Dr. Margot Dunlop’s life is all over the place. Her adoptive mother just died, her brother isn’t answering his phone, her best friend is in potentially bad relationship and she’s pregnant.
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She decides to go searching for her birth mother and sadly finds she was murdered. She does find her aunt, however she soon realized her aunt is danger and so is she.
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Murder, secrets and a dark past make this book a compulsory read.
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Thank you #Netgalley and #MulhollandBooks for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Ever since I read the fantastic "Garnethill" trilogy I have been a devout fan of Denise Mina. Deemed the 'Queen of Granite Noir', she is one of my favourite authors.

This is more a social commentary than a crime novel, though of course crimes, and their investigation lie within its pages. The title really says it all, "The Less Dead". This is how the police, and to a large extent the public, seemed to view the killing of sex workers in 1980s Glasgow. As though the women were worthless, as though their death mattered much less. They were the 'less dead' and not worth a thorough investigation. These disregarded and disdained women were viewed with apathy. They were unremarkable and unmemorable and their murder investigations were given the very lowest priority.

The Glasgow setting is intrinsic to the story and is almost a character unto itself. Well described by an author who clearly loves her home city - warts and all. "The Less Dead" was inspired by the real life murders of sex workers in Glasgow in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Margot's reluctance to keep the police apprised of her situation was frustrating, though understandable in a way - especially in light of Lilah's frequent run-ins with the law. She puts herself in jeopardy in a foolhardy way, yet you can understand her motivation.

The ending didn't surprise me. The journey to the ending was compelling. Recommended!

There were several things I really like about this book: the non-traditional look at the serial killing of sex workers and the frank representation of sex workers, the good and the bad. The story is presented mainly from the view of Margo, a daughter looking for her birth mother after her adoptive mother passes away. Margo is dealing with a lot of stress/depression and is pregnant. She isn't necessarily looking to hunt down her bio-mother's killer, she just wants information. But the hunt gives her something to distract her from the things she really needs to do and wants to avoid. This is the main plot. What didn't add to the plot was the rather random relationship she seemed to have with her best friend, Lilah. It never felt solid and when Lilah reappeared in the story I kept having to remind myself who she was. That doesn't feel very BFF. But I really struggled with the ending. You probably recall that I am not a fan of the tidy little ending with everything miraculously resolved. True, but I do feel the need for the main storylines to be completed. I finished this book wondering where the last chapter was. And the arguing with the physical book that there were problems with the ending it gave me. Problems which I won't detail here as they would be considered spoilers. Needless to say, my enjoyment of reading was severely curtailed by the unsatisfactory conclusion.

Another excellent mystery from Mina, the author of the similarly-excellent CONVICTION.

THE LESS DEAD follows Margo Dunlop, an engaging protagonist you will quickly come to root for. She's at a bit of a turning point in her life. Newly pregnant and single, and following the death of her adoptive mother, Margot becomes determined to learn more about her biological mother - a sex worker who was killed shortly after Margot's death. The killer has been taunting Margot's aunt, Nikki, for years, and has also started taunting Margot. Into this story comes Jack Robinson, a disgraced true crime writer with his own theories (and problems).

THE LESS DEAD is a dark, gripping crime/suspense novel. It gripped me from early on, and I zipped through it pretty quickly. If you're already a fan of the author, I'm sure you won't need any convincing to pick this up. If you're new to the author's work, I highly recommend you give this one a try.

This was an interesting book with very complicated characters. What begins as a search for her birth mothers turns in to search for her killer. I did like how it brings the Murders of prostitutes to life and the challenge of getting people to investigate. Overall it was a good book.

In Denise Mina’s gritty crime novel, The Less Dead, single Glaswegian doctor Margo, following the death of her adoptive mother, seeks out her birth family, only to collide into a dark world of murder. Margo discovers a cache of letters from her birth mother’s sister but kept from her by her adoptive mother. Margo arranges a meeting with her long-lost relative, and after a few minutes spent in the company of her Aunt Nikki, it would seem that Margo was extremely lucky to have been adopted–even if that situation wasn’t perfect.

When people decide to go hunting for lost friends or relatives, there’s usually some impetus at work, and that is true in both Margo and Nikki’s case. Margo, who has just split for her long-term boyfriend (well, sort of) is pregnant, and with her personal life stagnating, she becomes curious about her past. In Nikki’s case, she wants to enlist Margo’s help in catching the man who murdered Margo’s mother decades earlier, a 19 -year-old sex worker named Susan.

