This is a strange book, and tricky to review. The subject matter, the serial killing of prostitutes in Glasgow a long time ago, is gritty and sordid. The plot, such as it is, is chaotic, and hard to follow at times. Some of the characters introduced are superfluous to the main story, like Margo’s friend Lilah and partner Richard, with their crazy and volatile relationship. They are unconvincing, and add little to the story, except for the opportunity to describe violent scenes in which they feature.
My main problem with this novel is that the central character Margo has no character at all. I get no sense of her, physically or as a person. She is described as a GP, thirty something in age, but makes some very odd decisions and takes some crazy actions as the story progresses, flying in the face of her carefully described ‘ instinct’. And in the reader’s instinct! Not what the average reader would expect from a doctor in the community.
Her brother Thomas is cardboard cutout of a person, to the extent that I kept forgetting who he was when his name popped up from time to time. Another character who seems to be a complete irrelevance.
Nikki, Margo’s aunt, is the only convincing character in the story, a complex but believable woman who has had an extremely difficult and harrowing life, but has somehow survived to turn it all around.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

The Less Dead is a gripping, if bleak, piece of tartan noir. When sex workers, drug addicts, migrant workers, and otherwise marginalised groups are victims of murder, they are called the 'less dead'. Their deaths are less important, not as 'impactful'. Denise Mina's novel, in a similar vein to recent releases such as Long Bright River, is less interested in its 'serial killer' storyline and more concerned with depicting the realities and experiences of women whose lives have been punctuated by sexual abuse, violence, and addiction.
Set in Glasgow, the novel introduces to thirty-something Margot Dunlop, a doctor still grieving the recent death of her mother. Margot is struggling to cope, with her break up from Joe, her longterm boyfriend, and with her pregnancy. She finds herself wanting to learn more about her birth mother, Susan, only to learn that she was brutally killed years before. Susan's was one of the nine victims of a serial killer who preyed on sex workers. Since Susan's death Nikki, Susan's older sister, has received a string of menacing letters who could only have been written by the murderer. While Nikki seems eager to get to know her niece, a disbelieving Margot is hesitant to venture into a 'world' she thinks little of. When Margot also starts to receive crude letters, she's forced to reconsider.
As Margot learns more of Susan, a young woman who refused to labelled as a victim, and her birth family, she finds herself challenging her own biases.
Mina presents her readers with a thought-provoking interrogation of class. The women she writes of, their struggles and traumas, are rendered with striking empathy. Margot, however, comes across as a far less nuanced character. Her remoteness seemed unwarranted and unexplained. She's curt to the point of being brusque, she makes a few decision that aren't truly delved into, making her seem out of character for the sake of the plot. Nikki, by comparison, not only felt truly real, but she's really admirable. Margot's relationship with her 'problematic' best friend and her ex detracted from the overall the story. These two characters didn't seem all that believable.
While the third person present tense narration did add a sense of immediacy, or urgency if you will, to the novel, it did occasionally did frustrate me. There are certain conversations that don't have quotations marks and they also became a bit gimmicky (it made sense in certain scenes, but the more this happened the less 'meaningful' it became). Another pet peeve of mine were the sections from the 'culprits' perspective. These were brief and struck me as salacious, as in 'glimpse the thoughts of a deviant mind' (as if this individual's letters didn't convey their state of mind).
Mina's story is certainly evocative and gritty. The scenes focused on Nikki were easily my favourite. Margot's 'personal' struggles, on the other hand, just didn't grab my interest. Perhaps this is because I didn't particularly warm to her character, whose wooden personality reminded me of the narrator of Long Bright River.
Nevertheless, I did find Mina's examination of the way in which women such as Nikki and Susan are treated by their society to be both incisive and affecting. While Mina doesn't shy away from portraying the stark realities and daily horrors of addiction and prostitution, she doesn't make her characters into 'pitiable' stereotypes. The thriller elements give the narrative an element of suspense, and the tension between Margot and those connected to Susan did gave the story a certain 'edge'.

I wouldn't normally like to wander into the darkest depths of Glasgow with street walkers but when Denise Mina takes you there, I don't say no! She's got the knack of showcasing a side of somewhere yu have never considered and this is no exception.

Characters are rich and complex if not all a little damaged in their way. Margo wants to find her birth mother but ends up finding out much more than she bargained for. the secrets are dark and bring margo in touch with sex workers and drug addicts.Oh and a serial killer too. Someone even wrote a book about this at the time and now, in the present day, this is coming back to haunt.

There's a lot of grit and rawness to this story. Denise carves and scraps the emotions out of her characters like wood carvings from a log. it's very dark and grim in places but there's always that spark of humanity that shines through.

