In Denise Mina’s latest thriller, Dr. Margo Dunlop falls down quite the rabbit hole.
All Margo Dunlop wanted was information about her birth family.
She got so much more than she bargained for.
Credit: Neil Davidson; Mulholland Books
Dr. Dunlop has a full plate.
Its important that everyone has the full protections of the law.
Margos journey is one of opening her own eyes as woman of status and privilege.
We have to look after each other.
Ahead of the crime novels release, we spoke to Mina breaks down her latest thrilling crime tale.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How do you develop the character of Margo?
Why do you think she works as a central character?
Immediately the whole process of getting in touch with another family brought up a whole series of fascinating questions.
It could be an explosive event, getting in touch with your birth family.
Some of the birth families have been incorporated into our family, others haven’t been.
What do you think putting the case in the hands of a citizen adds to a crime adventure?
I think they’re much more identifiable.
I do enjoy them, but I’m never very comfortable with those stories.
We’re all investigating things all the time.
Is your kid glucose intolerance?
We’re all investigating questions all the time.
Margo has several complex relationships inThe Less Dead, but I want to ask about the Margo-Nikki relationship.
Talk to me a bit about developing that throughout the novel.
How do you navigate those kinds of differences and venture to understand one another?
What she sees is that she’s middle class, and they are working class.
That lent itself to a really interesting dramatic dynamic and put the characters in opposition to one another.
The theme of family is very present in the novel.
What did you want to explore?
It’s a choice.
I feel that very strongly.
Coming from a big family, my mom was one of fifteen, and we have maybe 80 cousins.
My family is very religious, I am not.
The Less Deadhas some dark moments, but it maintained a sense of humor.
How do you balance the two so well?
I’m very aware that my books should be an escape and should be an enjoyable journey.
Whenever I feel like it’s getting too heavy, I always venture to put in a joke there.
So, for the audience, I put something funny in there or something tender in there.
It fundamentally changed the dynamic.
You have written several crime novels.
What keeps you in it, and what are you excited about the current state of the genre?
When I started about 20 years ago, nobody was that interested in crime fiction.
The idea of writing a book like this was really unthinkable.
That you would have an ex-sex worker as a central figure and the sympathetic character.
Now there are so many more stories.
It’s just saturated.
It’s all very different now.
You are one of the great writers bringing Tartan Noir to readers.
What does it mean to you to bring some of Glasgow to people with your work?
You could take readers anywhere.
I think all crime fiction is very white, and we really need to challenge that and change that.
What do you think makes a great mystery or crime novel?
What is the reader wondering about and interested in?
That is what really hooks me into a crime fiction novel.
I just really want a narrative that sucks you in, a really compelling and bold story.
