The End of the Wasp Season (Alex Morrow, #2)

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The End of the Wasp Season (Alex Morrow #2)

by Denise Mina (Goodreads Author)

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 1,447 ratings · 274 reviews

When a notorious millionaire banker hangs himself, his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of selfishness is widespread, and the carnage most acute among those he ought to be protecting: his family.

Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered. The community is stunned by what appears to be a vicious, random attac...more

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published September 26th 2011 by Reagan Arthur Books (first published January 1st 2011)

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Jan 03, 2013 Nigel Bird rated it 4 of 5 stars

A young woman is awoken in the home of her recently departed mother by a couple of teenage boys who seem to have a bone to pick with her. Though it soon becomes clear that they are picking the wrong bone, the woman finds herself in grave danger and makes her bid for freedom. Sadly for her, she doesn’t make it and the boys lose control as they stamp out all of her facial features.

DS Alex Morrow is sent along to investigate. What the reader picks up from the early encounters with Morrow is that sh...more A young woman is awoken in the home of her recently departed mother by a couple of teenage boys who seem to have a bone to pick with her. Though it soon becomes clear that they are picking the wrong bone, the woman finds herself in grave danger and makes her bid for freedom. Sadly for her, she doesn’t make it and the boys lose control as they stamp out all of her facial features.

DS Alex Morrow is sent along to investigate. What the reader picks up from the early encounters with Morrow is that she’s from a complicated working-class family, that she’s no fan of her superiors and that she’s pregnant with twins. She also cares about her new victim and has to fight with the men around her to get to see this as the murder of an innocent rather than simply another paid-by-the-hour job.

The story unfolds wonderfully.

The teenage boy killers attend a private, very exclusive Scottish school. Thomas and Squeak are soon separated when Thomas leaves for home after his rich and infamous father has committed suicide. Lars Anderson has been losing the money of many in the recent financial crash, a crash that impacts upon many in this novel.

Morrow encounters an old friend in the form of Kay, the cleaner who once worked for the victim and her mother and continues to clean for other families in the area. This opens the doors to a range of complications which make rather uncomfortable reading in a pleasure/pain sort of way.

The resolution of the story is for you to find out. All I’ll say is that it winds up with a growing sense of the need for justice and an accelerated desire to reach the end and find out what that might be. There was no let down when I finally got there, just a perfectly formed moment that I genuinely hadn’t expected, one that passes comment on a world that so often doesn’t seem fair.

It is a police procedural, but it has a huge amount to offer beyond that. The stories seem to me to be about people and the way they are affected by crime as much as they seem to be about the serving of justice, after all justice as offered by the legal system will rarely have the power to redress the injustices of our society.

Mina has a great empathy with her characters. Seems to really see the subtle ways in which they interpret the world and are formed by their experiences of it. Can paint detailed pictures of the lives of her characters by sketching in minor details that are striking in way they expose the inner workings of the people in this book.
She also explores identity in a number of ways. No one is as they seem, each person has a life beneath the veneer of their stereotypes or the first impressions they create. Class, religion, personal flaws, successes and tragedies are all brought to the surface in a book that refuses to leave human beings as two-dimensional items.