While Margo wants to take the whole reunion thing slowly, and is interested in finding out about her birth mother, she is ill prepared to learn the ugly truth. It’s earth shattering to discover that she was the child of a heroin addict, and that her Aunt Nikki, who seems somewhat unbalanced, was also a heroin user.



Given the class divide, the meeting between Margo and Nikki does not go well. Nikki isn’t really interested in Margo as a person, she only wants to enlist her help in the hunt for Susan’s killer. Nikki insists that the murderer is a dirty cop. It’s just all too much for Margo, and she walks away. Naturally over the years, she’d imagined her birth family, but nothing she imagined prepared her for the truth.

Splintered. She imagined all of these alternative selves existed in parade worlds and these other lives have meant so much to her. They fostered possibilities and comforted her when things were miserable at home.

But once Margo is aware of her past, she can’t undo the knowledge, so it’s down the rabbit hole: soon she’s looking at news reports and even graphic crime scene photos. Margo’s interest in the case and her contact with Nikki stirs the slumbering past. Margo was unknowingly protected by class, education and in essence a new identity. All of those protections disappear once she steps into the nightmare of her mother’s murder.

The class divide between Margo and Nikki is well created, and since Margo is the spitting image of her mother, there’s a weird time warp effect as Nikki explains Glasgow’s terrible history of heroin use, and the murders of sex workers who were seen as easy targets by predators. There are parallel realities here: Nikki’s world in which women are slaughtered and no one cares, and Margo’s world where sex workers are far off in the hidden corners of society. There’s some great secondary characters here including author Jack Robertson, whose self-published book. Terror on the Streets argues that the murdered sex workers were victims of a serial killer which is contrary to the police claims. For crime fans, this is an entertaining read. Not gory, and the premise is off the beaten track.

Review copy

This was an interesting story about a woman who goes searching for her birth mother only to find that she is dead, and there are questionable circumstances surrounding her death. This one was just ok for me, a decent story but did not wow me.

This book was super good. It was super original and I flew through it. It didn't feel like anything I've read in the past. Can't wait to read more from the author!! This book was unputdownable.

Loved the grit of this book.
The initial scene in the social workers offices was particularly hard hitting for me.
Denise Mina is always a winner with her writing.

Full of undesirable characters, but very interesting and well written.
Denise Mina has made what could have been a tawdry "who dunnit" into a realistic and compelling story about the plight of sex workers. A horrific and degrading murder goes unsolved and nobody cares, because the victim was a prostitute. Margo, Susan's grown daughter, was adopted as an infant, but comes back to the place she was born, to find out about her birth mother, hoping to meet other family members, after her beloved adoptive mother died. She meets Susan's sister, her aunt, who has never stopped looking for Susan's killer.
Margo continues to make a case to arrest the man whom she thinks killed her mother with some realistic twists at the end. This author made the people seem real and worth caring about.

The only thing I didn't buy was how Margo, who is a doctor, managed not to work for the entire book.

This was just okay. It takes place is Glasgow and I love Scottish set books. Additionally, it featured a lot of complex characters and relationships. Additionally, it examines how the characters life could have been different in a different neighbourhood. However, it was boring.

This is the first Denise Mina book I've read. I'm not sure what I expected. I was intrigued by the focus on sex workers. I wasn't too keen on Margo's holier than thou attitude. The story line kept me reading but I admit I struggled to get through some boring bits. It took me longer to read this book than it normally would.

After firmly establishing herself as a Crown Princess of Tartan Noir thanks to three outstanding series (Garnethill, Paddy Meehan, Alex Morrow), Glasgow scribe Denise Mina has poured her immense storytelling talents into unique standalones in recent years. Her latest tale, The Less Dead, is another brilliant novel that takes readers into some uncharted waters. A fascinating read, it's quite bleak and grim in its content, yet compelling and heartfelt too. Set in Glasgow but exploring issues that resonate globally.

It takes readers into the lives of those who struggle on the margins, who work or live on the streets, the type of people whose deaths have been marked ‘No Humans Involved’ on NYPD case files. Or the ‘less dead’, as Nikki shares with Margo. While there’s a whodunnit aspect to Mina’s latest, it shines brightest in how it takes us into others’ lives. A fine novel, more focused on characters (and society) than the solving of a crime.

