I loved Denise Mina's The Long Drop (2017) - Winner of the Gordon Burn Prize 2017, and the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year 2017 - and so was keen to read more of Denise's work.

Unlike The Long Drop, Conviction (2019) is wholly fictional however it is also a very modern story which embraces podcasts, the #metoo movement, rape, wealth and privilege, identity, social media, and murder. Quite a lot of murder.

Although elements of the plot do not bare too much scrutiny, Conviction is a hugely enjoyable rollercoaster ride of a page turner with great characters and some powerful social commentary.

4/5

What a wonderful book! Conviction is the type of book that keeps you up til 3am because you just can’t put it down! One of the best I’ve read this year.

I've never read anything by Denise Mina before, but I've heard really good things, so I jumped at the chance to read Conviction. Mina's writing style sets Conviction apart from many novels in the crime and thriller genre in that it is incredibly lyrical and poetic. I often found myself writing phrases down so that I remembered them. However, the language is still highly accessible and drew me into the wide range of settings that appear in the novel. 

As a narrator, it is clear that Anna may not be completely reliable. She is hiding several secrets and does not tell the truth all the time. However  I found her back story incredibly intriguing and could not help but root for her as she looked for her answers. 

Alongside Anna's story, there is the mystery of what happened on board the Dana. This element of the plot is told via a podcast, which not only makes Conviction very current but also gives the reader information at the same time as Anna, allowing us to feel the tension in the same way. Mina builds the tension impeccably - something which complemented the stave format used by Pigeonhole - and I found it very hard to let go.

What sets Denise Mina apart from the rest of the crime crowd is her portrayal of ordinary, humdrum lives which go on to be affected by a single life-altering catalyst. From then on life spirals drastically out of control and that is exactly what happens here with Anna and her family. The scenario manages to remain the right side of credible and, in my opinion, the reason Mina's books are so exceptional is that they feature a potent mix of interesting characters, solid plot, relaxed writing with some real prose gems, lots of excitement, incidents that visibly move you and last but not least witty humour to break up the dark storyline.

Without a doubt, one of the most original domestic thrillers out there although the synopsis sounds rather like every other family drama, but don't be fooled this is a well constructed, thought out and unique piece of crime fiction. I enjoyed the intensity and our fierce female protagonist, Anna, was to die for. Unreservedly recommended to crime, thriller and mystery fans, and those who've adored Mina's past offerings will find more of the same in Conviction. I can't wait to see what she publishes next. Good luck with putting this one down! Many thanks to Harvill Secker for an ARC.

My thanks to Random House U.K. Vintage Publishing for an eARC via NetGalley of Denise Mina’s ‘Conviction’ in exchange for an honest review.

One morning as she prepares her daughters for the school run, Anna McDonald’s life takes an unexpected turn. At the front door is her best friend, Estelle, and Anna is shocked to learn that her husband is leaving her for Estelle and taking their daughters on holiday right now with their new Mummy! Well that was a corker of an opening.

Anna is in shock and distracts herself by listening to a true crime podcast about a sunken yacht in the Mediterranean. Then she realises that she knows one of the victims, a man she met in another life.

From here the plot certainly takes a surprising direction as she and Estelle’s fading rock star husband, Fin, become unlikely investigators into the sinking. As they are about to leave a star-struck neighbour takes a selfie with Fin and Anna is also in the shot. Once it is posted to social media Anna’s past is revealed and she is on the run for her life with a bewildered Fin. The reasons for this is slowly revealed as they bounce around Europe.

Anna proved such a compelling narrator: her voice immediate with a very dry wit. ‘Conviction’ is fast paced with lots of unexpected twists and dark humour.

This is my first book by Mina though certainly not my last. I immediately ordered her graphic novel adaptation of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and will be looking out for more titles.

Highly recommended.

I love Denise Mina's books. Just when you think you know what's coming, she wrong foots you with a move sideways, shifting from crime series to true life based crime to - as here - a chilling standalone psychological thriller.

This was a grabby book - the sort that keeps you sitting up into the small hours, just to see what's next. Following a gripping road trip undertaken by two lonely, desperate people who start hating one other, but each of whom gradually comes to trust and support the other, it's a marvellously convoluted, tricksy read.

