This is the second in a planned trilogy by a writer of stunning talent and accomplishment. Instead of writing a thesis, Denise Mina wrote a novel, Garnethill. While staying home, supposedly to write her thesis, the author in Denise Mina was born. All the characters are richly drawn, though especially brilliant are Mina's depictions of the forlorn JimmyDunemployed, hapless, lovingly caring for his four ''weans''Dand of the ambivalent Maureen, aggressive and needy, independent yet desirous of affection, confident of the future but unable to purge the demons of her past. There Denise Mina taught criminology and criminal law while at the same time trying to complete her thesis on the subject of mental illness for female offenders. In seedy Brixton, a closed and suspicious community where grungy exile Glaswegians deal dope and brutalize one another, Maureen soon discovers to her peril that Ann was running dope and money between London and Glasgow for a violent criminal. When Ann's mutilated corpse turns up in the Thames, Maureen agrees to go to London to investigate for Leslie, in part to escape her depressing life, burdened by flashbacks to her lover's murder, fights with her new boyfriend, a job she dislikes, estrangement from her alcoholic mother, and a long-absent abusive father whose sudden return frightens her and haunts her dreams. Maureen, while working at a shelter for abused women in Glasgow, gets pulled into the search for a missing shelter client, Ann Harris, the wife of her friend Leslie's feckless cousin, Jimmy. The danger reaches a frightening pitch.'- Rocky Mountain News 'Mina offers us a complex plot with a shocking ending, all told in an amazingly original voice.' - Cleveland Plain Dealer 'This is a terrific book.Following her Creasy Award-winning debut, Garnethill (1999), Mina delivers a second powerful novel with the same self-destructive characters, notably protagonist Maureen O'Donnell, and the same grim, gritty British locales. like its powerful predecessor, Garnethill.' - New York Times Book Review 'Stunning. 'Atmospheric, intense, and full of the disturbing flavor of inner-city lowlife.' - Guardian 'Reads like a slap in the face - and a kick in the ribs and a fist in the stomach.

Taking her search to London, Maureen soon encounters disturbing truths about Ann's hidden past - including a secret that has Maureen fighting for her life. When the body of shelter resident Ann Harris washes up on the banks of the Thames two weeks later, Maureen vows to discover what happened and to prove that Ann's husband is not to blame. Trying to escape her own troubled past and the memories of her lover's murder, Maureen O'Donnell finds refuge working as a counselor at a shelter for battered women.

Exile by Denise Mina