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This Scottish novel is the third part of the Garnethill trilogy. Reviews of Garnethill and Exile.
After the first two, I had great expectations to the grand finale, and the first page sounds promising, don´t you think?
“The police were out there. Angus didn´t know what they were going to charge him with yet. He guessed the murders and not the rapes. They didn´t have any good witnesses for the rapes.”
When this volume begins, Maureen is waiting for the trial of Angus Farrell who killed her lover, Douglas. Maureen has spent the money Douglas left her without knowing she would be taxed so she has begun selling cigarettes from a stall together with her loyal friend, Leslie, to pay her debt. Soon an old stallholder, Ella McGee, disappears from the market, and Maureen discovers that she has been assaulted. Even though Ella seems to be on the mend, Maureen takes a keen interest in her son, Simon McGee´s affairs. And last, but not least, she is waiting for the birth of her sister´s baby, dreading the thought of a new baby in the family with her father on the lose.
The Garnethill trilogy is a brilliant crime series, but it is also a wonderful and realistic portrayal of life down among the women. Maureen and her friends know that the police will swoop down on the perpetrator as soon as someone has committed a crime, but who is there to save them from violence, abuse, poverty and alcoholism? No one but themselves.
In short, this is Scottish crime when it is best!
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