Mina paints an overwhelmingly powerful picture of child abuse and the legacy that blights the lives of its victims for ever. Rose is brilliantly drawn - she's vulnerable but not pathetic, bubbling with rage yet desperate for someone, anyone to love her. * RADIO TIMES *
A brilliantly plotted tale that segues between past and present, The Red Road is a tartan noir police procedural to rival Ian Rankin's best work, as Mina blends the harsh realities facing Glasgow's underprivileged kids with the salubrious world inhabited by the city's legal and financial wizards. The chief appeal, however, is Alex Morrow herself, a meticulously crafted character of depth and substance who succeeds in a patriarchal environment by virtue of her intelligence, persistence and humanity. * IRISH TIMES *
Mina is a dab hand at constructing complex reads in which corruption permeates all levels of society and no one is left untainted, and THE RED ROAD is no exception: unsentimental, unsettling, and very, very good. * GUARDIAN *
This hugely engrossing tale of murder, corruption and lies in Glasgow manages to successfully tackle the political as well as the personal and might be Mina's finest novel. * METRO *
Mina's crime novels are doing for Glasgow what Rebus did for Edinburgh: these fine mysteries also dig into the life of a city. * MAIL ON SUNDAY *
Mina continues to enthrall with her astute perceptions and descriptions of Glasgow's underbelly... Her novels tell you more about the crime landscape of Glasgow than a host of sociological surveys. -- Marcel Berlins * TIMES - Books of the Year 2013 *
The plot is as compelling as it is intricate. Denise Mina grows in assurance and becomes more accomplished with every book; and this one is a cracker, beautifully worked-out, every scene serving a purpose... I suggest you may want to go back to savour the details, for this is that rare thing, a crime novel that invites, and benefits from, a second reading. -- Allan Massie * SCOTSMAN *
The Glasgow author's 11th novel and her fourth to feature DI Alex Morrow is one of my favourite current crime stories. It's a brilliant, morally complex look at child abuse, police cover-up and corruption. Uncompromising and written with real psychological depth. * THE BIG ISSUE *
Ingenious and convincing... Her [Mina's] pawky sense of humour ensures that The Red Road, instead of being depressing, is both appalling and amusing. -- Mark Sanderson * EVENING STANDARD *
Old sins cast long shadows in this thriller that proves Mina deserving of the praise being heaped upon her. * BELLA *
All Denise Mina's books combine good reading with interesting sociological insights... Mina has a social worker's understanding of life at the bottom of society and a fine writer's ability to bring her characters to life. * LITERARY REVIEW *
The Red Road is a finely tuned piece of work which twists and turns like a Highlands B-road, and gets you to your destination feeling breathless and ready for a tot of whisky. Recommended reading and a great addition to the library of fine crime fiction that is emanating from Scotland at the moment. * CRIME FICTION LOVER *
It is the darker edges of the novel which will live longest in the memory, the sinister elements of the sub-plots and twists, as it are these which truly drive the novel towards its gripping conclusion and will leave those who begin the book unable to resist the pull of being able to finish it in a single sitting. * CHRISHIGH.COM *
Along with being one of the finest practitioners of the criminal art, she [Mina] is also a social commentator of perception and humanity, as the new novel reminds us... disparate elements are brought together with authority, intricately drawing us into a narrative that engages with a variety of issues, all equally provocative. -- Barry Forshaw * INDEPENDENT *
