I really enjoyed this book.I liked the way Denise Mina wrote, including the podcasts was a great idea. It kept me interested. I haven't read anything by this author before but I will look out for her other books now.

Conviction has one of the most enjoyable and compelling first-person narrators I've read in ages. I love the podcast angle, the relationships between the characters, and the black humour of the protagonist's voice. This is a true page-turner and kept me gripped throughout.

I'm a newcomer to Denise Mina but on the evidence of this I am inspired to seek out her backlist. Smart, funny and often unexpected, this quality thriller rattles along at a cracking pace and takes the reader along for the ride. Excellent.

This is a rollercoaster of a book - it sucks you in, throws you around corners at high speed and leaves you dizzy and wrung-out at the end. Denise Mina is a master of her craft and writes with panache, touching on serious issues as well as some humorous moments. The characters are believable and you are swept further into the mystery and mayhem with every page. Diametrically different from any of her previous novels, Conviction is highly recommended.

Scotland’s Denise Mina burnished her ‘Crown Princess of Crime’ reputation with her previous novel, the historic inspired-by-a-true-story tale The Long Drop, wowing readers, critics, and awards judges. After celebrating the twentieth anniversary last year of her striking debut Garnethill, Mina now underlines her versatile talents and doyenne status with a zesty tale imbued with plenty of up-to-the-minute issues.

A sparkling standalone, CONVICTION centers on Glasgow wife and mother Anna McDonald, who lives a fairly domestic existence with her lawyer husband Hamish and two young daughters. She makes lunches, listens to true crime podcasts, and gets the kids ready for school. It’s a life that’s comfortable and feels safe, but that may be what Anna needs given the very public trauma she suffered years before. Now living under a new identity, Anna’s lukewarm reality is upturned in a single day when Hamish leaves her for her best friend, and she learns on her latest podcast that an old acquaintance is dead. Even worse, a powerful woman who made Anna’s past life hell could be involved in some way. Untethered and desperate for a distraction, Anna becomes obsessed with the podcast, and starts picking at the case, finding an unlikely ally in the form of the anorexic ex of her former best friend. Together they follow a trail from the Scottish Highlands to continental Europe, hunting for truth while visiting hideaways of the rich and the wretched and trying to stay ahead of some dangerous people.

There’s a real verve to Mina’s storytelling, which blends gut-punch moments with great characterization, a clever structure, and nice touches of black humor. Conviction is a whirlwind, in the finest way.

What an astonishing book. It starts off with explosive force and doesn’t let up the whole way through.

The mystery of a curiously disengaged woman whose husband leaves her for her best friend, gradually, very gradually, unravels via her obsession with a true crime podcast alongside the arrival of her best friend’s anorexic rock star husband. They set out on a journey together, reluctant travelling companions, and bit by bit, as her link to the podcast becomes apparent, the mystery deepens then begins to reveal itself as their situation becomes ever more perilous.

An absolutely gripping yarn, beautifully told and unputdownable. Lovely writing, great characters, and a great trip through Europe to boot, this is highly recommended.

Anna McDonald and her husband live in Glasgow, Scotland with their two daughters. Anna is not her real name, something bad happened to her relating to a wealthy business woman - Gretchen Teigler. Anna is devastated when her husband Hamish leaves her with her best friend Estelle together with their two girls.
Anna and Fin ( who is Estelle's husband ) investigate the sinking of a wealthy man's yacht, killing him and his two children. Anna has evidence that points to Gretchen Teigler's involvement, however there are people intent on silencing Anna for good!
This is another fast paced thriller from this excellent author. I have read all her works, particularly liking the Paddy Meehan series and also the Alex Morrow books.
Highly recommended, keeps you reading and on the edge of your seat. See my full review on the Euro-Crime website.

One morning is all it takes for Anna's world to crumble; her best friend, Estelle, arrives at the front door and as Anna's husband appears at the top of the stairs with his suitcase, Anna suddenly realises he's leaving her - and taking her two children with him for a holiday with Estelle as his new companion. As Anna sits on the floor of the hallway contemplating her new and unexpected future, she listens to a true crime podcast and hears that someone she once knew has died in an explosion on a boat. Anna becomes convinced that there was more to the explosion than met the eye and sets off to investigate - with the unexpected help of Estelle's partner, Fin, who had been something of a pop star. Anna's search for the truth about the explosion leads to an exposure of things from Anna's own past - things that had been long kept buried and it seems that there's a link between Anna's past and the explosion on the luxury yacht.

I've been a fan of Denise Mina in the past, and this is a competent thriller but rather too implausible for my taste - note there is a plot spoiler here, which is I didn't believe that the world's wealthiest woman who was supposedly behind some murderous activity which had taken place in Anna's past would have bothered herself with that situation, rich as she already was at the time, and I struggled to believe the same super-rich and clever woman had ended up with another two equally murderous and apparently virtually psychopathic female acquaintances who were ready to do her bidding also (as well as being murderous in their own right). So all in all I found this readable but unlikely.