It’s a very engaging read that’s written with real skill and feeling and I’ll definitely be reading more of Mina’s work in the future. Very good indeed.
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Sep 06, 2012 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Every other book which I have previously read and rated 5* ought to be forthwith down-graded to a 3* in order to put this amazing novel into a class of its own!
This novel is extremely impressive and powerful on many levels.... Graphically (wasps), symbolically, as a psychological study, as a comment on social behaviour, on relationships both professinal and familial. Interest is compounded by the contrasts and comparisons highlighted in the characters from different geographical regions where ev...more Every other book which I have previously read and rated 5* ought to be forthwith down-graded to a 3* in order to put this amazing novel into a class of its own!
This novel is extremely impressive and powerful on many levels.... Graphically (wasps), symbolically, as a psychological study, as a comment on social behaviour, on relationships both professinal and familial. Interest is compounded by the contrasts and comparisons highlighted in the characters from different geographical regions where events occur, from those of different social backgrounds, class, money ( those with, those without, those who have made fortunes and those who lose one)Those in the middle..( the police), It is almost subtly gothic in the way the plot is driven not by chronological cliff-hangers but by an exploration into people's souls- mostly tormented, flawed and dark to different degrees. On the other hand, it also follows quite a traditional format in that the novel examines the fundamental consequences of love or the lack of love on people. At its essence the message in the novel is that demonstrative love is good and is ultimately rewarded. Those in the novel who are not nurtured cannot thrive and turn bad.
The plot is quite unusual in that it is inverted from the more commonplace detective novel in that the novel begins with the crime and the reader knows from the start who has perpetrated it. Rather than the author lead the reader on the more predictable 'whodonnit', we are taken on a journey into the dark world of cause and effect, of what motivates people to behave as they do. The author examines the behaviour of all her characters in the book, and how one persons behaviour impacts directly or indirectly on others either intentionally or not.
What a find, DENISE MINA.....Cannot wait to read more of her earlier books.
Note to self: In Glasgow a wealthy single woman(Sarah Erroll) wakes up to find two lads(Thomas/Squeak) in her house...catholic, public school, detective pregnant with twins(Alex Morro), single-mother cleaning-lady (Kay Murray), Sevenoaks...Lars Andersen, Moira, Ella....Thersa, (less)

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Mar 17, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, adult, audiobook, crime-fiction, detective, strong-female-character, psychological-fiction

The reader is present at the extremely suspenseful opening scene of this book which culminates in a brutal murder. We know who “did it” and watch while Scottish Detective Alex Morrow, female and pregnant with twins, patiently reconstructs the crime. The disturbing “why” of the crime is at the crux of this novel and Mina reveals this by developing strong, complex characters and exposing the psychological motivations behind their actions. (Fathers do not come off particularly well in this book).

Se...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Jcdevildog rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of Mina for years, and for me this is her best book yet. The plot is complex--I won't go into the details, as other reviews have covered that. One thing I haven't seen mentioned in other reviews is the side plot re the woman, an old acquaintance of the investigating officer, who had been the caretaker and housekeeper for the murdered woman's mother. Because she's poor and not "respectable", Armstrong's colleagues consider her a prime suspect: but Armstrong knows her too well to a...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Larraine rated it 5 of 5 stars

arah Erroll is napping in her childhood nursery. Just back from New York, she has jet lag. She hears a noise. Two boys are there, one of them screaming about kids. She's confused, tries to tell them there are no kids here. She is brutally murdered. I hadn't read anything by Denise Mina before that I can remember. I may have started one and decided not to finish it. This book was riveting. I had a hard time putting it down. Detective Alex Morrow is an interesting character. She's the brother of a...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Judith rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's good to have a detective story-murder mystery novel to turn to from time to time, and Denis Mina writes a good one. I had read a previous novel of hers years ago called, "Deception" and I liked it very much. So when I read the review for this latest one in the NYT, I added it to my list and it did not disappoint. This book has something for everyone.

Our heroine is the investigating officer of a Scottish police department. Five months pregnant with twins, she is determined to be a good role...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Marleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In a wealthy suburb of Glasgow a young woman is brutally murdered by two intruders into her house.
DS Kate Morrow, five months pregnant with twins and a past she chooses to deny, investigates the murder while her station faces internal unrest.
In Kent, millionaire banker Lars Anderson hangs himself from a tree in front of his house, leaving his fragile family to deal with his dubious and hateful legacy.
When the two deaths are connected, the depth of Anderson’s selfishness and the harm it has cause...more In a wealthy suburb of Glasgow a young woman is brutally murdered by two intruders into her house.
DS Kate Morrow, five months pregnant with twins and a past she chooses to deny, investigates the murder while her station faces internal unrest.
In Kent, millionaire banker Lars Anderson hangs himself from a tree in front of his house, leaving his fragile family to deal with his dubious and hateful legacy.
When the two deaths are connected, the depth of Anderson’s selfishness and the harm it has caused are fully exposed and the fall-out appears enormous.
For Morrow bringing this case to a successful conclusion means she can resolve some issues with her own past and family.

