The McIlvanney Prize Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2025 Finalist


If you were responsible for a miscarriage of justice would you admit it?

The truth can set you free. Or destroy your life.

‘So sharp it’ll cut your fingers' ERIN KELLY
'A writer of rare and remarkable talents' STEVE CAVANAGH
'Sublime' ABIR MUKHERJEE
'Mina at her blazing, blood-splattered best' LUCY WORSLEY
'A stand-out read' Guardian
'Tense, nuanced and moving' Crime Time
'Propulsive mystery’ ALAFAIR BURKE
'Blisteringly good' SARAH HILARY

Blood spatter expert Doctor Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put a killer behind bars – or so everyone thinks. Since the trial, Claudia has learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her testimony were wrong.

Now as she takes the stage to give a speech before London’s elite specialists, Claudia has to choose: keep lying and leave the wronged killer behind bars or stand up, tell the truth and rip her life apart.

What would you do?

More praise for Denise Mina
'Crime-writing royalty' IAN RANKIN
'A delight' ANN CLEEVES
'Highly original' The Times
'Darkly brilliant' Observer
'Denise Mina is a one-of-a-kind storyteller' JAMES PATTERSON
‘Britain's best living crime writer’ Sunday Express
‘Forensic, beautiful and gripping’ GRAHAM NORTON
‘Crime fiction at its very best’ JOSEPH KNOX