Margo Dunlop has recently lost her adoptive mother. Separated but pregnant, Margo is compelled to find out more about her birth mother Susan, who is dead. She meets her aunt, Nikki, who tells her that not only was her mother a prostitute, she was also murdered at the age of nineteen. No one was ever charged with her murder and it is Nikki's contention that the police didn't care about Susan or the other prostitutes murdered at that time and that indeed it may have been a police officer who killed her.

I love Denise Mina's writing and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Perhaps not as immediately compelling as her last novel, Conviiction, this was nonetheless unputdownable with relatable characters and an excellent insight into the lives of disadvantaged women. Nikki in particular was a great character.. I live in Glasgow and Mina has depicted the city very accurately both in the present day and in the flashbacks to the seventies. .

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a story with many, perhaps too many, different parts. Margo, whose adoptive mother has recently died, decides to get help to find her biological family. Margo was adopted at birth and is now a medical doctor. Her mother was a prostitute, murdered at a time when other young women were suffering a similar fate and the case has never been resolved. The police are blamed for not taking seriously murders of women from her class of society. The underside of Glasgow is well researched and class attitudes are well described. There is extended description when the reader might rather get on with the story. Margo also seems to have many dysfunctional contacts. Her boyfriend and his brother who abuses Margo’s best friend are just some of these relationships that are not necessary to the main story. Staying with Margo’s new link to her aunt Nikki and her immediate attempt to solve what the police could not achieve is the mainstay of the book. The social class system of the time and the way many women had to live are well described.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have read all this authors books and she never ever fails to disappoint. This had a great storyline, lots of twists and good characters. I loved it.

I really wanted to like this one as the premise is really promising. However, it wasn't for me, sorry.
I wasn't keen on the writing style and just couldn't connect with the main character either.
I finished it in a couple of sittings so it did hold my attention throughout but I can only give it 3 stars at best.

This was certainly a reasonably original book with the theme of serial killer murdering desperate women. Margo was unfortunately a very hard character to like or warm to and I found her physical description difficult to imagine. I also found it quite odd that she had time to meet the sister of her birth mother, do a bit of sleuthing and visit the High Court, all in the space of two days, I thought a GP would be busy seeing patients during the week. That side of her life ended up very much on the back burner. This wasn't an easy book to read due to the nature of the subject, that those in authority, including the police, were not inclined to give a lot of time to investigate who had been murdering all these girls, including Margo's mother, Susan. I will certainly look out for more by this author.

Margo wants to know more about her birth mother in this tough novel set in Glasgow.. Learning from her aunt that her mother was murdered she tries to find the killer. Good characters,interesting story.

Denise Mina returns to more familiar territory after the runaway success of Conviction as she once again atmospherically evokes the dark, dingy, and seedy underworld of a bygone Glasgow. Margo Dunlop, a doctor, has lost her adopted mother, Janelle, and whilst she is no longer in a relationship with the kind and caring Joe, she is pregnant. This has led to her strong desire to discover more about her birth mother, Susan Brodie, only she is dead, so she is meeting her aunt, Susan's sister, Nikki, who gives her a photograph of Susan, Margo is the spitting image of her. Nikki conveys the circumstances of 19 year old Susan's death, 4 months after giving birth to Margo. Susan was a street sex worker, addicted to drugs, abducted and murdered, her body discarded like rubbish at a bus stop in Easterhouse in 1989, one of 9 prostitutes killed by a serial killer at the time.

Nikki has been receiving creepy, abusive and malevolent letters from the murderer through the years, with the killer now beginning to send them to Margo too. In a her search for identity, Margo, is hungry to know more about Susan, Nikki and her birth family, to know more about their world, what being a sex worker was like, coming to understand that to the police and the public at the time, Susan and the women killed were the 'less dead', never valued, trash, less than human, with their killer never found. Jack Robertson wrote a self published true crime bestseller on the killings, Terror on the Street, a tabloid style, salacious, poorly written book, theorising who he thinks the murderer is, for which he is now being sued. As Margo searches for the truth of what happened to Susan, danger stalks her every step.

Mina astutely observes the class differences between the middle class life Margo grew up in, with her adopted mother and brother, Thomas, where she has a voice that is taken seriously, in sharp contrast with Susan and her birth family, whose lives and voices barely register. There is a complexity and vitality to Susan and her birth family and those of other sex workers that defies any easy categorisation or superficial understanding of their lives, such as the ambitious Susan's refusal to see herself as a victim. Margo's relationship with her best friend, Lilah, who regularly steals, is similarly complicated, supportive but carrying competitive and malicious undercurrents. This is a brilliant read, as can be expected from a crime writer of Mina's calibre, thought provoking, with stellar characterisations, such as that of Margo, Nikki and Lilah. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.