This book is not really a mystery, at least not for the reader. The perpetrators of the vicious murder are identified right at the start of the book. While Ds. Kate Morrow and her colleagues are trying to find out who committed the murder and why, the big question for the reader is if it is going to happen again, and how the police investigation is ever going to get to the solution.
But even with the investigation as conducted by Morrow being described in detail, I don’t think that was the real subject of this book. For me this book was more about relationships and the various forms they take. The relationships we cherish, those we want to deny, and those we’re stuck with whether we like it or not.
I do feel that the picture the author paints of people is rather coloured by prejudice. It would appear that the rich and powerful are all bad, selfish and out to better themselves, regardless of who they might destroy in the process, while the less well off, although by no means described as angels, all have redeeming features and softness shining through the rough exterior.
I haven’t read any other books by Denise Mina, so I have no way of knowing if this contrast is one that features in all her work or unique to this book. I liked her writing in this book enough to pick up something else by her in the future, if only to find an answer to that question, though.

This is a very well written story. It is hard not to be fascinated by the selfishness of some of the characters, not to feel sorry for those who were at their mercy and not to cheer for those who make it despite the odds apparently being stacked against them.
There are one or two characters though I still can’t make up my mind about; I’m still not sure if Thomas especially was just plain bad, mad, a bit of both or just too neglected and too much of a teenager to use good judgment. And while I like it when a book stays with me after I finish the last page, I’m not sure how much I enjoy this level of confusion about a character’s motivation.
All in all this was a book that intrigued me, but not only for the right reasons.
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Dec 21, 2011 Jacki rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: shelf-awareness

Tartan noir fans rejoice! Denise Mina (Still Midnight) returns to gritty Glasgow with the second installment in her Alex Morrow series.

A young woman wakes up in the middle of the night to find two strange teen boys in her bedroom; she tries to escape but, in a case of mistaken identity, the boys brutally murder her. Det. Sgt. Alex Morrow arrives to investigate, but the crime baffles her, as does the large amount of cash found under the victim's dining room table. Meanwhile, the lead perpetrator...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Wyma rated it 3 of 5 stars

SPOILER ALERT***

We never doubted that she would catch him. She being DS Alex Morrow of the Glasgow polis and him being Thomas, one of two culprits known to us from the beginning of the novel. In fact, we meet Thomas first, see him and his friend Squeak as they kill and follow Thomas and his thoughts in the days after.

Two stories: that of the Scottish woman detective and that of the young son of a wealthy and powerful man, Thomas who is also the killer. The book begins with the funeral of DS Morr...more SPOILER ALERT***

We never doubted that she would catch him. She being DS Alex Morrow of the Glasgow polis and him being Thomas, one of two culprits known to us from the beginning of the novel. In fact, we meet Thomas first, see him and his friend Squeak as they kill and follow Thomas and his thoughts in the days after.

Two stories: that of the Scottish woman detective and that of the young son of a wealthy and powerful man, Thomas who is also the killer. The book begins with the funeral of DS Morrow's father and soon reveals the sudden death of Thomas' father.

The stories are told of these two parallel lives until they intersect, Thomas is caught and jailed.

Choosing Thomas to tell his story, the author co-opts us into sympathizing with him and nearly championing him. Mina brilliantly unravels his doom through his thoughts and language and choices. I found him so fascinating as a person that I almost hoped he would not be caught, even though Mina makes it clear from the beginning that he will be. I was surprised to see him in jail. Although he is now fatherless and for all practical purposes motherless, I still hoped that someone would provide salvation or at least try to salvage him. But this is a bleak story of family psychological abuse and the ruthlessness of social order. Crime abounds; but there is little justice.

In fact this is a fairly grim piece all around. Morrow's life is fraught with difficulty at work and at home, with her husband and with her birth family. And that is the main reason I gave the book only 3 stars. The persistent negativity is just a bit hard to take.

There is one bright light in a minor character, Kay,a cleaning woman and high school friend of Alex Morrow. She provides consistency and a bit of light in this uneven novel.