Much has been recently written in Canada, and elsewhere, about the murder of ‘lost women’; the women who don’t rate the attention of the police because of their homeless or indigenous status or their identification as sex workers. This awful judicial inequality is at the heart of Denise Mina’s new novel The Less Dead. Margot Dunlop’s adoptive mother has recently died; she’s had a falling out with her partner and she’s just discovered she’s pregnant. This doesn’t seems like the most auspicious time to follow through on leads to her biological family, but Margot finds Nikki, her aunt and only known remaining blood relative. She also finds out that her biological mother, Susan, a nineteen year-old recently recovered drug addict was one of seven sex workers murdered just four months after Margot was born. The story is based on actual cases of nine sex workers murdered on the streets of Glasgow during the 1980s. The title, The Less Dead supports the awful truth that some lives are considered less important than others. In fact, police were known to add this to murder files of sex workers or street people whose deaths were not considered important. Denise Mina has said “The whole book is about how we value victims and why we value some more than others. It’s important that everyone has the full protections of the law.” This theme brings to mind Hallie Rubenhold’s book, The Five, which details the lives of the women thought to be murdered by Jack the Ripper. Her focus is on the women and the lives they lived rather than their murderer. Victims of murder, however they lived their lives, are more than the manner in which they died.

As a doctor growing up in a middle class family, Margot has been saved the indignities of Susan and Nikki’s upbring and circumstances, and her quest to unravel the story of Susan’s life and death becomes as much about her own understanding of what it means to grow up and live outside the accepted norm, as learning the truth about her biological mother. As Margot moves through the murky side of Glasgow street life, she comes to understand that her life view has been restricted by her fortunate adoption into the world of the privileged.

Surprisingly, conversations between Margot, Nikki and Nikki’s friend Lizzie are sometimes really humorous. Seems hard to imagine humour in a novel with such a gruesome theme, but it is a welcome and a naturalistic function of the characters. It makes them come to life.

There is a subplot involving Margot’s best friend, who is hiding from her abusive ex-partner. Whilst it seems incidental to the thrust of the novel, it escalates in an unexpected way.

The great thing about Denise Mina is that she never disappoints. Her novels are all worthy of your reading time, and The Less Dead does not deviate from this standard.

I haven’t read her previous novel Conviction which I heard is pretty good. I didn’t find this book to be good. It was an ok story but I didn’t feel like it was all that thrilling. I was bored by the story.

After enjoying Conviction last year I was eager to read more from Denise Mina, Unfortunately, The Less Dead did not deliver the exciting thriller I was expecting.

What worked for me:
- Mina attempted to humanize sex workers and show what might lead a person to that kind of life and challenge people's preconceptions of them.
- The final paragraph was strong.
- Short chapters made for a quick read.
-There was tension in some of the scenes that reengaged my interest.

What didn't:
-The writing. The style was uncomfortably choppy, the transitions between points of view and dialogue were sloppy, the tense changed intermittently.

-The characters. They were unlikable, which isn't necessarily something that makes me dislike a book, especially thrillers. In this case, however, there was too much backstory in some aspects, and yet none of it added up to giving me an understanding of the main character or what would lead her to make many of the choices she did.

-The Grit. It's a thriller, I expect the book to have some dark and difficult elements. In the case of The Less Dead, I found it to be distasteful. Virtually every trigger warning imaginable applies to this book. I feel that Mina took this too far and at points, it seemed that certain elements were added in for shock value rather than to contribute to the plot.

- Shockingly, the number one device I have a hard time getting past isn't the rape, murder, or even the pedophilia. It's the relationship Margo has with her "best friend" Lilah. It is a toxic, competitive, and "frenemy"-like dynamic that I simply can't stand and also has no relevance to the plot.

I hate to write negative reviews but have to be transparent about this book, especially if there are other readers out there who enjoyed Conviction and are expecting something similar.
Thank you to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the advance copy.

Dr. Margo Dunlop, grieving the death of her adoptive mother, found a secret stash of letters from her biological aunt and decided to meet her. Nikki revealed that Margo’s biological mother, Susan Brodie, not only was a prostitute, but was killed just months after Susan’s birth by a serial killer. Since then, Nikki’s been receiving threatening letters.

Margo, who is newly and unexpectedly pregnant—and split from her boyfriend, Joe—is also trying to protect her best friend, Lilah from her controlling and abusive boyfriend. Pursing Nikki’s paranoid suspicions is more than she can handle—that is, until she starts receiving letters herself. Now, she is compelled to find out what really happened to Susan before she herself becomes a victim.