I've read it in one seating. I like Denise Mina's books and this is a good one. The story is tight even though that for once I guessed the culprit earlier on. My one reservation is that I didn't get the main character which is a bit of a problem. I just didn't believer in her or understand her. Not Mina's best but not her worst and still a good read.

This took its time to get going, but in a beautifully understated way. Why this had to be so becomes evident, because by the time the ‘mystery’ kicks in you really care about the characters.
The title refers to the attitude of the authorities towards women murdered by men who live lives of quiet desperation, hooked on drugs and selling their bodies to men. The novel takes time to reveal them as real people, with hopes and dreams and aspirations of a sort.
Margo, a doctor, is drawn into this world when she attempts to meet her birth mother. Connecting instead with her Aunt, for the most tragic of reasons, she finds out just who her mother was and what she meant to the people in her short life.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage. for the arc of Less Dead by Denise Mina.

This was such a thrilling gripping book, it had me gripped and wanting more, i read this very fast and i cannot thank Denise Mina enough this was a on the edge of your seat book, i wont spoil it but you must read!! If you have read Conviction by Denise Mina then you will love this

4 Stars

A Denise Mina thriller - taking twists and turns that I did not expect . Slightly unusual as in there is little police involvement. Some interesting observations on women in society - who is the victim; the prostitute who is earning money to better her life or the coercively controlled girlfriend?

Good stuff.

Another great book by Denise Mina. I read this in almost one sitting and was totally gripped. A must read.

#TheLessDead #NetGalley
A clever psychological thriller.
When Margo goes in search of her birth mother for the first time, she meets her aunt, Nikki, instead. Margo learns that her mother, Susan, was a sex worker murdered soon after Margo's adoption. To this day, Susan's killer has never been found.Nikki asks Margo for help. She has received threatening and haunting letters from the murderer, for decades. She is determined to find him, but she can't do it alone...
Will Margo find the murderer?
And most importantly who's the murderer and why he killed her mom?
This was a clever psychological thriller. I felt connected with Margo's character. She's adopted but she has gone in deep lengths to find her mom's killer.
Narration of the story is no doubt excellent. Denise Mina has done it again.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK Vintage for giving me an advance copy of this awesome psychological thriller.

‘The Less Dead’ by Denise Mina is a compelling read, not least because it’s not easy to work out the identity of the serial killer who has targeted Glaswegian working girls over several decades. The story is told from the point of view of Margo, a doctor whose adopted mother has recently died. Not only is she grieving Janette whilst clearing out her house but she is also dealing with the aftermath of a relationship with kind and gentle Joe, and she is pregnant.
When Margo decides to meet her birth aunt, Nikki, who like Margo’s birth mother, Susan, was a one-time sex worker, she learns not only of the manner of Susan’s death but also of Nikki’s suspicions of police involvement. Initially reluctant to become involved in Nikki’s amateurish detective work, when Margo receives a vicious threatening letter similar to those Nikki has been plagued with, she is drawn in.
The world of the working girl is respectfully and sensitively delineated by Denise Mina; the characters of Nikki and her friend Lizzie are presented as tough, capable, witty women who never ask for compassion and expect none. Margo’s late-night conversation in her car with a nameless sex worker feels particularly credible and over the course of the novel she gains a true picture of Susan’s world.
Mina’s mastery of complex plotting and authentic characters allows the reader to become fully immersed in a scary underworld whilst, at the same time, recognising and celebrating courage and resilience. An intelligent, challenging thriller.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

It took a little while for this story to settle at the start, and for the characters to become clear and approachable, but in a way this only added to the gripping tension and momentum thereafter. Margo has always known she is adopted, but only as an adult, and after the death of her adoptive mother does she decide to try to find her birth mother. Her search takes her into the seedy undebelly of Glasgow and the people she meets along the way exhibit all human traits, from the inherently good to the perfectly vile. Denise Mina is an absolute master of suspense and characterisation and her plot and settings are vivid and convincing throughout. The ending is unexpected and all the more shocking for that. This book had me on the edge of my seat to the very last word.

Adopted Margo wants to finally meet her mother but instead she finds out that she was murdered soon after her adoption. In addition to everything Margo is still receiving murderer's letter, so she decides to find him and obviously she needs a help with that.

Very well written crime novel, I highly recommend it.

This was an excellent thriller that literally took my breath away. The characters were realistic and well depicted. Highly recommended!