By Denise Mina
A mystery/crime novel based in Scotland, borrowed from Caroline. Read in a rush while visiting in Berkeley, but I managed to finish it!
Here's a summary that's been cobbled together from multiple sources:
The story begins one November morning with Anna getting the kids ready for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her best friend Estelle arrives at the door. Then Anna's husband, a successful lawyer, announces that he and Estelle are lovers and he's leaving her with their two daughters!
Anna considers killing herself, but the podcast she was listening to before her comfortable life got rudely shattered, Death and the Dana, distracts her from suicidal thoughts. It's involves a wealthy businessman named Leon Parker, whose luxury yacht was blown up in the Mediterranean while he and his children were on board. The ship's cook was convicted of the crime, but many believe the woman was innocent.
But Anna knew Leon Parker... in her previous life as Sophie Bukaran. We soon learn she had been hiding in Glasgow as Anna McDonald, married to the very husband who had just left her for her best friend, Estelle. Anna feels that something is not quite right and she thinks she might know what really happened to Leon Parker. When Estelle's feckless husband, Fin, also appears at Anna's door, he gets roped into the mystery and the unlikely duo eventually create a companion podcast detailing their explorations.
But in the process Anna and Fin are photographed and the pictures posted online, so Anna's identity becomes entwined with the life she left behind as Sophie Bukaran. Years earlier Sophie was raped by members of a beloved football team, and her accusations threatened the team's reputation and value. When the only corroborator of her testimony was silenced, Sophie was discredited and subjected to public vilification, and Sophie disappeared. But a new witness has come forward and could confirm Sophie's accusations, and her reappearance again threatens a financial empire. As Fin's podcast becomes wildly popular and he and Anna begin to unravel the mystery of Leon Parker's death, the assassins seeking Sophie close in.
Even though the plot was highly unrealistic (that soap opera beginning!) and felt somewhat cobbled together (like this review), it was an easy and entertaining read. At times, I felt like I could be spending my time with a better book (my MIL practically pushed Conviction on me as she had just finished it and wanted to know what I thought of it. I think she even said I could have it, which was why I rush-read this as I didn't want to pack a hardcover to bring back home!), but there are much worse books to waste your time on. I can't remember, but I think I told her I enjoyed it, which was mostly true.