Brilliantly engaging, contemporary thriller. A whirlwind journey through Scotland and Europe keeps the reader embedded in the back story of Anna and the solving of the podcast mystery together with her uninvited companion Fin. He just happens to be the husband of the woman that has taken off with Anna's husband and children and also a reclusive burned out rock star. The power of social media plays a key role in their escapades.
This book is uniquely exciting as well as hilarious in parts

Denise Mina's previous book was a true crime story about the Glasgow criminal Peter Manuel. Her latest novel, Conviction, is partly set in Glasgow and features a main character who loves listening to true crime podcasts. This was a fabulous read which kept me enthralled and guessing from start to finish. In addition to the Glasgow location the reader is taken to Ile de Re in France where I shall be travelling this summer and also to Fort William where I spend a week or so every year. Locations were only one of the reasons I found this book so riveting however. The characters, particularly Anna and Fin, are really well crafted and the narrative reveals more about each of them as the story progresses and they find out more about each other. When listening to a true crime podcast Anna hears a familiar name and discovers that someone she once knew has died, with his two children, in suspicious circumstances in a boating tragedy. This coincides with her finding out that her husband has been having an affair with her best friend. Anna's reaction to these two events is to head off to find out what really happened on the boat. She accidentally hooks up on this escapade with Fin, the husband of her best friend, who decides to create a podcast of his own recounting their exploits. The two travel across Scotland, France and Italy, finding themselves in very dangerous situations and eventually solving the mystery. What really makes Conviction stand out is that while being an engaging murder mystery and thriller it is also very funny. I have already recommended Conviction to friends and family and would thoroughly recommend to readers who enjoy thrillers with strong characters and lots of surprises and twists. I received a complimentary ARC of this title from the publisher via Net Galley in return for an honest review.

Very riveting read, right from the beginning. At first you think you aren't going to like the character, but that soon changes. There's mystery, there's humour, there's adventure and there's love. And it keeps you gripped throughout.

This is a wonderfully sprawling tale with a twisted plot, most of which would easily feature in today's news headlines. The story opens with Anna McDonald, wife of a well-heeled Glasgow lawyer and mother of two young daughters, listening to a true crime podcast titled "Death and the Dana" as she prepares her daughters'clothes and packed lunches for school.
Suddenly, a name from her past leaps out from the podcast.
A man she knew briefly a decade ago is dead, killed in an explosion aboard a yacht which sank in the Bay of Biscay. With him were his teenage daughter and son. A young woman was arrested for planting explosives on the Dana and is now in prison. As she struggles to take in this news, her best friend Estelle arrives to collect her daughters for the school run - or so Anna thinks. Instead, Anna discovers her husband Hamish is leaving her for good, taking their daughters with him. He and Estelle have had an affair and amid a brief shouting match with Hamish and Estelle, Anna's world falls apart.
With her life seemingly in tatters, she decides to distract herself from her family problems by investigating Leon's death. Then Estelle's husband Fin - a one-time rock star who suffers from anorexia - turns up and the two set off on an incredible journey which first takes them north to Skibo Castle (built by the fabulously wealthy businessman, Andrew Carnegie) then down to London to meet Tina, the broadcaster of the true crime podcast and on to Saint-Martin-de-Ré where the Dana was docked before its' final fateful journey.
From there, she and Fin travel on to Italy and back to France.
Half way through the book, we learn the shocking truth of Anna's past and how her present actions will place her in mortal danger.
Along the way we meet some old friends of hers and more fantastical characters including hired killers and lackeys of the very rich desperate to prevent Anna from discovering the truth about her past and how it affects the present.
This is a wonderfully original crime novel from a writer at the top of her form. It fails to conform to the usual boundaries of crime fiction and in Anna it has a tough female lead character who will have you cheering her on. By turns, darkly comic and heart-wrenchingly sad, this is a terrific read. Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Harvill Secker for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

Love how twisted and messed up this book is, and who do you believe??

This offers a great story with twists and turns throughout!

