Meny
Portrait image of Denise Mina Photo: Ola Erikson / Forflex (2023)

Sample of authors

Mina, Denise

Denise Mina is a Scottish lawyer and author of crime novels. She was born in East Kilbride, Glasgow. Her father was an oil engineer who worked on platforms in the North Sea, which meant that the family often moved homes – they moved 21 times in 18 years. Mina grew up in Paris, The Hague, Bergen, London, Perth and Invergordon, but she spent most of her school holidays with her mother’s relatives in...

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Literary figures

Arkadij Renko

Gender: Male

Police officer in the Soviet Union and Russia, at first a detective chief inspector, but later demoted after he tried to expose the shady dealings of communist bigwigs. His father was a notorious general. Arkady Renko is middle-aged, thin with a pale face and greying dark hair. His first wife, Zaya, was unfaithful and left him, Martin Cruz Smith tells us. His second wife, Irina, dies after...

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