Mina, Denise: Deception

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Denise Mina's novel Deception purports to be a transcription of a diary written by Lachlan Harriot, the 29-year-old husband of convicted murderess Dr. Susie Harriot. Lachlan begins the diary on the day his wife is convicted of murdering Andrew Gow, a serial killer with whom she had worked closely in her capacity as his court-appointed psychologist. Lachlan's diary is in part a record of his attempt to uncover the truth behind Gow's murder--he cannot believe his wife is guilty. It includes his transcriptions of the newspaper accounts and other documents pertaining to the case that his wife had squirreled away in her private--padlocked--study. At the same time the diary records Lachlan's attempts to cope with normal life in the months following his wife's conviction--the mothers at his daughter's day care center conspicuously friendly, an "elderly triumvirate" of relatives making a show of their support by coming to stay with him--uninvited, unwelcome, and ultimately unhelpful. (Lachlan is kicked out of his bathroom one evening by Susie's aunt, who cannot find the other bathrooms in his house. "It is not without a frisson of compensatory pleasure that I stood on the landing, holding my limp newspaper, and watched her lock herself in with the rank stench of my lower intestines.")

In the course of the period covered by his diary, Lachlan eventually comes to understand the riddle of Gow's murder and of his wife's strange, secretive behavior. It is a mystery that will keep readers engrossed and guessing until the book's final pages. Mina's Deception is a smart, well-written thriller. Highly recommended.