Denise Mina
There was a mystery writers' con in town yesterday (meant and priced for people in the biz rather than fans), with readings open to the public for free. Most of the writers are Canadian writers I've never heard of, with a couple of local exceptions, but there was an international guest as well: Denise Mina, from Scotland. Laura and I have both read and enjoyed her three (so far) novels about Glaswegian reporter Paddy Meehan, and Laura's reading one of Mina's standalone novel, and I've read her run on DC's Hellblazer comic, so we decided to go.

For the benefit of anyone who's read Mina: she's as entertaining a speaker as she is a writer. She talked about the inspirations for the Paddy Meehan books and her first books, the Garnethill trilogy. She mentioned that there will eventually be two more Paddy Meehan books, but changing publishers is delaying that a bit. She has a new series starting that sounds like more of a police procedural series with a larger cast of characters. Sounded pretty good. Oh, and a forthcoming graphic novel from DC, A Sickness in the Family, with art by Antonio Fuso.

And if you haven't read her... well, I can only talk about the Paddy Meehan books, but they're great. They're as much about being poor and Catholic in Glasgow during the Thatcher years, and about changes in the newspaper industry over the last couple of decades, as they are about murders and other crimes. Really good characterization and a very strong sense of place and time. And the kind of grimness without glamour that UK crime fiction writers seem really good at (see, for example, Derek Raymonde or David Lawrence).