The book started well, but I really struggled to finish this book, I think it's because I couldn't completely gel with the characters.

I was pulled into this book from the first page. It is a very compelling read. I liked that it was based on true events. It is very well written and obviously well researched. I wanted to know Peter Manuel's fate. I wanted to know the details of the murders and what evidence there was. There is a grey cloud over William Watt's innocence as well. This makes the book more interesting. This is a really good read and I hope Denise Mina writes more like it.

Grimly Glaswegian...

William Watt wants to clear his name. His wife, sister-in-law and daughter have been brutally murdered in their home, and Watt is the chief suspect. But convicted rapist and burglar, Peter Manuel, recently released from prison, claims he knows who did the murders and can lead Watt to the murder weapon, a gun which has passed from hand to hand through the criminal underworld of Glasgow. So one December evening in 1957 the two men meet and spend a long night together drinking and trying to come to some kind of deal – a night during which the truth of the killings will be revealed.

This book is based on the true story of Peter Manuel, one of the last men to be hanged in Scotland, in the late 1950s. A notorious rapist and brutal murderer, Manuel was a bogeyman in the Glasgow of my childhood, though he died before I was born. Adults spoke of him in hushed tones or sometimes threatened disobedient children that Peter Manuel would get them if they didn't behave. In the old tradition, his story was turned into a rhyme that little girls sang while skipping ropes...

“Mary had a little cat
She used to call it Daniel
Then she found it killed six mice
And now she calls it Manuel.”

Despite this, I knew almost nothing about the actual crimes of which Manuel was convicted, so came to the book with no preconceptions, and made a heroic effort to avoid googling in advance. And although the blurb already seems to suggest what the outcome of the Watt case might be, it's not nearly as clear cut as that – Mina does a wonderful job of obscuring and blurring the truth, so that I spent the whole time not quite sure how major parts of it would play out, and immediately had to rush off on finishing to find out how closely the story she tells had stuck to the facts. The answer is that she largely has, but has taken a few fictional liberties. These are just enough to mean the suspense element will work just as much for people who know the case as those who don't, I think.

But the story is only a part of what makes this wonderful book so special. Despite being in my pet-hate present tense, the writing is fantastic. The portrayal of Glasgow feels amazingly authentic – the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty; the buildings blackened by the soot of the industrial revolution before the big clean up that happened later in the century; the lifestyles of respectable people and criminals alike; the gangsters great and small; the perpetual almost tribal sectarianism between Protestant and Catholic that has marred so much of the city's history; the relationships between married couples; the pubs as a male preserve; the edge of danger that comes from the ever present threat of violence – everything! It reminded me strongly of McIlvanney's Laidlaw books – less poetic perhaps, or at least less affectionately so. McIlvanney doesn't beautify the city or hide its darkness, but nevertheless his books read like a love letter to it and its people – Mina's depiction is harsher, colder perhaps, but still balanced and nuanced.

And sometimes the book is gut-wrenching in its emotional truth and power. The man giving evidence about the murder of his daughter when we are made privy to his thoughts behind the spoken evidence. The sudden use of war metaphors when a man who had served in WW2 comes across a scene of bloody brutality. It drew tears from me more than once, for the fierceness of its truthfulness and the power of the prose as much as for the tragedies in the story. And there are other passages where a different, gentler kind of truthfulness emerges – the mother torn between her love for her child and what she sees as her duty to God; the children left to run free in the streets in a way that would be almost unthinkable now.
The book has been longlisted for this year's McIlvanney Prize and, though I've only read a few of the other contenders, I can't imagine how any book could be a more suitable winner. Scottish to its bones, it nevertheless speaks to our universal humanity. Crime fiction where the quality of the writing and insight into a particular time and place would allow it to sit just as easily on the literary fiction shelf. Not only do I think this is one of the books of the year but I suspect and hope it will become a classic that continues to be read for many decades to come, like Capote's In Cold Blood or McIlvanney's own Laidlaw. I hope I've persuaded you to read it...

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Random House Vintage.

I didn't know anything about Peter Manuel so I cannot comment on whether the blend of fact and fiction works but I found The Long Drop to be an easy read but not gripping. The trial was a good demonstration of a character who thinks they can take charge of a situation when they cannot but overall the book wasn't one that I could say I enjoyed. Quite glad to get to the end.

Set in the late 1950's in Glasgow, Peter Manuel has been found guilty of a string of murders and is waiting to die by hanging. Every good crime story has a beginning and Manuel's starts with the murder of William Watt's family.

Peter Manuel was a real life Scottish serial killer. This is a non-fic-fictional novel that the author has weaved a story around, while the author stays true to the facts. This is a fantastic insight into Glasgow, policing and justice systems of the era. A book that quickly pulls you in and won't let you go till the end.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and the author Denise Mina for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love Denise Mina but could not get into this at all although it is usually my type of thing. I skipped to the end which is very unlike me. Too colloquial maybe?

I tried to enjoy this but something just didn't gel. I felt no connection to the characters or story.

