The Long Drop

Mina's novels are engrossing, deeply rooted in reality and astutely perceptive about human nature

Daily Express

Powerful, passionate and compelling. Mina can chill your blood and break your heart in the same sentence

Mark Billingham

Why do Scottish writers dominate British crime fiction? With Denise Mina at least, the answer is pure class

Daily Telegraph

A wonderfully punchy evocation of a legendary murder mystery, packed with the authentic sights, sounds and intrigues of Glasgow in the late Fifties.

Robert Goddard

I’ve been a fan of Ms Mina for a while, but The Long Drop has to be my favourite. The writing is beautiful and more than once I found myself having to pause, just to take in the sheer elegance of the prose. It’s an absolute gem of a book.

Abir Mukherjee

The Long Drop is an exceptional book. The pages reek of fifties Glasgow, forming an oppressive backdrop to a true crime story that fascinates and appals from start to finish. Mina’s prose cuts to the bone, laying bare the prideful wickedness of men in a tale that is as often touching as it is frightening. A feast of a crime novel.

Stuart Neville

[I] was gripped, impressed by her insight into the mind of a psychopath… A grim novel, but a very good one.

Allan Massie, Yorkshire Post, 2017 Books of the Year

[An] extraordinary story of a 1950s Glasgow murder mystery.

Guardian, 2017 Books of the Year

[O]ne of crime fiction’s most acute observers of contemporary society.

Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express, 2017 Books of the Year

A wonderfully atmospheric, unsettling read.

Louise Rhind-Tutt

A relentlessly tense and exciting read, every page oozes menace and its core of truth makes it all the more unsettling.

Sunday Mirror

The Long Drop is not just a success and a thrilling read in its own right, but a game-changer for the genre.

Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

Deliciously shadowy.

Claire Allfree, Metro

It is a beautifully written book, a masterpiece by the woman who may be Britain’s finest living crime novelist

Daily Telegraph

Deeply unsettling and thought provoking in all the best ways

Doug Johnstone, Big Issue

The Long Drop is a fascinating, quietly insidious work, unsettling but absorbing

Marcel Berlins, The Times

Not a single word is wasted in this beautifully written novel. Unsettling, evocative and staggeringly good, it is possibly Mina’s finest achievement

Daily Express

The Long Drop is an extraordinarily unsettling, evocative and compelling novel

Laura James, AGA Magazine

Dark, gritty and chilling, it is steeped in the atmosphere and mores of Glasgow in the 1950s

Choice

Remarkable… It often seems as if Mina has freed herself from most of the strictures of the thriller format in order to explore altogether more literary territory. It is a pleasure to accompany her. The writing is frequently arresting

James O'Brien, Times Literary Supplement

Charismatic, grimy masterpiece

Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

Bleak and atmospheric

Harriet Lane, Observer

A suspenseful journey into the past with the notorious 1950s serial killer Peter Manuel, it’s a brilliant, unsettling read

Siobhan Synnot, Daily Mail

The book left me with vivid images of the deprived city at that time, as well as the villains, thugs, police and normal people with opposing religious views. There is a real undercurrent of evil throughout the book from start to finish. It is a fascinating way to tell a horrific tale and although uncomfortable and tragic for all the families’ loss, it shows the monster for what he is

Mark Abrahamson, Nudge

This unsettling, uncomfortable and compulsively readable take on justice and retribution is the real deal

Stuart Evers

If, while wishing, Ian Brady or Charles Manson a sincere good riddance, you found yourself wondering what it would be like to experience their sulphurous charisma in person, Mina’s version of Manuel is probably the closest you can get. When I finished it I wanted simultaneously to burn it and to buy copies for everybody I know

Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

The ever-reliable Mina deserves all the awards she has already won for this, her latest novel…. Absorbing and filled with insights, this is a bravura performance, a true original

Ian Rankin, Guardian

A superb recreation of a Glasgow serial murder trial (and risk of miscarriage of justice) in 1958.

Mark Lawson, Guardian

When I finished it I simultaneously wanted to burn it and to buy copies for everyone I know.

Jake Kerridge, Telegraph

The Long Drop neither excuses the ghastly Manuel nor does it soft-soap the police and their ulterior motives, it does not sanctify the victims nor does it shy away from its own gruesome fascination with gruesome fascination.

Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

This is an absolutely compelling read.

Simon J. James, Times Higher Education

Staggering in scope and execution.

Jon Coates, Daily Express

Angry, vital and unputdownable, The Long Drop’s themes of self-deception resonate long after the final page. This is crime fiction at its very best

Joseph Knox, author of Sirens

Mina's insight into the wellsprings of violence is terrifyingly acute and her eye for period detail is unsurpassed. A bravura reimagining of 1950s Glasgow

Liam Mcllvanney, Big Issue

Mina’s recent novel The Long Drop…is her most interesting work

Neil Mackay, Herald

An atmospheric recreation of a vanished Glasgow…and a compelling exploration of the warped criminal mind. A Mina masterpiece

The Times, *Top Ten Crime Novels of the Decade*

One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years.

Ian Rankin

One of the most fiercely intelligent of crime writers

Daily Telegraph