Resolution: A Novel of Crime - Hardcover

Mina, Denise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786710101 ISBN 13: 9780786710102

Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub, 2002

Synopsis

In the conclusion of the Garnethill trilogy, Maureen O'Donnell faces all new threats as she deals with a lack of money, her abusive father, and the approaching trial of psychologist Angus Farrell for the murder of her boyfriend, and now an elderly stallholder at the local flea market is beaten to death and Maureen suddenly finds her own life in danger.

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Reviews

In this powerful, disturbing, wrenching conclusion to the Scottish author's Garnethill trilogy (Garnethill; Exile), the sense of everydayness renders the horrors Mina's Glaswegians confront even more terrible. Forced prostitution, child sexual abuse, alcoholism, dysfunctionality of every kindall are not so much spotlighted as they are integral parts of the fabric of the characters' lives. But for Maureen O'Donnell, whose continued existence is a triumph of will, there's also a strong sense of family and friendships forged in the crucible of survival. Maureen and her friends Leslie and Kilty are as unlikely a trio of dragon-slayers as one might find. With trepidation, Maureen awaits the trial of her lover's murderer, Angus Farrell, whose evil threatens her even while he's in jail. And Maureen's abusive father, Michael, has returned to Glasgow and she fears for her sister's soon-to-be-born baby. Maureen's efforts to help an illiterate old woman fill out a legal complaint against her son lead her into more danger and ugliness. The sordidness and the seemingly insuperable odds Maureen faces make her retreat into alcoholism seem appropriate. Thanks to Mina's considerable narrative skills, the Glasgow of Paddy's flea market, Albert Hospital and the area near the bus station where street prostitutes hang out emerges in gritty clarity. The novel culminates in a startling crescendo of violence, vengeance and resolution.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

(*Starred Review*) This is the last installment in Mina's award-winning Garnethill trilogy, following Garnethill (1999) and Exile (2000), both of which were New York Times Notable Books. This is a supremely anticozy trilogy: the setting is rainy, cold, low-end Glasgow; the heroine's personal and psychological lives are as sloppy as her Glasgow flat (whose floor now shows a recalcitrant bloodstain from her murdered boyfriend). Resolution brings to a witches' boil all the bad blood, fears from the past, and recurrent calamities that have been brewing since Garnethill. Heroine Maureen O'Donnell must undergo a multitude of struggles, but clotting at the surface are two that threaten her life. One is the return to Glasgow of her abusive father, whose sexual abuse of Maureen as a child has led to a lifelong depression. The second is the trial of the sociopath psychologist who murdered Maureen's boyfriend. This very slick manipulator makes a convincing case that Maureen drugged him out of jealousy. Maureen, beset by the creeping damp of just trying to make ends meet, must outwit the shrink and her father or lose everything. An unflinching portrayal of evil and the kind of heroism it takes to combat it. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

On the average day, Glaswegian Maureen O'Donnell is disheveled, mumbling to herself, and drunk by noon someone to ignore on the street. Mina's achievement here as in Garnethill and Exile, the first two volumes of this trilogy is to transform a trampled spirit into a person to whom attention must be paid. In this work, Maureen is coping with the aftermath of events in Exile. Not only must she testify at the trial of her boyfriend's murderer, psychologist Angus Farrell, but she must also protect her pregnant sister from their father, who has returned to town. As if that weren't enough, Maureen is approached by one of the other stall-holders at a flea market for help in suing her son. When that woman dies of an apparent heart attack, Maureen finds herself involved in trying to unravel a Poland-based prostitution ring. (Things were so much simpler in Miss Marple's day!) Once again, Mina delivers a Scottish blend of Thomas Harris, George Pelecanos, and Oprah-style reading that is uniquely her own and goes down very smoothly. For most public libraries. Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786710101
• ISBN 13: 9780786710102
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 366