In 1958 Peter Manuel was tried and convicted for the murder of eight women. He was hanged at Barlinnie prison using the ‘long drop’ method – this method snaps the neck between the second and third vertebrae. Done properly, death is instantaneous.

The author explores the life of Peter Manuel. From his love of telling stories and writing fiction, his abusive relationship towards his mother, his father who would lie under oath for him, the old Glasgow of 1957 where every chimney belched smoke, before the Clean Air Act was introduced and the fact that Peter Manuel is incapable of knowing how other people feel.

I found this book very difficult to read. I am not sure if something happened with the e-book version that I received or if the book is actually written like that. On every page sentences were started with a lower-case, not upper-case letter; words and sentences ran into each other without spacing between them and parts of a sentence were suddenly written in capitals. I had to continually go back and reread bits in order for things to sort of make sense. The relationships between some of the characters did not make sense at times and I found the jumping from one year to another every chapter very disorienting.

Saphira

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

My life began in Lanarkshire a few years after Peter Manuel's crime spree ended; but the memories of what happened were kept by mothers and warnings passed on to daughters. I remember frequent visits to my school by Hamilton policemen. Stranger Danger came early to us.
I deliberately read nothing about Peter Manuel. His very name made me feel scared...vulnerable. Reading this book over fifty years later I find it still does.
I read crime books, mysteries, thrillers many with gory scenes of crime that my reading head can translate into images of carnage. I enjoy them very much. I can almost transport myself into the narrative for a first class seat.
But this... I had three new books to read and I had to read this one first to get it off my kindle. It felt infectious. The longer it stayed the worse it would be.
I read it. The author has reproduced the area and the people perfectly. I recognised my mother and aunties, my father and uncles. The landscape scarred by the closed down coal mines. And I shuddered when I realised I still remember the words to That Song and the simmering hatred between Protestants and Catholics.
Four stars say I must have enjoyed the book...yes? No. Four stars are for the obvious talent of the author to take a story everyone knows and make it her own.
Not five stars because it truly scared me witless, more so because I now live in Coventry. Peter Manuel was a blot on the landscape and still puts fear in the heart.

An unusual trio - an affluent businessman, a criminal, and a lawyer meet in a rather downmarket restaurant in Glasgow in the late 1950's.

William Watt, the businessman, is the prime suspect in the murders of his wife, daughter, and sister in law, however, he's been released due to lack of evidence. Watt needs to clear his name and the arranged meeting is with criminal Peter Manuel, who claims to know the whereabouts of the gun used in the murders, and also the identity of the killer. The lawyer Dowdall, is a somewhat reluctant witness to this meeting - he finds Manuel to be a somewhat sinister individual and is suspicious of his motives. Dowdall eventually leaves the two to their negotiations.

The egotistical Watt and Manuel leave the restaurant together and embark on a pub crawl that lasts for twelve hours, and culminates in a meeting with one of Glasgow's most feared hard men - a man that would give anyone the chills.

The Long Drop is actually a fictional account of the notorious Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel, with the primary focus being on his trial, 'the trial of the century'.

Mina gives a grim but accurate portrayal of 1950's Glasgow, where there was very much a macho, hard man culture, a time when it wasn't a crime for a man to rape his wife, and many women suffered vicious beatings at the hands of their husbands.

We're given a fascinating insight into the mind of Manuel, who despite having a somewhat puerile personality, is also extremely arrogant and an habitual liar. Taking a life meant nothing to him, this was a very cold and callous individual. Though he actually confessed to 18 murders, he was tried for only 8.

At 8.01am on 11th July 1958 in The Hanging Shed at Barlinnie Prison, Peter Manuel breathed his last, whilst the inhabitants of Glasgow breathed a sigh of relief.

*Thank you to Random House Vintage for my ARC. I have given an honest review in exchange* (less)

This was the first book by Ms Mina that i have read. Although the makings of a good story are there, for me, it didn't quite achieve its aim. It may be that the writing style did not engage me, but something didn't quite feel right.

Actually, as I write this, it occurs to me that it is because there is no "hero" that the reader wants to cheer for. Without that positive lead character, I actually found it difficult to get emotionally involved with the story and did not appreciate until the end of the book that it was based on true events.

I always feel bad when leaving a less than positive review, but whilst this book has merits and will appeal to some readers, I was not one of them

Denise Mina conjures the the 1950s period Glasgow and makes it come alive with its grime, divisions, hard men, and criminal underbelly. This is a city run by the police knowingly aided by crime bosses to enforce order, although big changes are in the air such as redevelopment. This is a man's world, where women are treated desperately badly. This story is Mina turning her hand at fictionalising aspects of the true crime notoriety of Scotland's serial killer, 'The Beast of Birkenshaw', the hated Peter Manuel. Much of the narrative is delivered in the vernacular, but a light and easily understood version. The long drop is a particular type of hanging, and we know Manuel is convicted and then hanged in 1958 for the murder of 7 people, but suspected of killing more.