Denise Mina’s ‘The Long Drop’ was thoroughly deserving of the McIlvanney prize for Scottish Crime in 2017 and her latest novel ‘Conviction’ was keenly anticipated on my part! A very different kind of read, Mina builds her narrative using the format of the relatively new True Crime podcast (she confesses herself a fan!), not just as a device to enable the back story but also in the real-time of the plot when one of the characters begins to broadcast their plight to the world.
Anna McDonald is an unhappily married Scottish housewife. She wants for nothing; her husband is a successful lawyer and she has two much adored young daughters. Nevertheless, she is clearly suffering, some of which is explained by the fact that her husband and her best friend, Estelle, announce their love for each other early in the novel. However, we soon begin to appreciate just how complex Anna’s life is as she reveals that she is actually Sophie Bukaran, someone long-believed dead after disappearing a decade back. Sophie had been raped by a group of footballers and courageously taken them to court. Soon after her failed prosecution, she is attacked and nearly killed in her own home. Sophie believes that the infamous and fabulously wealthy Gretchen Teigler, owner of the football club, is behind this. Little wonder that she goes into hiding.
Back in the present, during her family meltdown, Sophie, now Anna, hears the name of an acquaintance, Leon Parker, on one of her beloved True Crime podcasts ‘Death and the Dana’ which aims to unravel the mystery of Parker and his children’s unusual deaths at sea. She decides to investigate. With her unusual sidekick, the anorexic pop star Fin Cohen and Estelle’s ex-husband to boot, the couple head first north to Scotland and after that to France and Italy, in their attempt to track down the truth about the Parker family, whose murders also appear to be linked to Gretchen Teigler.
Whilst Anna/Sophie is feisty and funny and the podcast trope reflects today’s new media, celebrity worship and the never-ending thirst for information (true or false), ‘Conviction’ is not a resounding success. Through their travels Anna/Sophie and Fin meet a whole cast of characters and yet they are remembered as little more than stereotypes. I wasn’t even sure that I was desperate for the modern-day sleuths to emerge unscathed or victorious, perhaps because the events are focused on far more than the creation of credible characters. And the final twist was a little too neat for my liking!
My thanks to NetGalley and Harvill Secker for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Conviction by Denise Mina 🖤
Thanks @netgalley @dam7337 and @randomhouse for my ARC
Publication date 16th May 2019
‘A sunken yacht, a Murder onboard and a secret still unsolved’. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Wow. This is my first book by Denise Mina. It is also one of the best books I’ve ever read. I absolutely loved the way the story was told, such an original and modern way. I don’t want to say too much as it was a pleasant surprise for me and I think that made the book even more special. The story is told by Anna McDonald, who I personally thought was hilariously funny. She was just so honest and candid about her life, she really made the story. The story is dark and at parts pretty bloody scary but just so good. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I literally couldn’t put this book down. It was gripping, suspenseful, funny and had a fabulous mystery running throughout. Denise Mina’s writing style is pure genius, there are stories upon stories in one sitting. A true genius in my eyes. Maybe it’s the Glaswegian in me 😊 I can’t wait to read everything else she has written. One of the best Scottish writers out there. Highly, highly recommended xx

Clever, witty and full of twists and turns that keep you guessing, Conviction is narrated by a character that wants to get to the truth of both her own hidden background and a former murder case. The main character is drawn with deft strokes and we are rooting for her right from the start, despite her idiosyncrasies. Mina cleverly uses podcasts as a narrative device, which gives the story an 'of the time' feel. The travel undertaken by the amateur sleuths provides additional interest. I'm a big fan of Mina and love this new departure in her work.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.
Five stars all round

Hell yes!!! All the love for this book.
Anna is an amazing character; she has a tragic back story, one that doesn't define her, but unfortunately dominates her life when her husband deals her a gut wrenching blow at the start of the book. Armed only with her wits, an envelope full of cash, a chic designer ensemble, a hapless male anorexic sidekick and an unerring obsession with a true crime podcast, she sets out to free herself from the ghosts of her past (who have come to shut her up once and for all thanks to a nosy neighbour posting a photo on instagram).
This involves a violent escapade across Europe that had me laughing out loud, cringing and fist punching the air. Seriously, if Anna were real I would be demanding that she comes out for a drink with me. Hopefully it will be a fun night out, not one of those where you end up getting pissed with a mercenary assassin and have to flea to Lyon. !

My huge thanks go to Net Galley and the publishers for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This one is difficult to review.
The style is an unusual one and I found myself smiling at a lot of the phraseology.
Our heroine in this novel is very quirky and kind of likable even though she sometimes tries hard not to be.
I did find it sometimes a little disjointed but on the whole it was an easy read, a good plot and a satisfying conclusion.

I recently went to a talk by Denise Mina at Glasgow University where she mentioned how much she loved podcasts and true crime stories. Well, she has used both to great effect here. Anna McDonald is an ordinary Glaswegian woman, living with partner Hamish and their two children. She and Hamish are not particularly happy and she distracts herself by reading and by listening to true crime podcasts. One morning she is listening to one such podcast when she realises that she knows one of the people featured in it but she barely has time to come to terms with it when the doorbell goes. Her friend Estelle is outside with a suitcase waiting for Hamish. They are going off together and taking the children with them. Devastated, Anna considers killing herself but when Estelle's anorexic husband Fin calls round she decides not to. Together she and Fin go for a drive ending up in the Highlands where Anna's past rears up to meet her with terrifying consequences.

Anyone who has been to a Denise Mina talk knows that she is a warm and witty person and there is plenty of warmth and wit in this book. I have always enjoyed her books but this is exceptional. Farfetched at times, yes, but who cares. It's great!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Completely brilliant - engaging voice grabs us as she slowly reveals past transgressions and secrets - when her marriage crumbles , a former celeb trails along, and they solve a present mystery of a mysterious death of an old soul mate, and it circles back to her too. Plausibility is sometimes strained and the attachment, and her accommodation of the tag-along sometimes didn't convince - but overall, the tragedy that is uncovered and its origins in greed, is really deftly set out. Mostly I loved the verve and courage of the narrator .. really expert crime novel,with deep layers ...