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Denise Mina

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Denise Mina
Mina with Sarah Paretsky at Granite Noir Festival 2020, Aberdeen
Mina with Sarah Paretsky at Granite Noir Festival 2020, Aberdeen
Born (1966-08-21) 21 August 1966 (age 58)
East Kilbride, Scotland
GenreCrime fiction
Notable worksGarnethill, The Long Drop
Website
www.denisemina.co.uk

Denise Mina is a Scottish writer active since 1996.[1] Her debut novel Garnethill (1998 Transworld) was a bestseller and won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Award for best debut.[2] It was followed by Exile and Resolution, completing a trilogy of novels featuring Maureen O’Donnell, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.[3]

Described as ‘crime writing royalty’ by Val McDermid, she was a key figure in the rise of Tartan Noir. Conviction (2019) was a Reese's Book Club Pick.[4]

Her latest novel, The Good Liar (2025) examines forensic junk science and the implications for justice.[5]

She is best known for her crime novels and short stories.[6] Her non-fiction novel, The Long Drop, was about serial killer Peter Manuel's trial in Glasgow 1958.[7] She also writes graphic novels, wrote ‘Hellblazer’ for a year, is a playwright and regularly presents television and radio.[8]

Biography

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Denise Mina was born in East Kilbride in 1966.[9] Her father worked as an engineer.[2]

After serving in the Merchant Navy her father[10][failed verification] worked as a draftsman in the oil industry.[11][failed verification] During the North Sea Oil boom of the 1970s and ’80s the family lived in Paris, London, The Hague, Bergen and Invergordon.[12]

Her education was erratic, the family moved often, and she changed school thirteen times.[13] At sixteen she attend Orpington College but dropped out.[14][failed verification]

She worked in bars, cinema, a meat factory and as an auxiliary nurse in several nursing homes in Bromley and Beckenham, South London.[11][failed verification]

After a brief spell in Galway she moved to Glasgow and attended Langside HE College.[15]

Career

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She graduated from Glasgow University with an LLB (Hons) in Law where she was awarded the Gilbert Forbes Medal for forensic science.[16]

She began a PhD at Strathclyde University Law School on The Ascription of Mental Illness to Female Offenders where she wrote her first novel Garnethill (1998).[17] The trilogy was completed by Exile (2000) and Resolution (2001).[3] Mina's first Paddy Meehan novel, The Field of Blood (2005), was filmed for broadcast in 2011 by the BBC, starring Jayd Johnson, Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey.[18]

She is known for her work across crime fiction, theatre, television, and documentary filmmaking.[19]

Plays

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She was an early contributor to the radical Oran Mor ‘A Play, A Pie and A Pint’ series of new and experimental theatre under David McLennan.[20] Her first play there, Ida Tamson (2006, based on the short story of the same name published in The Evening Times for the Aye Write Festival),[21] starred Elaine C Smith and was directed by Morag Fullerton.[22] 

The play was revived for a second run in 2019 to celebrated twenty years of PPP at Oran Mor.[20]

Her play Peter Manuel: Meet Me (2013) depicted the night serial killer Peter Manuel spent drinking with the man whose family he murdered.[23][24][25]

Her credits include Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti, her 2020 gender-switched adaptation of Brecht's play Mr Puntila and His Man Matti staged at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh.[26] Directed by Murat Daltaban of Istanbul's DOT Theatre, it featured Elaine C. Smith and Steven McNicoll in the lead roles.[27]

Literary judging panels

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She has served as a judge for several literary awards, including the John Creasey Prize in 1999 and 2000, the Gillian Purvis Award in 2004, and the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2014.[28] From 2015 to 2021, she chaired the Board of Trustees for the Glasgow Film Theatre.[29]

TV presenting

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In television, she has written and presented documentaries such as Poe's Women for BBC4[30] and Skinner and Mina's Literary Road Trip for Sky Arts, which examined the relationships between literary figures including Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.[31]

Short films

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Her 2012 short film Multum in Parvo, screened at the Sheffield Documentary Festival, combined interviews with her mother and siblings about their childhood in Rutherglen with footage of the family watching the film together at the Glasgow Film Theatre.[32]

Personal life

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Mina married in 2005[failed verification] and has two sons.[15] Her eldest, Fergus, born in 2003 with a life-limiting condition, died in 2017.[33]


Awards and honours

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Bibliography

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Denise Mina signing books at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2007

Novels

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Garnethill trilogy
  • Garnethill (1998)
  • Exile (2000)
  • Resolution (2001)
Patricia "Paddy" Meehan novels
  • The Field of Blood (2005)
  • The Dead Hour (2006)
  • The Last Breath (2007) – published as Slip of the Knife in America
Alex Morrow novels
  • Still Midnight (2009)
  • The End of the Wasp Season (2010)
  • Gods and Beasts (2012)
  • The Red Road (2013)
  • Blood, Salt, Water (2014)
Anna & Fin novels
  • Conviction (2019)
  • Confidence (2022)
Other novels
  • Sanctum (2003) (published as Deception in the US in 2004)
  • The Long Drop (2017) based on the 1958 trial and execution of the serial killer Peter Manuel.
  • The Less Dead (2020)
  • Rizzio (2021)
  • The Second Murderer (2023), a Philip Marlowe novel
  • Three Fires (2023)

Comics

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To date, the entirety of Mina's work in comics has been published under DC Comics' Vertigo imprint:

