Alex Morrow Books In Order

Publication Order of Alex Morrow Books

Alex Morrow is a fictional character in a series of novels by the same name written by bestselling author Denise Mina. The female protagonist is a police detective based in Glasgow, Scotland, a city that is portrayed in the series to have major criminals and dangerous gangs. The series contains a total of five books. The publication of the first novel in Alex Morrow series Still Midnight was published in 2009. The latest release in the book series is Blood Salt Water and was released in 2015.

Alex Morrow is portrayed as a person of different emotions. In her family, she is polite and a happily married woman. On the other hand, she seems very unhappy in her workplace. The system in her workplace appears to be tight on her thus making her unhappy. She is an angry woman in her workplace but all in all she has to get the job done. She is also tough because she knows this is the type of job that people are not going to like her. She does not make friends either as this could cost her job. However, she plays the cards well in her office politics by placing herself in best relationship with her boss. She is the type of female character that you have never heard of; she is different from the most female protagonist in any novel that you have ever read.

Description of 2 early novels by Denise Mina

Two of the earliest books in the Alex Morrow series is Still Midnight. Here is a synopsis of the book:

Still Midnight

It is on a Sunday evening in the suburbs of Glasgow two gunmen pull out from their van and storm a house of an old Ugandan-Scottish man in which they hold the members of the family hostages. They demand a ransom of 2 million pounds, but the family protest that the cash is way too much for them. They storm away into the dark streets of Glasgow with the old man as a hostage and leaving behind a badly injured teenage girl.

The family held hostage is of an Immigrant shop owner, Aamir Anwar who shifted to Britain together with her mother after the Asians were expelled from Uganda. The business person is portrayed to be a person who his values for his family, business are deeply rooted in his traditions. This creates mixed reactions with the young generations in his area of locality. His wife is pregnant and about to give birth. Their son, Omar is a graduate from the school of law and doesn’t seem to get much support from the mosque. Alesha who is in her sixteens is profoundly against the family traditions.

The author switches among the viewpoint of each of the major players to reveal the complexities of both parties. – The victims and the criminals and the detective- Alex Morrow. The pain that Armir experiences while under the custody of his kidnappers reminds him of the humiliation he felt while his family fled Uganda years earlier.

On the other hand, one of his captor, Pat juggles his responsibilities to his cousin Malkies as well to his incompetent partner Eddy.

Detective Alex is tasked with the responsibility of investigating the case characterized with so many mysteries that she has to solve. Who were the kidnappers? Why did they kidnap an ordinary shop owner? However, as she digs deeper into the case, she realizes that there are many many dark secrets she has to uncover.

The end of the wasp season

This is the second compelling book in the Alex Morrow series. The novel won Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the year in 2012, and it is a good book especially for the lovers of crime thriller books.

The end of the wasp season is based on multiple storylines. It all starts with DS Alex Morrow attending her father’s funeral. It is later revealed that she is pregnant and expecting twins and has some secrets that she does not want to share with anyone. As soon as the burial ceremony is over, she is immediately called to investigate a murder case in Glasgow residential area.

The victim is a young lady Sarah Erroll- in her mid-twenties- killed after her first-day visit to Glasgow from New York. Coincidentally, the victim mother, who was in a wheelchair had died in the same a while ago. Sarah’s body was found by her lawyer who was to determine the status of her mother’s accounts. The killers seem to have sneaked into her house from the back- however, they appear to be unprofessional as they leave behind two sets of their footprints.

The victim is described as a young, wealthy and independent girl who worked as an escort, and for this reason, Alex Morrow feels that nobody is concerned, but she is determined to establish what exactly happened.

While undertaking her investigation, Morrow meets an old school friend Kay Murray, a single mom with four children. Kay worked as a cleaning lady and was the person in charge of looking after Sarah’s mother in her last years. In the first few pages, the author makes the readers aware of the murderers but does not detail on their particular motive for their action.

The storyline shifts to an exclusive boarding school to a boy known as Thomas Anderson. Thomas is summoned to the headmaster’s offices where he receives the news about his father alleged suicide. The boy’s father-Lar is said to be nothing special rather than a rich man who invested on other people riches but ended up losing it all. It is also at this juncture that the author tries to showcase the relationship that existed between Thomas Anderson family and that of Sarah. The novel is kind of interesting as it brings out vividly the theme about the family power of damage and redemption.

Books into Movies

Some of the books by Denise Mina that have been adapted for the big screen include; The Field of Blood starring Jay Johnstone. The novel Dead Hour was tailored to a film that was released in 2013 which co-starred David Morrissey playing the as Murray Devlin