The Red Road: A Novel (Alex Morrow)
*Starred Review* Prickly, unflinching DI Alex Morrow’s (Gods and Beasts, 2013) career success is the result of delivering solid evidence, definitely not from political victories. She’s ­single-mindedly focused on that delivery in her testimony against Michael Brown, who’s accused of smuggling arms for a Glasgow money-laundering crew just a few short years after serving a sentence for murdering his brother, Pinkie. Moments after testifying, Morrow is notified that Brown’s fingerprints have appeared at a fresh murder scene. Brown has been locked up, however, convincing Morrow that the new fingerprints are a maneuver to cast doubt on his current charges. Even so, all three cases involving Michael Brown rely on fingerprint evidence, so she’ll have to sort out which case is corrupted to nail his conviction. As Morrow works backward toward Brown’s 1997 murder arrest, Mina plays out the night of Pinkie’s murder through cops, attorneys, and a young girl named Rose, who have all left their mark on Brown’s story. Sharp, honest, and conflicted, Morrow is the kind of detective readers love, and they’ll groan for her as she detects the too-familiar taint of corruption and as her personal connections to Glasgow’s underworld create practical and emotional obstacles. Mina’s at the top of her game here, deftly unveiling the sad truths of the past and present to create a gritty must-read for fans of complex, psychological police procedurals. --Christine Tran