Although not up to Mina's standards, this title is worth reading if only for the inside view of the miscreant's mind during and after the killing.
Thomas and Kay are the only characters from this book that I would like to see again.(less)

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Oct 31, 2011 Gloria Feit rated it 5 of 5 stars

Each of the first three chapters of this newest novel by Denise Mina, author of the Garnethill trilogy among other wonderful books, introduces the reader to three women, each of them strong and independent, and each tested by events which follow. The most dramatic, and tragic, is Sarah Erroll, 24 years old, who is sexually mutilated and brutally murdered in the first pages. [The full extent of the savagery is not known till nearly half-way through the book, although it is hinted at.] In Glasgow,...more Each of the first three chapters of this newest novel by Denise Mina, author of the Garnethill trilogy among other wonderful books, introduces the reader to three women, each of them strong and independent, and each tested by events which follow. The most dramatic, and tragic, is Sarah Erroll, 24 years old, who is sexually mutilated and brutally murdered in the first pages. [The full extent of the savagery is not known till nearly half-way through the book, although it is hinted at.] In Glasgow, the Strathclyde police are called in, and the DS handling the brunt of the investigation is DS Alex Morrow, not quite five months pregnant with twins. The third of these women is Kay Murray, a single mother of four who had worked for the dead woman and, coincidentally, had been a schoolmate of Alex many years ago.

But the central figure throughout the book is Lars Anderson, multimillionaire banker who believed that “you couldn’t trick an honest man.” He appears to be a UK version of Bernard Madoff, having ruined many lives before taking his own in the early pages of the book. There is plenty of family dysfunction and family tragedy to go around in this book, the Andersons only the worst of these.

Alex thinks, as the case begins, that “she hated sexual murders. They all hated them, not just out of empathy with the victim but because sexual crimes were corrosive, they took them to hideous dark places in their own heads, made them suspicious and fearful, and not always of other people.”

The author kept this reader off balance, with having to figure out who some of the characters were and their relationship to other players, and to the plot itself. The book has sudden shocking moments, only adding to that sense of being off-balance. The author mentions Alex’ looking forward to a night going over her notes and trying to fit together the pieces of the puzzle that is her investigation, and “the promise of utter absorption” that it holds. I could completely relate to that description, for that is precisely what this novel provides. Highly recommended.
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Oct 24, 2011 Randi Reisfeld rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This takes place in Glasgow and various points around. Our protag, Alex(Alexandra) Morrow is a detetive, pregnant with twins, yet of course, the smartest person on the team and most vigorous. Her boss is blowhard who makes life tough for her, but Alex forges forward anyway. She's not unflawed, in some cases she's quite harsh to her team. The case: There are two dead people to deal with -- a suicide and a murder -- both invole the same seriously fucked up family, whose secrets unravel in a very s...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Mary Gramlich rated it 5 of 5 stars

THE END OF THE WASP SEASON by Denise Mina
09/11 - Little, Brown & Company - Hardcover, 400 pages

By burying your past, do we resolve present issues and our future relationships?

Detective Inspector Alex Morrow has a suicide, murder, and pregnant with twins to contend with, which is all in a day’s work for this woman. She is a sharp and articulate member of the police force that never lets any detail, regardless of how small get past her even when they involve old haunts and ghosts from her own...more THE END OF THE WASP SEASON by Denise Mina
09/11 - Little, Brown & Company - Hardcover, 400 pages

By burying your past, do we resolve present issues and our future relationships?

Detective Inspector Alex Morrow has a suicide, murder, and pregnant with twins to contend with, which is all in a day’s work for this woman. She is a sharp and articulate member of the police force that never lets any detail, regardless of how small get past her even when they involve old haunts and ghosts from her own past. A dark background may plague her but Alex is not going to let any of taint her ability to solve this present day set of crimes.

Today she is dealing with the gruesome and brutal murder of a young woman who came to a horrific end while dealing with her late mother’s estate. The only clues are shoe prints with a distinctive mark, but nothing else that makes sense, including the large amounts of cash left sitting on the kitchen table. There are allot of theories and too many suspects but none with motive, intent, or knowledge of the cash sitting right under their noses.

In another city, a man’s family is dealing with his suicide and coming to terms with the complete dysfunctional behavior of the family and entire situation. The only son 15 year-old Thomas has lived under his father’s shadow and grueling expectations but now it seems he has to be the man of the family and pull his mother and sister together. Yet Thomas knows a terrible secret about his father’s secret life of lies. It may have nothing or everything to do with his questionable business dealings.

No one could ever see how these two dissimilar cases could influence one another. They took place in two different locations, families with nothing in common, and two different distinctively different types of death. However, when Alex puts the pieces together and shows that the cases not only relate but also collide into each other, the explosion is heard in every corner of the country.

