Denise Mina (born 21 August 1966) is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia "Paddy" Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having written 13 issues of Hellblazer. Mina's first Paddy Meehan novel, The Field of Blood (2005), was filmed for broadcast in 2011 by the BBC, starring Jayd Johnson, Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey. The second, The Dead Hour, was filmed and broadcast in 2013. Biography Denise Mina was born in East Kilbride in 1966. Her father worked as an engineer. Because of his work, the family moved 21 times in 18 years: from Paris to The Hague, London, Scotland and Bergen; she has also professed an affection for Rutherglen, her mother's home town. Mina left school at 16 and worked in a variety of low-skilled jobs, including as a barmaid, kitchen porter and cook. She also worked for a time in a meat-processing factory. In her twenties she worked in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients, before returning to education and earning a law degree from Glasgow University. It was while researching a PhD thesis on the ascription of mental illness to female offenders, and teaching criminology and criminal law at Strathclyde University in the 1990s, that she decided to write her first novel Garnethill, published in 1998 by Transworld. Mina lives in Glasgow. Awards and honours 1998 John Creasey Dagger for Best First Crime Novel, Garnethill 2011 The Martin Beck Award (Bästa till svenska översatta kriminalroman), The End of the Wasp Season 2012 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, The End of the Wasp Season 2013 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Gods and Beasts 2017 Gordon Burn Prize, The Long Drop 2017 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year, The Long Drop 2020 Deutscher Krimi Preis (Category: International crime writers) for Gods and Beasts Bibliography Novels Garnethill trilogy Garnethill (1998) Exile (2000) Resolution (2001) Patricia "Paddy" Meehan novels The Field of Blood (2005) The Dead Hour (2006) The Last Breath (2007) – published as Slip of the Knife in America Alex Morrow novels Still Midnight (2009) The End of the Wasp Season (2010) Gods and Beasts (2012) The Red Road (2013) Blood, Salt, Water (2014) Anna & Fin novels Conviction (2019)