It's always a joy to open a new novel by Denise Mina and start reading. She has a brilliant voice, and manages to evoke people and places vividly, and tells human stories with enormous humor and sympathy. I felt that way starting The Long Drop. But that feeling waned a bit as I read. Mina has often delighted me by making me care about characters who have little going for them; you see the world from the perspective of their experience, and end up more generous for it. But here she gives our sympathy a workout, focusing on two unpleasant people, flipping our understanding of them on its head. She has done an interesting job of imagining herself into an actual crime and into the infamous Gorbles and the shady world of Glasgow cops and robbers. It's all very sinister. But in the end, I found both the major characters and their situation strangely uninvolving. Maybe it was my mood, but I never developed a connection with the story as I usually do.

The story of the murder of three women and the subsequent trial. I loved the details that flashed through the novel and the sense of uncertainty.

Excellent book! Great characters and a brilliant storyline. I would highly recommend this book.

I wasn't able to finish this. It simply did not hold my attention.

Based on an actual case in 1950’s Ireland, Mina imagines what may have gone on behind the scenes. A house full of dead women, their father suspected of their murders. William Watt swears he had nothing to do with the killings and offers to pay anyone who can exonerate him. There follows a meeting with criminal Peter Manual who seems to have information about the murder no one should be privy to…unless they were there. When the trial takes place, it’s Peter defending himself against the murder charges, not William. What did the two men discuss during their meeting and is there a high enough price for murder?