In this book, the focus is on Manuel's trial and on a 11 hour drunken pub crawl with Watt and Manuel, men with huge egos and neither is particularly likeable. William Watt, suspected of murdering his own family, is in search of answers that are tantalisingly offered by Peter Manuel, who sees someone ripe to play mind games with. Watt is a man intent on being someone, with a mistress, his fingers in real estate development and not such an innocent guy. Peter Manuel runs his own defence at the trial but does himself no favours in choosing this path. Mina gives us a picture that the truth is nebulous and elusive, that Manuel is left to hang whilst others are shielded in a city that reeks of corruption.

This is a beautifully written and bleak tale with superb descriptions. Mina does a glorious job in giving us a 1950s Glasgow that we can easily step into with its overflowing menace and, surprisingly, humour. Manuel feels a malignant and repulsive character, with a clear psychopathic personality although deeply flawed characters are the hallmarks of Mina's spin on this true crime. I am not attracted to reading true crime fiction but the author has made this both a compelling and gripping read. Thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.

A story that had a lot to offer but just didn't quite hit the mark for me. Based on a true story and with suggestions of not all is as it seems. A likeable book but not amazing.

Glasgow, 1950s. Three men meet in bar. One leaves. The remaining two men talk and drink until the early hours. They are unlikely drinking companions. A businessman, and a criminal. What are they talking about? Which one is telling the truth, or are they both lying? ‘The Long Drop’ by Denise Mina is her fictional version of the night of Monday December 2, 1957 and the subsequent murder trial. It is a chilling story. Peter Manuel was a real murderer in Glasgow and the Burnside Affair happened, which makes this such an unsettling read. A woman, her sister and daughter have been killed, the girl was also raped: this is William Watt’s family, his wife, his daughter, his sister-in-law.
Manuel, a known criminal, writes to Laurence Dowdall, Watt’s solicitor, to say he knows the location of the murder weapon, a gun, and so Dowdall arranges the meeting at Whitehall’s Restaurant/Lounge. Suspected by police of murdering his own family, William Watts meets criminal Manuel desperate for answers. But for a naïve, boasting businessman, he is keeping strange company. All is not as it seems.
Mina populates her story with living/breathing Glasgow in the 1950s. If you have been to Glasgow, Mina’s words bring it alive. It you don’t know Glasgow, your imagination conjures up a crystal clear picture. “This city is commerce unfettered. It centres around the docks and the river, and it is all function. It dresses like the Irishwomen: had to toe in black, hair covered, eyes down.” Dowdall drives a maroon Vauxhall Velox.
This is the first book by Denise Mina which I have read. I really like her writing style. Concise, why use six words in a sentence when one or two conveys the meaning?
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

As someone of a certain age, from the city of Glasgow, the subject of the book appealed to me. However I found the story did not keep my interests and didn't read until the end, very unusual for me. Perhaps I missed out on something better later in the book. No one for me I'm afraid.

Clever book based on a real life crime, read it in one sitting. My only criticism is that jumping around the timeline made the book more confusing. Good for true crime lovers, but maybe not the book for lovers of who dunnits.

Described as Scotland's first serial killer, Peter Manuel was rapist and a burglar as well. He was also a fantasist, weaving stories about how he had been a war hero, recruited by the CIA and also by Communist Russia. Convicted in 1958 of a series of brutal murders Manuel was executed by 'the long drop'. In this book Denise Mina recounts the story of Manuel's trial interspersed with a fictionalised meeting between William Watt (whose family Manuel had killed) and Manuel himself over the course of night in Glasgow's underworld.

Often the genre of crime fiction is seen as a populist genre and not really worthy of literary praise, but some writers seem to transcend the genre they are placed in. Mina is one such writer and this novel should be seen as literary fiction, not populist crime. Mina's writing is both graphic and taut, horrific crimes are described but more importantly an exploration of the psyche of a truly violent man takes place. This book is not pleasant reading but it packs a real punch.

This must be by far the best true crime book I've read in the past few years.

This was just a sample chapter so not much to review ... but the writing style is engaging, using short, snappy, descriptive sentences and the setting is well laid out.

This is a fantastic novel. The standard of Denise Mina's writing is always high but she's raised the bar with this book. Part crime story and part historical fiction, The Long Drop tells the story of Peter Manuel, and specifically the story of night he met with businessman William Watt, claiming to have first hand knowledge of who killed Watt's family. Set in 1950's Glasgow, the mood of the time seeps out of every page. The small details are fascinating from how a 16 year old boy is turned away from a murder trial because the evidence is deemed to shocking for him to handle to the man who bellows "Wife!" when he wants his wife to fetch him a drink or a fresh ashtray. It's such an atmospheric book, the Glasgow underworld is brutal and ruthless and there's a constant air of menace around the city. The psychological dance between Manuel and Watt as they size each other up is a brilliant piece of writing and so enjoyable to read. The book weighs in at just over 300 pages and while it could have been twice the length with the material available, maybe it's best to leave the reader wanting more and with the quality of Denise Mina's backlist there's no shortage of reading left to get through.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.