WHAT I LIKED
Mina’s description of Nikki and her friend Lizzie, as well as the sex trade in Glasgow, were empathetic and compelling. They were funny, likeable characters who had overcome addiction and more. I also loved Mina’s trajectory, and how she came to be proud of having Brodie blood from being fairly alarmed by her mother’s past.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK AS WELL FOR ME
I wanted more details about Joe and why he’d tolerate Margo who was a bit of a pill and Lilah and why she’d fallen into a pattern of abusive relationships. Interstitial chapters reflect the killer’s point of view. They are creepy and atmospheric, but I didn’t really like them. I also felt that the novel had several strands of narrative that didn’t always work together. On the one hand, that’s life, and it does reflect Margo’s state of mind to some extent, but it’s not necessarily what I look for in a crime novel.

Mina’s writing is excellent, and her depiction of Glasgow made me feel like (and wish) I was there. I wanted to know the resolution of the case, and was surprised and satisfied with the ending.

✨REVIEW✨ Publication Date: 8/18/2020
DNF at 25%

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Stories for the ARC. Unfortunately, I could not complete this book. After loving Conviction by Denise Mina, I had difficulty becoming invested in The Less Dead. I did not connect with the characters and the storyline.l and struggled with the pacing of the novel. Although The Less Dead was not for me personally, I will be looking for Denise Mina’s next release as I feel she is a gifted writer.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Conviction so I was eager for the opportunity to read Denise Mina’s newest release, The Less Dead.

In the wake of her adoptive mother’s death, newly separated and pregnant. Glasgow GP Margo Dunlop, decides she wants to meet her biological family. She learns that her biological mother is long dead, but her Aunt Nikki, her mother’s older sister, is eager to connect with her. Their first meeting, in a small room at the reconciliation center, leaves Margo reeling when she is told that her mother, Susan, was a drug addicted prostitute who was brutally stabbed to death just months after Margo’s birth, and Nikki wants Margo’s help to solve her murder.

“It’s a cruel story to tell a stranger. Asking for things. Demanding things. It’s not her problem, all these long-ago things. She’s got enough going on.”

A compelling novel with a noir sensibility, The Less Dead sees Margo reluctantly drawn into her Aunt’s quest to hold someone responsible for Susan’s murder. Uncomfortable with Nikki’s intensity and her biological family’s unsavoury past, Margo’s commitment is half-hearted until she too becomes a target of vile, anonymous letters that appear to be from the killer.

“'When we get killed they call us the 'less dead', like we were never really alive to begin with.”

‘We’ refers to sex workers, drug addicts, migrants and the poor, women like Susan and Nikki, and ‘they’ the Glasgow police who routinely turned a blind eye when it came to crimes against women on the street. Susan was one of nine sex workers from the same small area murdered in the eighties. The women themselves feared a serial killer, the police were uninterested, Nikki later became convinced the murderer was a cop. Whomever it is, he has continued to taunt Nikki over the last thirty plus years, and now Margo has his attention and the tension rises as the killer grows increasingly obsessed.

“It doesn’t feel as if she’s looking at someone else at all but a younger self, a splinter Margo.”

Honestly I found Margo to be a frustrating character who, even with the recognition she was under an enormous amount of stress, often made inexplicable decisions. However, I was impressed with the way the author explored the contrast between Margo’s adopted middle class life, and that of her struggling biological family through her. Margo may look almost exactly like her late mother but she had no understanding of life she lead, or the environment she grew up in, and the way in which she is forced to confront her own prejudice, assumptions and authority is intelligent and thought-provoking.

“... we made being outsiders the thing we were. They couldn’t break us or make us lie. We knew who we were.”

It was Nikki who I found the most interesting and authentically portrayed, along with Lizzy and Susan (even though she is not actually present). I felt sorry about the hardships the women experienced, but never found them pitiable, in fact I admired them.

Though not a fast-paced book, The Less Dead is thrilling, with a pervasive sense of unease and a steady increase in tension. Gritty, insightful and absorbing, it’s only the character of Margo that unfortunately let it down for me.

The Less Dead by Denise Mina ⭐️⭐️

I was so excited to read this because I loved Conviction. This book did not come close to my expectations. The main character was quite unlike able, which is typically okay for me but I couldn’t get interested enough in her story. I loved Conviction because the characters were so real and there was a lot of dry humor. I was hoping for the same type humor in this read, but I did not really get any. The whole story was a bit dry and slow for me. The chapters from the stalker/killers perspective were exciting, but there weren’t enough for it to add excitement to the whole book. The lack of quotation marks made it difficult to read at times. Maybe if I hadn't of loved Conviction so much, I would have enjoyed this read a bit more. If you are looking for another great read like Conviction, try this out but I did not find it on the same level.