“The End of the Wasp Season,” by Denise Mina

FM's rating:

1.      Premise 7

2.      Prose 8

3.      Plot 8

4.      Characters 9

5.      Overall 8

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This is a good, solid effort by an author whose debut novel, “Garnethill” was very strong.  Mina has two main series going and this book is the second one of the series that began with “Still Midnight.”  This series is a little more reflective, not quite as dark or intense as the other.  Probably too “slow” for most tastes, I had no problem staying with it on the strength of the characters and the socio-dynamics involved.  The case is solved almost by accident, as many good mysteries are, but with emphasis placed on our hero’s intuition and determination.  We know “whodunit” from the very beginning, so the fun is in watching how the investigators crack the case and how thin the threads are that eventually lead to the resolution.  Rather cerebral writing, not for everybody, but worth the effort to an analytical mind.