  • Hellblazer #216–228 (with Leonardo Manco and Cristiano Cucina (#223), 2006–2007) collected as John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 19 (tpb, 328 pages, 2018, ISBN 1-401-28080-3)
  • Vertigo Crime: A Sickness in the Family (with Antonio Fuso, graphic novel, 192 pages, 2010, ISBN 1-4012-1081-3)
  • The Millennium Trilogy graphic novel adaptations:

Plays

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Notes

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  1. ^ Ellis, Maureen (13 December 2010). "Face to Face: Denise Mina". The Herald. Glasgow. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b Brooks, Libby (27 April 2019). "Denise Mina: 'I don't think there's any such thing as an apolitical writer'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  3. ^ a b Guttridge, Peter (28 July 2007). "Murder she wrote - and plenty of it: Denise Mina on her career". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  4. ^ McGinty, Stephen (18 June 2022). "Denise Mina: Wild true crime podcasts inspired me — they don't let proof stop a good story". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  5. ^ "Harvill Secker takes three more titles from Denise Mina". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  6. ^ "Full Faith and Confidence: A Conversation with Denise Mina". CrimeReads. 11 July 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  7. ^ Ross, Peter (1 March 2017). "The Long Drop by Denise Mina review – meet Scotland's worst serial killer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  8. ^ Irvine, Alex (2008), "John Constantine Hellblazer", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.), The Vertigo Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 102–111, ISBN 978-0-7566-4122-1, OCLC 213309015
  9. ^ "Denise Mina, b 1966. Crime writer and playwright by Gerard M Burns | National Galleries of Scotland". www.nationalgalleries.org. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  10. ^ Crime author Denise Mina discusses Rutherglen roots, Jonathan Geddes, Daily Record, 23 May 2012
  11. ^ a b "Denise Mina | EBSCO Research Starters". www.ebsco.com. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  12. ^ "Denise Mina's Not-So-Dark-Side". The Scots Magazine. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  13. ^ "Once Upon a True Crime: Meet the Authors - Denise Mina". Crime+Investigation UK. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  14. ^ "Meet The Author Denise Mina". www.librariesni.org.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  15. ^ a b "Denise Mina: 10 things that changed my life". The National. 17 February 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  16. ^ Lindsay, Elizabeth Blakesley (2007), Great Women Mystery Writers, Greenwood Press, 2nd edn, p. 178 (ISBN 0-313-33428-5).
  17. ^ "My Favourite Scottish Work of Art: Denise Mina | News & Press | Scottish Art News | Fleming collection". www.flemingcollection.com. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  18. ^ "Field of Blood: The Dead Hour, BBC One", The Arts Desk, 9 August 2013.
  19. ^ "Denise Mina: Telling the True Crime Stories of Gritty Glasgow". CrimeReads. 23 May 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  20. ^ a b "Sex, power and violence theme Denise Mina's classic play, starring Elaine C. Smith". The Herald. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  21. ^ "The odd couple of showbiz". Glasgow Times. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  22. ^ "Ida Tamson". The Scotsman. 26 April 2006. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  23. ^ "Plays". Denise Mina. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  24. ^ Steffens, Daneet (23 May 2017). "Denise Mina: Telling the True Crime Stories of Gritty Glasgow". CrimeReads. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  25. ^ Swarbrick, Susan (5 March 2017). "Crime author Denise Mina on murderer Peter Manuel, 1950s Glasgow and challenging the serial killer myth". The Herald. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  26. ^ Brennan, Clare (15 March 2020). "Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti review – socialist satire starved of humour". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  27. ^ "Denise Mina on Mrs Puntila and her man Matti - The Skinny". www.theskinny.co.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  28. ^ "Denise Mina". New Writing North. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  29. ^ "Eye For Film: Glasgow CEO appointed". www.eyeforfilm.co.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  30. ^ "BBC Four - Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death and Women". BBC. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  31. ^ Catterall, Ali; Frazer-Carroll, Micha; Harrison, Phil; Richardson, Hollie (14 March 2023). "TV tonight: Frank Skinner and Denise Mina's literary adventure". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  32. ^ "Novelist Denise Mina makes homemade film". BBC News. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  33. ^ Kerridge, Jake (26 June 2022). "'Do you have to feel sorry for yourself, JK Rowling?': crime novelist Denise Mina on Twitter trolls". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  34. ^ "Honorary Degrees for celebrated actress and authors". www.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  35. ^ Svenska Deckarakademin: Bästa översatta Archived 28 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine (In Swedish, list of winners of best foreign crime novels translated into Swedish, awarded by Swedish Crime Writers' Academy)
  36. ^ Flood, Alison (20 July 2012). "Denise Mina wins crime novel of the year award". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  37. ^ Bury, Liz (19 July 2013). "Denise Mina steals Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel award". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  38. ^ McDonald, Alan (12 October 2017). "The winner of the Gordon Burn Prize 2017 is announced". New Writing North. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  39. ^ "McIlvanney Prize 2017 Winner". Bloody Scotland. 8 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  40. ^ "Deutscher Krimipreis vergeben". boersenblatt.net. 28 December 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  41. ^ "100 Notable Alumni of the University of Strathclyde". EduRank.org - Discover university rankings by location. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
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Preceded by Hellblazer writer
2006–2007 		Succeeded by
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