Resolution
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Maureen O'Donnell is facing the darkest episode in her life. She owes more than she makes in a year in back taxes; Angus Farrell, the psychologist who murdered her boyfriend, is up for trial, with Maureen as the reluctant star witness; and her abuser has arrived back in Glasgow in time for the birth of her sister's baby. On top of it all, she has managed to become embroiled in someone else's family feud. Ella McGee, an elderly stallholder at the flea market where Maureen and Leslie are selling illegally imported cigarettes, wants to bring a case against her son in the small claims court, and she asks Maureen to fill in the legal documents for her.
When Ella dies in hospital after a brutal beating, Maureen, who identifies all too readily with the underdogs of this world, begins to question why anyone might want to kill the woman popularly known as 'Home Gran'. She suspects Ella's son, Si McGee; but Si is an upstanding member of the Scottish business community, runs a chain of estate agents and has a health club in Glasgow's fashionable West End. When Maureen discovers that the 'health club' fronts a much less respectable establishment, she realizes that Si could be a lot more dangerous than he seems. As Angus's trial approaches and her world begins to close in, Maureen finds that once again she is under threat, and this time she has very few protectors.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this powerful, disturbing, wrenching conclusion to the Scottish author's Garnethill trilogy (Garnethill; Exile), the sense of everydayness renders the horrors Mina's Glaswegians confront even more terrible. Forced prostitution, child sexual abuse, alcoholism, dysfunctionality of every kind all are not so much spotlighted as they are integral parts of the fabric of the characters' lives. But for Maureen O'Donnell, whose continued existence is a triumph of will, there's also a strong sense of family and friendships forged in the crucible of survival. Maureen and her friends Leslie and Kilty are as unlikely a trio of dragon-slayers as one might find. With trepidation, Maureen awaits the trial of her lover's murderer, Angus Farrell, whose evil threatens her even while he's in jail. And Maureen's abusive father, Michael, has returned to Glasgow and she fears for her sister's soon-to-be-born baby. Maureen's efforts to help an illiterate old woman fill out a legal complaint against her son lead her into more danger and ugliness. The sordidness and the seemingly insuperable odds Maureen faces make her retreat into alcoholism seem appropriate. Thanks to Mina's considerable narrative skills, the Glasgow of Paddy's flea market, Albert Hospital and the area near the bus station where street prostitutes hang out emerges in gritty clarity. The novel culminates in a startling crescendo of violence, vengeance and resolution.