"There has to be a reason to tell the truth. I stopped some time ago..."

Anna is the happy mother of two girls, partner to Hamish, a seemingly dull (but rich) Scottish lawyer and living a quiet life in Glasgow. The most exciting recent event in her life was the campaign for a new laminator at the school. It is clear, as she narrates this story, that there's something a little odd about her - Hamish resents her habit of getting up early to wander the house alone, and the two are going through relationship counselling. Perhaps a life of cosy domesticity is grinding her down?

There are secrets in this book, things Anna has pushed into the unswept corners of her mind, people she's hiding from. She knows they must never, never come to light. But there's no reason why they ever should - is there?

Conviction launches on an ordinary day, but an ordinary day when everything goes wrong. Anna's world collapses that morning and there's nothing she can do but run again - accompanied by anorexic musician Fin, who's been shipwrecked by the same storm that's left her adrift. Thrown into each others' company, what can the two do but get in a car, bickering, and set off into the Scottish night, still bickering, to solve a notorious mystery, the sinking of luxury yacht the Dana?

Ricocheting between locations such as a ghastly tourist trap haggis restaurant, an upmarket Highland hotel, an exclusive French resort and a Venetian slum, while running down a pile of Hamish's cash, the pair take as their guide a podcast series about the sinking of that yacht, and follow up the leads. In the course of this we learn more about the ghastly events that sent Anna into hiding, about the origins of Fin's anorexia, the notorious Sophie Bukaran - and the truth behind the Dana. The book is strong stuff in places, with references to rape, to eating disorders, and to a real sense of mental disintegration. Anna is at times very scary - forgetting bits of certain episodes, driving like a fiend, all the time running from something that not only destroyed her faith in justice but left her at the mercy of baying mobs - in real life, and online.

She starts, then, low on trust and the very gradual thaw between her and Fin (not a sexual thing, it's mush more interesting than that) is a deeply moving theme of this book, even more interesting and enthralling perhaps than the solution to the mystery (although that is itself a complex, twisty and satisfying crime story in its own right.

Oh, and did I mention, someone is trying to kill Anna and Fin?

So there's a lot going on in this book, which is never less than deeply, deeply readable, and often brilliant. It's also frequently grimly funny - as with the scene where the pair, drunk on a train, encounter a hitman who telegraphs his intentions through a grim fairytale, or when Anna refers to "the beige uniform of American money"or describes her time working in that hotel for the super-rich (sacked, in the end: she didn't have the "personality for service"). Fin's fame also produces some funny - if frustrating - episodes: it's hard to go under the radar when people keep spotting and Instagramming you.

As you'd expect, Anna is something of an unreliable narrator ("It's an odd out-of-the-way place for odd out-of-the-laypeople, often incomers pretending to be Scottish. The whole area is awash with fictions. I loved it there.") She has of course edited her own past, giving her unreliability a solid narrative justification - rather than just deriving from an unexplained character quirk. She's few illusions left about life (for example, saying, of men "When [they] talk about a daughter it's often a coded way of saying they are not planning to attack you" or commenting on the less celebrated moments of Andrew Carnegie, often celebrated for his philanthropy: "It didn't show him ordering Pinkerton men to shoot at strikers... [or] mutilating accidents in smelting plants." Indeed, that last points to a general theme in this book - the ghastliness of the super rich, variously benefiting from wealth gathered by Nazi forebears, committing murders to cover up other crimes or just showing ghastly taste.

This is a pacy read, covering lots of ground - literally, emotionally and conceptually. At its heart it has - well, lots of heart, in that central relationship between Anna and Fin. Both are damaged, and the book doesn't promise that everything will be or can be "fixed" for them. But they do find something.

Strongly recommended.

This was a tense and intricately plotted thriller, with well rounded and interesting characters. When her husband moves his new mistress into the house and throws her out at the beginning, I was so shocked. but that was only the start of it... A throughly satisfying and gripping read!