This story is like a spider’s web – intricate, detailed, and exquisite when you see the completed project. The reader is drawn in and this story will not let go of you until you know how all these characters are interrelated and just how close are they to knocking on Alex’s door.(less)

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Feb 03, 2012 Khornberger rated it 4 of 5 stars

I stumbled upon this novel while browsing new releases on my audiobook source (audible). I double checked the ratings against Amazon and was good to go!

I'm glad I chose this novel! It was full of suspense and hard to predict and had great stories for each character.

This is the story that begins with the murder of a young woman. We hear/read the murder take place along with being given enough detail about the murdered woman to wish that she somehow survived (you find out in a chapter or so that s...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: criminal-mystery

This book is what I would call an intelligent police procedural. It is not a "who done it," rather, a "why done it," as the criminals' identities are known to the reader from the start. They are portrayed as three dimensional characters, not slavering, psychopathic rabid dogs, but people with past, present, and future lives. And while the author does not seek sympathy for them from the reader, her humanizing them makes it difficult not to empathize with them, though never as a reason to excuse t...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars

In an upscale suburb of Glasgow, a young woman named Sarah Erroll has returned from a trip. She is asleep when she hears a noise. And then two young men enter her room, and from that moment on, everything about her life spins out of control.

In another part of the city, a woman named Kay is admiring a lovely bowl and thinking of its history. She is a house cleaner, so the loveliness of it is not a regular part of her life. A single mother of four kids, she struggles to make ends meet.

Pregnant wit...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Ishmael Seaward rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent read. Lars Anderson was a vain, selfish, and self-centered man, who failed to look after his dependents. This is the story of how that behavior effected them. Some turned out fine inspite of Lars behavior, others, not so good.

Alex Morrow is the detective tasked with solving a particularly brutal murder, that makes little sense. As she struggles to solve the murder, she also has to struggle with an insurrection at the police station, her relationship with her shady brother, and a lapsed...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not a mystery person. It's just really not what I look for in a book.
This book came into the library where I work, and I vaguely remembered a customer telling me it was a good read. It was a very slow day, so I decided to read the first chapter, to see what I thought.
My god, was it gripping.

The End of the Wasp Season opens with Sarah Errol asleep in her bed. She wakes when she hears someone in her house - two teenage boys. At first she thinks they have broken into a house they thought was em...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Nikki-ann rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: received-for-review

With great quotes on the cover from Ian Rankin and The Guardian promising an exciting read, I was looking forward to reading The End of the Wasp Season. However, I came away disappointed.

The book starts off with the thrill of moments leading up to the kill. The first chapter is tense and gripping, but I thought the story lost it’s grip from there. I couldn’t make up my mind… There were times when I thought the story was going slow and I didn’t find it engaging, but then at other times I found my...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Lukasz Pruski rated it 4 of 5 stars

Actually, it is 4.5 stars. I just can't give away five stars for a very good yet not completely perfect book. This book does not rise to the greatness of the author's "Garnethill" or "The Dead Hour", but it still is a highly recommendable work, in no small part part due to Ms. Mina's outstanding writing. Alex Morrow is a more completely developed character than in the previous novel ("Still Midnight"). The story is extremely interesting, even if we think we know, from the very beginning, what ex...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Thelma Adams rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love the works of Denise Mina. I have a soft spot for the Scottish -- I spent a year at St. Andrews. The book is obviously well-written and well-plotted. It reminded me a little bit of the BBC series "Blue Murder" in that the primary detective is pregnant. When she begins to get dark, the twins in her belly give her internal organs a kick and remind her to choose life!

I appreciated some spots that had nothing to do with the central mystery -- another tale of tortured prep school boys gone bad...more

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Nov 09, 2011 iubookgirl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

The End of the Wasp Season is the second in the DS Alex Morrow series. The story begins with the murder of a young woman, Sarah Erroll, in her home. When Morrow and her colleagues arrive on the scene, they find a large sum of money hidden in the kitchen. Where did the money come from? Why was the woman murdered? As the investigation begins, the reader already knows who did it and quickly finds out why. The truth of the Sarah's life, however, unfolds more slowly.

