Conviction

Title:

Conviction

Author:

Summary:

The day Anna McDonald's quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone. Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people's problems are much better than one's own -- a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna's problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she's taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened. Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened -- and in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, she goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.

General Note:

Originally published in Great Britain by Harvill Secker, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK: May 2019.

Edition:

First United States edition.

Physical Description:

376 pages ; 25 cm

Genre:

Psychological fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Podcasts -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company,

Publication Date:

2019

ISBN:

9780316528504

Publication Information:

New York : Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2019.

Call Number:

MINA

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003414805	Adult Fiction	MINA	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

A true crime podcast sets a trophy wife's present life on a collision course with her secret past in this "blazingly intense" Reese Witherspoon book club pick and New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year (A. J. Finn).
The day Anna McDonald's quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone.
Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people's problems are much better than one's own -- a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna's problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she's taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened.
Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened -- and they're in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, Anna goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.
Conviction is "daredevil storytelling at its finest" (NPR's Fresh Air ), a breathtaking thriller from one of the most "superbly talented" writers of our time (Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of Trust Me ).

Author Notes

Denise Mina was born in Glasgow in 1966. She initially left school at the age of 16 and worked a variety of low skilled jobs like bar maid and kitchen porter. She later returned to school and earned a law degree from Glasgow University. She has since become a crime writer and playwright. She has authored the Garnethill trilogy and three novels featuring the character Patricia Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. She has also done some comic book writing with 13 issues of Hellblazer. She won the John Creasy Dagger for Best First Crime Novel for her book, Garnethill, in 1998. She also won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award with her title,The End of Wasp Season, in 2012.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Anna McDonald, the heroine of this spellbinding thriller from Edgar finalist Mina (The Long Drop), fled her personal problems in London and started over in Glasgow nine years earlier. She's now engrossed in true-crime podcasts such as Death and the Dana, about a murdered family, a sunken yacht named the Dana, and a wrongful conviction. After Anna's partner, Hamish, runs away with her best friend, Estelle, she and Estelle's despondent husband, anorexic former rock star Fin Cohen, embark on a road trip, bingeing Death and the Dana while investigating its claims. Anna soon discovers that she has multiple ties to the tale. When a picture of her and Fin goes viral on social media, dangerous figures from Anna's past get on their trail. The mysteries of Anna's tragic history and the Dana's true fate unfold in tandem, with podcast transcripts peppering the colorful narrative. Anna and Fin alternately bolster and antagonize one another, balancing introspections on modern life and human nature with laugh-out-loud humor. Mina delivers a metafictional marvel that both endorses and exemplifies the power of storytelling. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Anna McDonald is comfortably married to a wealthy Scottish lawyer and dotes on her two young daughters. A true-crime podcast about a yacht exploding, killing someone she'd known years earlier, frightens her. Then her husband suddenly announces he's leaving her for her best friend and Anna's photo goes viral, exposing a notorious past from a rape trial. As her world explodes, she's thrown together with her friend's husband, Fin, an ex-rock star, fending off murderous attackers while attempting to solve the mysterious yacht killings. A rich and powerful woman with a Nazi past seems to be controlling everything, as Anna and Fin scramble across Europe searching for answers. The text of the podcast is interspersed throughout the narrative while simultaneously Anna's hidden past is gradually revealed. Mina ("Alex Morrow" series) is a skilled author of novels, plays, films, TV scripts, and graphic novels. In this stand-alone, traditional mystery elements are infused with social media and technology that emphasizes the interconnectedness of our contemporary scene. VERDICT With a gutsy, endearing heroine and a wondrously surprising ending, this is highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 12/3/18.]-Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.