title: The Dead Hour (Paddy Meehan)
author:  Denise Mina 
description: "Mina never fails to engage the reader, taking crime fiction into further territory to challenge and extend our perceptions...Puts Mina into the class of the serious psychological novelist." <br />-"Scotland on Sunday <br />""Scotland has found itself a new Ian Rankin." <br />-"The Times"<br />"<br />"Praise for Denise Mina: <br />"One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years." <br />-Ian Rankin <br />"The Crown Princess of Crime."<br />-Val McDermid <br />"Field of Blood is more challenging than any crime novel, more engaging than any social commentary, and way more inspiring, inventive and downright chilling than any thriller." <br />-Manda Scott<br /><br />" Mina never fails to engage the reader, taking crime fiction into further territory to challenge and extend our perceptions... Puts Mina into the class of the serious psychological novelist." <br />- "Scotland on Sunday <br />"" Scotland has found itself a new Ian Rankin." <br />- "The Times"<br />"<br />"Praise for Denise Mina: <br />" One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years." <br />- Ian Rankin <br />" The Crown Princess of Crime." <br />- Val McDermid <br />" Field of Blood is more challenging than any crime novel, more engaging than any social commentary, and way more inspiring, inventive and downright chilling than any thriller." <br />- Manda Scott
zlib_text:   
  
  **THE DEAD HOUR**
  
   **Patricia “Paddy” Meehan Book 2**
  
   **Denise Mina**
  
    
  
  Copyright © 2006 by Denise Mina
  
    
  
   **ABOUT THE AUTHOR**
  
  Denise Mina is the author of Deception, the Garnethill trilogy, and Field of
  Blood, where Paddy Meehan made her first appearance, prompting the Boston
  Globe to claim: “Every once in a while, an author creates a stunningly
  original character. Denise Mina has done it in Field of Blood.” She lives in
  Glasgow, Scotland, with her family.
  
    
  
  To Owen,
  
  who knows how to make an entrance
  
   **ONE**
  
   **NOT LIKE US**
  
  1984
  
   **I**
  
  Paddy Meehan was comfortable in the back of the car. The white noise from the
  police radio filled the wordless space between herself and Billy, her driver.
  She had only just warmed up after a bitter half hour standing in sheet rain at
  a car accident and didn’t want to step out into the cold February night, but a
  handsome man in an expensive striped shirt and a ten-quid haircut was standing
  in the doorway of the elegant villa, h