Like Still Midnight, Wasp Season i...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Tammy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book though I did have to get use to the language since it is set in Scotland. It was an interesting case and how the lives of several people were intermingled and caused issues for Morrow. She is a head police officer but she is also pregnant and has come from a dysfunctional family herself. The dynamics between her brother and herself is interesting since they are on different sides of the law. The brother/sister relationship was prevelant in the book between several peop...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries

Denise Mina gives a blow-by-blow analysis of who the victims of the UK's financial crisis are, from the perspective of a pregnant detective in Glasgow who grew up in difficult circumstances. The difference between Mina's excellent book and say OR THE BULL KILLS YOU is that Mina includes relevant psychological details rather than writing a relatively superficial film treatment. Here DI Morrow has a hard time getting her staff to take seriously the grisly murder of a call girl; as she doggedly pur...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Paul Brazill rated it 4 of 5 stars

The police procedural really isn’t my favorite slice of crime fiction pizza. Probably because it’s usually more about puzzles than people. Denise Mina’s The End Of The Wasp Season, however, while being a fairly straightforward police procedural, is all about character, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you look for in a crime novel. It certainly worked for me.

The End Of The Wasp Season has a brilliant, blistering opening. A young woman returns to her late mother’s home and...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Jacqueline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

Another book that received a good review from EW and I thought I would give it a try. Set in Scotland and though a bit more police procedural than quite mystery, since we know two of the perpatrators of the crime being investigated, the brutal murder of a young woman in her home, from near the beginning (though there is still a nice little twist at the end)! The story still keeps you riveted as DI Alex Morrow, heavily pregnant with twins and dealing with issues of her own, and her team work to s...more

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Apr 17, 2012 Spuddie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Second book in Mina's trilogy featuring Alex Morrow, a DS with Strathclyde police. Now five months pregnant with twins, Morrow struggles with trying to keep an even keel at work lest anything she say or do be written off as 'hormones talking.' A young woman is brutally murdered in her home, found at the bottom of her stairs with her face stomped in such that she's barely recognizable. In her kitchen, hundreds of thousands of euros are found under a false bottom in the kitchen table and Morrow an...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first Denise Mina crime novel that I have read, and already I feel I'll be checking out more of her books. I've already recommended her to my sister in law who is always wanting to hear recommendations of new authors that I have discovered.

There is a murder in Glasgow, starting an investigation headed by Detective Inspector Alex Morrow and her team. I liked the story, it clicked along taking several turns which shows class. I am often disappointed by many crime and thriller novels la...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Joanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

In less of a storyteller's hands, The End of the Wasp season would have been a hot mess. But Mina is enough of a pro to handle this intricately constructed novel with admirable grace and agility, never once losing the reader or causing the suspense to dip or wane. In the manner of the old American TV show, Columbo, she starts with the heinous crime, committed by the Scottish Leopold & Loeb. We know from the first handful of pages that these 2 spoiled, twisted boarding school kids are the one...more

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Mar 26, 2012 The North Wall rated it 3 of 5 stars

The second novel to feature Alex Morrow, The End of the Wasp Season was a little too choppy to be fully engaging. Despite starting with a brutal murder, the novel kicks off slowly with an onslaught of names, new faces, new characters and POVs. The women (Alex, now heavily pregnant and new character Kay Murray) come off best in the sympathy stakes and it is their stories you really want to stick with. As it is, Mina tends to sideline both characters in favour of the unpleasant little oik at the c...more

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May 19, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

What did I think??

Well, this book pulled me in from the start--something I very much like in a book! The idea of knowing "who did it" from the start was a different twist. The author made the people in her story come alive for me--another sign of a well done book.

This murder mystery is full of layers--lots of lives being impacted by the actions of others. I enjoyed getting to know the lead detective as she discovers what we already know......or think we know. There are lots of things we don't k...more

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About Denise Mina

Denise Mina was born in Glasgow in 1966. Because of her father's job as an Engineer, the family followed the north sea oil boom of the seventies around Europe
She left school at sixteen and did a number of poorly paid jobs, including working in a meat factory, as a bar maid, kitchen porter and cook.
Eventually she settled in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients.
At twenty one sh...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11156902-the-end-of-the-wasp-season?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344270227l/11156902.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11156902-the-end-of-the-wasp-season?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina[/url]

The End of the Wasp Season (Alex Morrow #2)

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