This wasn't quite as good as the second instalment, but nevertheless I read it in one gulp. There were a lot of strands which sort of came together by the end, but I think there was more page time devoted to Kenny Gallagher than was really warranted. I was hoping Martin Pavel's story would turn out to be more interesting than it did, but the police corruption angle was gripping. ( )

Maybe I'm missing something by reading the third book in a police series but what even was the point? A lot of shallow characters, no resolution, and a teenage girl getting sexually assaulted for a slimy sexist politician's lacklustre career in the latter pages with, again, very little point.

Maybe all the Alex Morrow characterization was in previous novels?

I kept hoping for some sort of depth, some hint that more nuance might appear in the novels dwindling pages but to no avail. Disjointed, the crime didn't even matter and was barely investigated but neither were any of the other corruption issues that plagued the characters. Below mediocre. ( )

I'll say from the outset that I think Denise Mina is the finest of the "tartan noire" writers, and that's still the case with [b:Gods and Beasts|14781160|Gods and Beasts (Alex Morrow, #3)|Denise Mina|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356078725s/14781160.jpg|19213687]. It's well-written, interesting, one I looked forward to each evening, all that. Probably a four-star book, really, but there's something holding me back.

Part of what I find lacking is the one thing I really enjoy about reading series novelists, that of returning to a familiar character. Alex Morrow, however, is perhaps the least defined of Mina's recurring characters, and that's a shame. It's also odd, to me, that she becomes more and more backgrounded as this series continues. There is no sense of growth, like you get with Rebus and even more with Mina's own Paddy Meehan (who makes a cameo in this book, more on that later), and in fact there's no real sense of dimension at all with Morrow. In the first book, [b:Still Midnight|6389743|Still Midnight (Alex Morrow, #1)|Denise Mina|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348096067s/6389743.jpg|6578134], it was almost all Morrow, and to be honest I can't even recall the crime at the center. It was the hardest of Mina's books to get through, as it was very introspective but not so forthcoming-- if that makes any sense. Morrow is grieving over the loss of a child, and that takes center stage. You get the sense that her marriage is failing, and that's important to the book, too. I got the feeling that with the new series, perhaps she was de-centering the crime from the crime novel, and focusing on the life of a detective. That's fine, but there was almost too much tiptoeing, too much hinting and not enough actual development. There was never a reason given to care about Morrow because she never revealed enough about herself.

Perhaps that's unfair to say, years after having read the book, and admittedly not remembering what it was about (the crime, that is). The second book,[b:The End of the Wasp Season|11156902|The End of the Wasp Season (Alex Morrow, #2)|Denise Mina|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344270227s/11156902.jpg|14647221] was much better, and still the best of the three so far. The approach was different, in the same vein as [b:Laidlaw|952162|Laidlaw|William McIlvanney|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1318156284s/952162.jpg|937081], where it was a true procedural in that the question was "why?" and "how?" moreso than "who?" Still, I was would have been hard pressed to talk much about the central character, as Morrow remained much of a mystery. In [b:Gods and Beasts|14781160|Gods and Beasts (Alex Morrow, #3)|Denise Mina|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356078725s/14781160.jpg|19213687], the story is very good: multifaceted, taking place among a few distinct story lines that come together as the novel draws to a close, each as interesting as the next. In a move that I always enjoy, Paddy Meehan is one of the journalists involved in a main story line, which makes sense-- she's a Glasgow journalist in her own series, it would make sense she would cover a major news story in Morrow's universe as well. So I ask myself, what is it that makes it so enjoyable when characters bleed into each other's turfs? In Paddy's case, it's because I feel like I know her, and like the Council of Elrond in [b:Fellowship of the Rings|34|The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)|J.R.R. Tolkien|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298411339s/34.jpg|3204327] (a scene that makes me tear up every time!), I enjoy running into old friends from adventures past. From time to time I would wonder, reading this book, what Rebus might be up do. Three books in, and I don't know that Morrow ever crosses my mind when I'm reading a different Scottish crime novel.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to read Mina's prose. She's a skilled writer, and Kenny Gallagher was a fully-realized (if pathetic) character. Maybe he should be spun off? And I can't wait for the next Paddy Meehan novel--two more remaining!--and I can't help wonder if Paddy's foray into Morrow's neck of the woods doesn't presage the next stage in the journalist's career. ( )

You can always count on Denise Mina to tackle uncomfortable truths in her books, and she does it again in this third Alex Morrow mystery, Gods and Beasts. The framework of the book can be found in two quotes she uses. One from Abraham Lincoln: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." The second from Aristotle: "Those who live outside the city walls and are self sufficient, are either Gods or Beasts." Gods and Beasts is the story of how some people abuse power, of how some people face the possibility of losing their jobs, of how the marginalized find themselves living from day to weary day.

Mina is a master at writing about the marginalized, at writing about the grit and grime of living "outside the city walls" of Glasgow, and I once again found myself immersed in Alex Morrow's world as she tries to solve this crime, deal with her co-workers, and be a wife and mother. Mina's world isn't always pleasant. The days are often overcast and gloomy, and violence can blindside you. But there's comfort in knowing that someone like Alex Morrow is on the job. That someone like Alex Morrow will keep fighting the bad guys with intelligence and determination.

There's a power to Mina's writing that you don't see every day. Take, for example, this one tiny scene that doesn't mean all that much in the scheme of things: "On the ground, by the side of the concrete front step, was a small ash tray, four half-smoked cigarettes laid out in a neat row, filters by filters, the burnt tips concertinaed. They made him think of diagrams of slave ships." This one small descriptive scene made this reader think of the smoker, so precise with those half-smoked cigarettes, so enslaved by an addiction to nicotine, but the scene keeps on giving. Diagrams of slave ships? My mind went on to think of people stolen from their homes, packed into filthy ships holds, and taken to work in tobacco fields. Of how slavery and poverty and drudgery grind people down.

It's a tiny scene with so much depth and power that it still takes my breath away, and it's one of the many reasons why I read Denise Mina's books. If you haven't, I hope you'll give them a try. As much as I enjoy Mina's Alex Morrow series, I found her Garnethill trilogy and her novels featuring Paddy Meehan to be excellent. Don't miss out on Denise Mina, one of the founders of Tartan Noir. ( )

These Alex Morrow books keep getting better and better and thee are so many left to read. In this one, an old man, shoves the grandson he was carrying to a stranger when the bank they were in was robbed and then appears to join and help the robber. ( )