jobs, all of them badly, before studying at night school to get into Glasgow University Law School.
Mira went on to study for a PhD at Strathclyde, misusing her student grant to write her first novel. This was Garnethill, published in 1998, which won the Crime Writers Association John Creasy Dagger for Best First Crime Novel.
She has since published more than a dozen novels. Her new novella is Rizzio, based on the true story of a brutal murder in 1566, in the court of Mary, Queen of Scots.
At the Guardian Mina tagged ten top true crime novels, including:
The Executioner’s Song by Norman MailerRead about another entry on the list.
A fat book by an important man who hated women. I resented and enjoyed this Pulitzer prize-winning book about Gary Gilmore, published 13 years after In Cold Blood. It is very readable and set the conventions of the genre for a long time. It begins with a history of the geography and culture of the area, Gilmore’s family background, his early life and then moves onto his crimes and the consequences. If you like fat books by important men, you’ll love this.
The Executioner's Song also appears among the six books that most influenced Emily St. John Mandel as a writer, J. Michael Lennon's ten best Mailer books, Ron Hansen's five best literary tales of real-life crimes and Sarah Weinman's seven best true crime books; it is one of five books that made a difference to Josh Brolin.
--Marshal Zeringue
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