Deception by Denise Mina
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"She lets out a sigh so small, so intimate, it makes me want to cry. It's as if she's brushing her lips past my ear, a small breath easing from my throat, past the palate, brushing between her lips, and out. She takes in a tiny rasping breath to compensate before she carries on, and when she does, her voice has changed. "

What a phenomenal writer Denise Mina is! It's been quite some time since I last reviewed her novel Blood Salt Water . And I still am due the re-read and re-review of her masterpiece, Garnethill, one of the best mysteries I have ever read, and a piece of high-class literature. Deception (2003) is a stand-alone novel and a wonderful one at that: aren't we all a wee tired of Alex Morrow? Ms. Mina and Ms. Karin Fossum are by far my favorite current writers in the genre. I love to read their prose, rich, subtle, evocative, and astute psychologically (both of them) and sociologically (Ms. Mina).

Deception is framed to appear as a true crime novel. The bulk of the book is the set of diaries of Lachlan Harriot whose wife Susie has been pronounced guilty of murdering Andrew Gow. Gow had in the past been convicted of serial murders of five prostitutes, but then released on appeal since similar murders happened while he was in prison. Susie was a psychiatrist in the mental hospital where Gow had been under observation after confessing to his crimes. She was fired when she took home the prison documents related to the case and then accused of murdering Gow when she had found out that he married another woman.

The plot is captivating and I lost the proverbial "many hours of sleep" not being able to put the book away. But to me the super interesting plot is the least important aspect in the novel. Also, I am not quite convinced by the logic of the surprising denouement. The two extraordinary aspects of the novel are Ms. Mina's outstanding prose (see the epigraph) and the psychological truth of characters she's portraying on the pages. The five-page scene of Lachlan's second visit to see Susie in prison is a masterpiece of prose that overwhelms the reader with psychological depth. This is the actual, real life, captured by a master writer who knows the subject. (Let's not forget Ms. Mina's research in the areas of criminology, criminal law, and connections with mental illness in female offenders when she was working on her PhD thesis). Also, the whole passage of Lachlan's family descending upon him to help is very well observed. And so hilarious! The family row scene is almost on par with the unforgettable four-actor scene from the same author's Gods and Beasts

All the main characters, Lachlan, Susie, Yeni, are rich, life-like portraits of real people. Lachlan, the narrator, is an off-center, peculiar, idiosyncratic character yet I recognize in him various people I have known and I feel I have known him for a long time. His trajectory in the plot is really well designed and what happens at the end is really obvious when it does happen, in the hindsight.

And finally, one of my main reasons of being on the verge of a five-star rating of this book: the stunning thread that provides a solid psychological and sociological analysis of the phenomenon of women's emotional investment - sometimes leading to marriage - in male prisoners who have been convicted of heinous crimes, like serial murders or rapes. This theme dovetails nicely with the motif of people selling the sordid stories of their relatives' lives for money, and the whole repugnant feature of the human race: the interest in celebrities of WHATEVER kind, murderers and rapists included. The author writes, in a fictitious article from Guardian:

"[Stevie Ray] has given up his job at the minicab firm where he met Gow and is dedicating himself full-time to managing Gow's career as a serial killer and celebrity."

Are there more despicable creatures on Earth than humans?

Four and a quarter stars.


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