Mina's crime fiction - and I am hooked! This book is a wonderfully complex tale of murder, bad parenting, class priviledge and prejudice, and the internal politics of the police force in Glasgow. Highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      Sarah Erroll is asleep in her mother’s house when a noise awakens her. What follows is a brutal murder and Sarah is left battered at the bottom of a staircase. Why is she dead? Is it because of the huge amount of money hidden beneath her kitchen table? Or is it something less obvious? Meanwhile, a millionaire banker hangs himself from the tree outside his home, and his wife and two children are left behind to sort out the financial and personal detritus he has left behind. Thomas, the son, harbors a dark secret and Ella, the daughter, is not well, while their mother, Moira, longs to escape it all. Enter Detective Inspector Alex Morrow, now pregnant with twins and a little less acerbic, but still intent on solving Sarah’s murder even if it means she must thumb her nose at police politics and ignore edicts from her boss, Bannerman.This is the second book in Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow trilogy. Once again Mina constructs a multi-layered plot with well developed characters. Thematically, Mina revisits the idea of family connections, parenting, class, and dysfunctional relationships as a catalyst for criminal behavior. The novel has multiple points of view and moves back and forth between the perpetrators of the crime, the police investigation, and other characters who are connected to Alex, including her brother and an old childhood friend who is targeted early on as a suspect in the brutal murder.I enjoyed The End of the Wasp Season much more than the first book in the series, Still Midnight. Perhaps it was because Mina allowed Alex to become a more sympathetic character, less hard edged but still with enough grit to get the job done. Or perhaps it was because the perpetrators of the murder were more humanized. But, I found myself more engaged in the story, more invested in the characters, than in the previous novel. That is not to say the book is without its flaws. For example, Mina makes a big jump in the plot by resolving Alex’s problems with her husband without showing the reader how she actually got there.Although The End of the Wasp Season is the second book in a trilogy, it can easily stand alone for readers who want to start with this one. Those who enjoy thoughtful, literary mysteries and thrillers, will find the book accessible and worth their time to pick up.
    • 2/5
      In Glasgow a young woman is murdered in her home, her face so badly damaged that even hardened police struggle with viewing the body. Almost immediately readers meet the two teenage boys who are responsible for the hideous crime (though there is doubt about which of them was more directly involved) and therefore we are less concerned with whodunit than why. The police, led by five months pregnant DS Alex Morrow, have to establish who committed the crime as well as work out a motive and so we follow their somewhat haphazard investigation. Very early on we also learn that the father of one the two boys has hung himself and we wonder what, if anything, that has to do with the murder; again we are primarily concerned with the motivation for the act and the impact it will have on the people left behind.

      The people who populate The End of the Wasp Season are well drawn even, or perhaps especially, when they are the kind of black-hearted souls most of us would run a mile from. Individually, they are very complex and memorable people and I am especially impressed with the way Mina manages to make short term characters come alive so quickly. Thomas Anderson, the boy whose father has committed suicide, is a most believable boy on the cusp of manhood with his conflicting emotions and oscillation between childish behaviour and more mature thinking (of course the dose of insanity is less usual but with parents like his it’s not entirely surprising). Another memorable character is Kay Murray who is loosely connected to the case because she was the carer for the murdered woman’s mother. She was also a school friend of Alex Morrow’s though is now a single mum to four children, works as a cleaner and lives in a small flat, all of which is in contrast to Alex’s life which causes some tension between the two women, especially when suspicion is thrown onto Kay’s children. She has to struggle with her own pride and fight for the rights of her family and she is credibly depicted throughout the process.

      On the whole though I found the book a little flat and in the several days since I finished it I’ve struggled to work out why. Firstly there is the fact that collectively, the characters do conform to pretty broad and annoying stereotypes (rich people are bastards, bosses are bastards, poor people are good-hearted & hard-working). Aside from the fact it made their actions and the outcome of the story fairly predictable this also wearied me more than a little. Perhaps I read too much into things but I sensed a tone of underlying hatred for anyone who isn’t dirt poor and it turned me off in the same way that blind acceptance of any stereotype makes me switch off.

      The other element that may well have been entirely realistic but that nevertheless was disheartening and made the book feel quite cold was the attitude of the police. Throughout the book Alex has to work incredibly hard to get anyone else in the entire force to give a damn about the murdered woman and hence to get off their forever-complaining behinds and do a moment’s work on the case. Admittedly their boss is a hateful, bullying SOB but that doesn’t entirely explain their behaviour and work ethic. I kept thinking how lucky I am not to work with such a lazy, unthinking bunch of whiners.

      This feels like a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde review as on the one hand I thought the structure of the novel clearly tried to do something new and generally succeeded and the individual characterisations were tremendous. To balance this out though I found the rest of the book a bit lacking. The ease with which the plot could be predicted and the nastiness of the tone at some points left me a bit cold. Having absolutely adored two of Mina’s other books I definitely won’t be giving up on her but I think I might be done with this particular series