A true crime podcast sets a trophy wife’s present life on a collision course with her secret past in this “blazingly intense” Reese Witherspoon book club pick and New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year (A. J. Finn). The day Anna McDonald’s quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true … school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone.
Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people’s problems are much better than one’s own — a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna’s problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she’s taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened.
Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened — and they’re in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, Anna goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.
Conviction is “daredevil storytelling at its finest” (NPR’s Fresh Air), a breathtaking thriller from one of the most “superbly talented” writers of our time (Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of Trust Me).
I found myself doing extra housework and running distant errands so I could listen to this story. Anna McDonald is a housewife in a dissatisfying marriage to a lawyer which she holds together because of their two adorable daughters. She distracts herself from the monotony with true crime podcasts. One morning, she is listening to a podcast before the rest of the household musters only to discover the murder victim was a friend of hers. She puts her earphones away to rustle the kids off to school and the husband to work but something is wrong. He isn’t going to work. He’s leaving her. With her best friend. And taking the girls. The next thing she knows, the thrown-over husband is on her doorstep, an anorexic has-been rock star. If things weren’t bad enough, her life is thrown into turmoil when a neighbor snaps a photo of the two on the doorstep and posts it to Twitter. The problem is, Anna’s on the run and has been for years. Now she and everyone she knows is in danger.
Easily one of the best narrations I’ve heard. It’s a puzzle mystery and a psychological thriller. I highly recommend.
A haunted sunken ship. A crime podcast. Twists and turns as vibrant characters navigating a failed relationship and broken hearts become a part of it…each page became more fascinating as the layers of this riveting crime thriller were peeled away. Brilliant and lots of fun! Bravo Denise Mina.
Not sure how to describe this one other than to say a woman hooked on podcasts follows a real crime story, and becomes involved in it herself. A lot of twists and turns that keeps you reading!
I could easily see this book being a big blockbuster movie. Partly because It seems like a movie to the point I have to keep reminding myself it is not! The main character has a ballsy, dry, sense of humor that is hilarious, and the past she thought she had sunk years ago, is about to float to the surface with a vengence. The first page hooks you and the plot takes off at brillant speed, in almost a domino effect type fashion. I loved this novel! It was so original and to me; very different than other books I have read! I hadn’t heard of Denise Mina before this release, but I will be reading all her novels now. The international action, the vividly realistic podcasts, the non-stop suspense, and the complex unique characters & plot, have made this one of my favorite reads this year- and a title I want to own.
It’s been a while since I’ve read Denise Mina. I adored her Garnethill series and thought it was some of the best stuff I’ve ever read. CONVICTION is quite different, a thriller that plays on our modern-day (and my own) fascination with true-crime podcasts. This page-turner is chock full of cunning twists and turns, beautifully wounded characters and a very satisfying climax and denouement. Highly recommended.
I loved this book, to the point where I was ignoring other responsibilities to finish it. Denise Mina’s voice is compelling and the story kept me turning the pages all the way to a very satisfying finish. As a podcast nerd, I loved that element of the book and the way it’s woven into the story.
The most fun suspense novel I’ve read in a long time.
I wanted to love this book. Really I did. It has so many things I enjoy. Podcasts! True crime! Mystery! But I just… didn’t. I’m giving it 4 stars here but really it’s more like a rounded up 3.5.
It’s a great premise but it fell flat for me at the end. Maybe it won’t to others. It is action packed and it is told in such a way that it does give a great feeling of hurtling through this story, someone chasing at your heels, just like the main character. I got sucked in and would read for hours wanting to know what twist would come next. But in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but question all the little things that don’t quite add up. I won’t spoil anything for you by telling you each of them but For example, it’s a stretch that anyone can disappear in this day and age or that posting random bad audio snippets to twitter would create a “podcast” out of thin air. The “big bad” seemed sooo scary and looming throughout the book and the big reveal at the end was just… eh. I don’t know what else to say without giving away the twists that made it enjoyable. Read it for yourself if it sounds interesting. For me, it was just ok.
An action-packed thriller, using podcasts as a clever device, creating an interesting structure of a story within a story. Lots of good stuff, and never gets boring, but I did have to suspend my disbelief once or twice. It’s a wild ride!
Came highly recommended from a fellow author, and more than delivered. Mina is a master with a tight plot, fast pace, well drawn characters, and marvelous back and forth between the worthy protagonist’s present and past. I’m hooked.
This is the first book I have read in such a long time for pleasure. I was not disappointed.
This is two novels in one. There’s a “locked door” mystery: a man and his two adult children are killed on their yacht. No one was on board except the family, which means one of the deceased is responsible. Who did it? Then there’s the narrator and her complicated life story: her husband has just left her for her best friend, taking their children with him. She appears to be a mess–was he right to leave her?–and all she seems to care about is a podcast dealing with the aforementioned mystery. The masterful way in which the two stories come together will keep you glued to the pages.
Denise Mina is one of my favorite writers. Conviction is a stand alone. One more thing: you see social media (Twitter, Instagram) and new tech like podcasts used a lot in fiction these days (naturally!) but this book references that more seamlessly and intelligently than most. Kudos.
Loved this book!!! Great twist at the end.
Raced through this!
I have never read this author, and I’m glad I did. She has a very unusual voice. The characters were really different. I liked both main characters a lot. The guy was really nice, but the main character had a short fuse. So, they were the odd couple. I thought this was going to be a thriller, but really it was about a girl who likes podcasts and gets swept into the mystery of a podcast she is listening to on the day her husband leaves her for her best friend. The best friend is pregnant, and the cheating pair take the heroine’s kids to Portugal. I would certainly be crazy if that happened to me.
So–understandably, our heroine goes a little crazy. Also, she has this crazy past that is linked to the podcast, so she becomes an amateur sleuth while making a podcast of her own.
The plot feels extremely unlikely. Hit men are after her. Somehow the plot threads don’t tie together all that well, but the characters are so delightful, I still enjoyed hanging out with them.
I thought the ending was a bit of a let down. When she finally meets the arch villain, we don’t know what happened exactly because she gets hit on the head, and since she’s the narrator, she can’t really tell us what happened.
A few loose ends are wrapped up, and the book ends fairly happily.
I would read another book by this author.
SO terrific. Fast-pasted and incredibly clever–and wild adventure, yes, but somehow completely believable. A mystery within a mystery and a book in a book. I didn’t know what to expect when I started this–and I was delighted on every page. Loved it!
One Of The Best Final Lines I’ve Ever Read! The book itself started a bit slow, but by around 15-20% in or so builds to where you just want to finish the book in one sitting. Which is nearly what I did, having started the day at 12% into the book, fought through continually trying to fall asleep from sheer exhaustion, and now sitting here writing this review having finished the tale a couple hours later. Great tale with many lies buried within lies buried within lies, and does a good job of holding off a final reveal until the last few pages. Very much recommended.