Welcome to the blog today ! I have a great extract for you from Conviction by Denise Mina and also the chance to win a print copy (UK only). Details on how to enter the Giveaway are at the foot of this post.
Extract Chapter 1
The day my life exploded started well.
It was early morning
in November and I woke up without the use of an alarm clock. I was pleased
about that. It was a concession to our couples counselling: I wouldn’t wake
Hamish at six with my alarm clock and he wouldn’t play Candy Crush on his phone
all evening while ignoring the children.
I was looking forward to my day. I had
a new true-crime podcast series waiting on my phone and I’d heard good things
about it. I planned to listen to the first episode, get a taste for the story
before I woke the kids for school, and then binge on it while I trawled through
a day of menial tasks. A good podcast can add a glorious multi-world texture to
anything. I’ve resisted an Assyrian invasion while picking up dry-cleaning. I’ve
seen justice served on a vicious murderer while buying
underpants.
I lay in bed savouring the anticipation, watching light from the
street ripple across the ceiling, listening as the heating kicked on and the
grand old dame of a house groaned and cracked her bones. I got up, pulled on a
jumper and slippers, and crept out of the bedroom.
I loved getting up before everyone else, when the house was
still and I could read or listen to a podcast alone in a frozen world. I knew
where everyone was. I knew they were safe. I could relax.
Hamish resented it.
He said it was creepy. Why did I need this time alone, sneaking around the
house? Why did I need to be alone so much?
Trust issues, the couples counsellor
called it.
I tried to reassure Hamish, I’m not planning to kill you or
anything. But that was not reassuring, apparently. In fact, Anna, it might
sound rather hostile to Hamish, if you think about it from his point of view.
Really? (I said it in a hostile way.) Does that sound hostile? Then we talked
about that for a while. It was a stupid process. We were both hostile and sad.
Our relationship was in its death throes.
I tiptoed across the landing,
skirting the squeakiest floorboards and looked in on both of the girls. They
were fast asleep in their wee beds, school uniforms laid out on chairs, socks
in shoes, ties under collars. I wish I had lingered longer. I would never see
them so innocent again.
I went back out to the landing. The oak banister curled
softly from the top of the house to bottom, carved to fit the cup of a hand,
grainy to the touch, following the wind of the stairs like a great long snake
of yellow marzipan. It led down to a grand hallway with marble pillars flanking
the front door and a floor mosaic of Hamish’s ancestral coat of arms. The house
was bought by Hamish’s great-grandfather in 1869. He bought it new from Greek
Thompson.
Hamish was very proud of his background. He knew nothing at all
about mine. I must emphasise that. I’m not just saying that to protect him, now
that everything has come out. He was a senior member of the Bar, hoping to be
appointed to the bench like his forebears. He wouldn’t have risked that just to
be with me.
When we met I was Anna, the new office temp from
Somewhere-Outside-of-Aberdeen. I chose Hamish quite carefully.I did love him,I
must say that, and I still do,some times. But I deliberately picked an older
man with money and status.A declamatory man, full of facts and opinions. He was
the perfect hide.
Hamish was born in that house and had never lived any where
else. His family had been on or near the Scottish judiciary for two hundred
years. He didn’t much like foreign travel. He read only Scottish writers.That
seemed so weird to me. I think I found it a little exotic.
It was cold in the
hall that morning. I walked through into the white-gleaming, German-designed
kitchen and made a pot of strong coffee. I picked up my phone.The true-crime
podcast series was called Death and the Dana. The description read ‘A sunken yacht, a murdered
family on board, a secret still unsolved . . .’
Oh yes: ponderous tone,
secrets, murders, it had every thing. And the case had happened while my girls
were small, a time of little jumpers and waiting outside school, standing
silently with the timeless phalanx of mothers, absent from the wider world. I
didn’t know anything about this murder case.
I poured a big mug of coffee, sat down, put my phone on the kitchen table in front of me and pressed play. I expected an absorbing, high-stakes story.
I had no idea I was about to meet Leon Parker again.
About the Author
Denise Mina is a critically acclaimed
Glaswegian crime writer. Her novels includeThe End of the Wasp Season
and Gods and Beasts, both of which won the prestigious Theakstons Old
Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award in consecutive years. Denise also
writes short stories and in 2006 wrote her first play. She is a regular
contributor to TV and radio.
Find out more at www.denisemina.com or follow her on Twitter @DameDeniseMina
Thanks to Denise Mina and Hope Ndaba of Vintage for a place on the tour
Check out the rest of the tour
Giveaway (UK only)
To win a print copy of Conviction, just Follow and Retweet the pinned Tweet at @bookslifethings and good luck!
Closing Date is 26th February 2020
and there is one winner.
*Terms and Conditions – UK only The winner will be selected at
random via Tweetdraw from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter
and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right
to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the
competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with
third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed
to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize. I am not
responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
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