I just could not put this book down once I started reading it! Set in Glasgow, Fort William and all over Europe, it's a roller-coaster of a read. It has a twisted plot, great characters, it's edgy, a touch of humour and brilliantly written. I won't go into the plot other than to say I totally fell in love with Anna and Fin! This would be a great holiday read and I highly recommend it. A very addictive and heartwarming read. My grateful thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I have read Denise Mina books before and really enjoyed them, this book I am not so sure about.
Parts of it are thrilling but other parts are confusing as the story is so complicated and I had to re-read lots of parts again.
I liked the fact that it was based on a True Crime Podcast and the backstory of Anna. She has lots of secrets in her past and becomes interested in the podcast as she knows one of those who died, Leon Parker. The story starts as he marriage to Hamish breaks up and he runs off with her best friend Estelle, taking her children. She then is left with Fin, Estelle's husband and the story switches between the podcast and their journey together.
There are lots of twists and turns in this book which add excitement but at times it switches backwards and forwards so many times from one story to another that I stopped reading it.
I took me nearly a month to finish this book but I am glad that I persisted.
It is definitely different from the run of the mill crime thrillers.
I have given this book three stars.
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to review it.

Denise Mina is always willing to take her writing in fresh and interesting directions. Her last novel, The Long Drop, was based on a real-life murder trial in 1950s Glasgow. Now, in Conviction, she has written a novel which zings with contemporary concerns.

Anna McDonald is living in Glasgow, married to a lawyer, with two young daughters. They’re affluent and comfortable, if not exactly happy. Anna likes to escape the conflict in her marriage by getting up early, having some alone time, indulging her passion for books and podcasts. She has been listening to a true-crime podcast when she answers the door to her best friend.

Her best friend and her husband announce that they have been having an affair, and they are going away together, with the girls. After Anna has colourfully expressed her response, they leave, and she, in her despair, turns back to the podcast to distract her.

It’s the story of a wealthy businessman whose luxury yacht was blown up in the Mediterranean while he and his children were on board. Many believe that the woman who was convicted of the crime is innocent. As Anna listens she learns that the businessman was Leon Parker, a man she knew many years ago.

While she is musing on this, Fin, the husband of her formerly best friend turns up to offer consolation. Fin happens to be a famous rock star. When a starstruck neighbour takes their picture to share on social media, Anna panics. It turns out Anna has a secret and she doesn’t want to be recognised.

Fin wants to talk. Anna wants to get away. He decides to come with her. So begins a journey that takes in a number of stylish locations across Europe, as Anna ostensibly chases the story of the Dana, while also hoping to escape the attention she is sure the picture will bring her. In doing so she becomes both pursuer and pursued.

Anna and Fin’s first stop is Skibo Castle, the luxury hotel and celebrity hideaway in the Highlands where she once worked as a waitress and Leon was a guest. They also take in the exclusive Mediterranean port where the yacht was on the fateful night and Venice as they seek out the people who can shed light on the events on the Dana and in Anna’s own past.

The light and dark elements of the story are carefully balanced. There is some great comedy in the odd encounters along the way, and in Anna and Fin’s relationship. Fin is self-absorbed and fragile, Anna is abrasive and driven and singularly unimpressed by his fame or his music. The humour serves to heighten, rather than diminish, the darker elements of the novel.

Conviction raises interesting questions about the contradictory nature of fame and notoriety. At times along the way Fin’s fame leads people to help them out of trouble. But for Anna and Fin, visibility means both danger from others and internal conflict as they struggle to reconcile who they are and how the public sees them.

Anna’s dilemma as she tries to outrun her past is one that could apply to many people. She has moved away, changed her appearance, adopted a new life, but it is still there, online, waiting for someone to make the connection.

The writing may be clever but the reading is easy – full of pace and energy and fun. You may have to suspend disbelief for some elements of the plot but that all adds to the sense that Anna’s life has exploded and the normal rules no longer apply. When you lose everything, and there is suddenly nothing to anchor you, that brings a strange freedom.

Conviction’s glamorous locations and page-turning exuberance make it a good holiday read but it also has some sharp insights that stay with you long after the trip is over.

An amazing and enthralling book. It was the first I read by this author and I'm I happy I got it because it was a great discovery.
This book is unusual, enthralling, atmospheric, and kept on the edge. Something completely out of my comfort zone, I usually go for more classic whodunnit, but a book I really liked and enjoyed.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Brilliantly funny. I was hooked from the first page. I read this book in one sitting. I laughed a lot and nearly cried in places. I loved the characters and the writing style and the whole story. This is a brilliant book and I want to sit and read it all again.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I loved this - it was like a superior summer beach read, full of glamour, intrigue, but unpleasant characters; apart from Fin, who’s adorable...

