The first in an important new series by the Princess of Crime, Denise Mina.
When Brian Willcox is found brutally battered to death next to a suburban railway line in Glasgow, it is assumed that the toddler is the victim of a vicious sexual predator. Instead the police are led to the doors of two eleven-year-old boys.
Fresh from school, Paddy Meehan has just started work as a copy-boy on the Scottish Daily News. Determined to emulate her heroes and to be an investigative journalist, she also wants to be financially independent, and to have her own career. Not so her colleagues - hard-drinking chauvinists to a man - who believe a woman's place to be in the home, and preferably in the bedroom. Paddy's family also find her aspirations threatening. All they want is for her to get married to her fiancé, Sean, and have children of her own.
Then Paddy discovers that one of the boys charged with the murder of Baby Brian is Sean's cousin, Callum. Soon Callum's name is all over the News, and her family believe she is to blame. Shunned by Sean and by those closest to her, Paddy finds herself dangerously alone . . .
Set in Glasgow in 1981, a time of betrayal that saw hunger strikes, riots and unemployment decimate the old industrial heartlands, 'The Field Of Blood' is the first in a stunning new crime series featuring Paddy Meehan. Infused with Mina's unique blend of dark humour, personal insights, true crime, and the social injustices that pervade our society, this is a novel that will grip the reader while challenging our perceptions of childhood innocence, crime and punishment, right and wrong.