I loved Conviction; it is gripping, insightful and witty. It is also an enjoyable change of direction from the very good but unremittingly grim The Long Drop.

One of the book’s great features is the narrative voice of Anna, a damaged, often angry woman whose marriage to a wealthy lawyer in Glasgow implodes, revealing that she is not who everyone thinks she is and that her old identity has become public. Details of the death of someone she knew and liked appear on a podcast and there begins a thrilling chase where she and a very famous, complex companion are both on the run and looking for answers to the mystery of the death.

In may ways it’s familiar stuff, but Denise Mina does it so well that it feels fresh. Anna’s voice is wonderfully convincing, the plot is plausible (although suspension of disbelief is a bit of an effort at the end) and Mina offers some very shrewd but wholly un-laboured insights into aspects of fame, the effects of social media both good and bad, attitudes to rape and other important matters which she incorporates into the narrative with a very deft touch. I found it completely compelling with some very welcome smiles and laughs in places.

There is a huge amount of crime fiction around at the moment; much of it is at best pretty average, some of it is good and just a few books are excellent. I’d put this in the excellent bracket, with its combination of a really good story, a great voice some real intellectual content and a fine leaven of wit. Denise Mina is a terrific writer and this is an example of why she is so highly regarded. Very warmly recommended.

(My thanks to Random House for an ATC via NetGalley.)

I found this book a bit hit & miss with the premis and some of the story good but other parts boring and not engaging enough.

Some will definitely like the books others won't. I'm in the middle with it being ok but not good

# Conviction # Netgalley
Personally I am not too sure about this book, it’s got all the elements of a brilliant storyline, it’s fast paced yet at one point couldn’t put it down, next minute I needed to put it down it felt a bit like hard work in parts to continue. When I say hard work. I actually meant a tad boring. Overall not a bad read, it’s even got amusing parts. I definitely would prefer it to have been fast paced all the way through. I would however suggest you read the book, I am glad I did my only little gripe was when I found a few parts drab you might not. Plus this is just my opinion so yes I would say give it a go

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for an advance copy of Conviction, a stand alone set in various parts of Europe.

Anna McDonald is listening to a true crime podcast, Death and The Dana, when she realises she knows one of the dead, Leon Parker. She is intrigued and continues to listen but it is only when her husband leaves her for her best friend, Estelle, and takes her daughters that she decides, on a whim to investigate further, taking Estelle’s husband, Fin, along for the ride.

I thoroughly enjoyed Conviction, managing to read it cover to cover in one sitting as I was unable to put it down. Technically speaking it is a novel that shouldn’t appeal to me - protagonist with secrets (just get on with it is my usual thought) , lots of unlikely foreign travel (how can they afford it?) and a prominent social media presence( I’m too old and uninterested to “get” it) - but this compelling, everything is explained and I loved it.

The basic premise of the plot, evil, rich, greedy mastermind with tentacles everywhere and the money to protect their reputation and subvert police investigations, takes a bit of swallowing but while that chunters in the background as the motivation behind Anna’s actions the novel is all about Anna, her secrets, character and actions. Told in the first person from Anna’s point of view I was captured from the first paragraph when she explains that the truth will not set you free and that lies are the way forward. Nothing in the novel is as it seems and it turns out that Anna is a good person in some ways. She is also grumpy, argumentative and task orientated but to counter that she is clear sighted, occasionally funny and sharp. In other words a real person. I love her voice and her squabbles with Fin.

Her narrative is interspersed with excerpts from the podcast which is fascinating in the way facts can be spun. There are frequent references to social media and the licence it gives to so called armchair warriors. It’s not my world but I think Ms Mina gets it right with the extreme reactions and the way it can be manipulated. I found some it amusing.

The novel is well paced with a gradual teasing out of Anna’s history and the reasons for her lies and what really happened on The Dana. At the same time it moves from location to location with action, violence and some interesting characters. There are several twists and shocks but in the best tradition Ms Mina saves the best for last. What a twist!

Conviction is one of the best novels I have read this year so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.

Here's the thing: Some books just HAVE IT. And this one does. The narrator's voice sinks it's teeth into your brain and won't let go. This is often the case with podcasts, ironically.

I LOVED this book. I've read a few in the past 2 years that have podcasts as the main plot point, or at least referenced to, (because I'm also obsessed with this one) so maybe that's one reason I loved it so much...but, I think it's mostly the great storytelling ability of Denise Mina.

The only bad thing about this book was that it had to end. Thanks for letting me review it. Five stars!

With thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Denise Mina is a phenomenon. Book after book she continually raises the bar. She is undoubtedly one of the finest writers working today in any genre.

This book opens with Anna McDonald, middle class mother of two and podcast addict being dramatically dumped by her lawyer husband. As if that's not bed enough her best friend is the other woman.

Anna is not the most emotionally stable of people and we soon learn that this relates to a dark, secretive past.

The lastest podcast she is listening to has details of the death of someone she knew in her past life and she is compelled to try and solve the mystery of his death.

She is joined in this quest by her best friends dumped husband, Fin, an anorexic ex rock star.

Their quest takes them from Scotland to Italy and France in an action packed, and frequently very funny, adventure.

Anna and Fin are a brilliant, if very offbeat, team. Funny, captivating and I'd love to spend more time with them. Their interactions are funny and touching and totally believable.

An absolute rollercoaster of a book and I was very saddened to reach the end.
Hopefully Denise can find an reason for them to work together again. I'd be the first in the queue.

One of the best books of 2019.

Go buy it.

If there is only one crime thriller book you read this year, make sure it is this one from the award winning Scottish writer, Denise Mina. This is a markedly different read from her previous works, it has a lightness of touch, is darkly humorous, relevant in our contemporary world of #MeToo, and utterly riveting. The well to do Anna McDonald is married to lawyer, Hamish, and two young daughters, Jess and Lizzie. Anna is a true crime podcast obsessive, her latest one is entitled Death and the Dana, produced by Trina Keany. The Dana is a sunken yacht in the Bay of Biscay in which a murdered family, a father and his daughter and son, 21 year old Violetta and 16 year old Mark died, a tragic event shrouded in mystery and secrets. The Dana has a history of ghosts and tragedies that have sealed its reputation as a cursed vessel. On a morning that is to shatter her life apart, Anna is engaged in the everyday preparations for her family when her best friend, Estelle arrives. Hamish has a packed suitcase, he is leaving her for Estelle, taking Jess and Lizzie with him.

It soon becomes clear Anna has a troubled hidden past that has required her to live under the radar with a new identity. As Anna drowns in her overwhelming misery, she can focus only on the podcast, shocked when she recognises a name, a man she briefly knew when working at Skibo Castle, a man she is certain is a good person. To her surprise, Fin Cohen, Estelle's washed out ex-rock star husband, turns up on her doorstep. Fin is jittery and volatile, suffering from an anorexia that descended on him amidst his failure to handle his sudden meteoric fame and celebrity. Fin's appearance gives Anna a reason to rise above the mire of her personal horrors. Fin and Anna take off on a odd couple odyssey in which Fin becomes caught up in the unfolding crime podcast which has the two of them working together to solve the mystery behind the sunken Dana. However, social media and Fin's fame on Twitter threatens to expose Anna's traumatic past, bringing with it deadly dangers as they visit Skibo Castle, London, and go to the coastal resort of Saint Martin in France and Venice in Italy.

Denisa Mina writes a vividly beguiling, edgy, and all consuming crime read of the highest order that just grabs you from the beginning and never once lets you go until you get to the very last page. In Anna, Mina creates what she refers to as an amazing woman, and she is right. Anna is one of the huge numbers of women who have survived the kind of abuse, assault and trauma which society deems can only mean what happened to them was not so bad without once acknowledging that these women are truly amazing to have come through the darkest and most soul destroying of experiences. There is a wonderful host of characters that inhabit the novel, from Fin, Adam, the drug addict and an unforgettable gangster on a train. All in all, this is a stellar novel that any crime fiction and thriller fan is likely to adore. An absolute must read that comes highly recommended! Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.