Paperback review: Gods and beasts, By denise Mina

In the hands of anyone else, this would have been a superlative crime novel, but Mina has raised her own bar so high that this latest featuring her female detective, DS Alex Morrow, falls a little short.

There's a workmanlike feel to the apparently innocent grandfather shot in front of his grandson at the post office, and the corrupt politician whose adulterous behaviour threatens his marriage and his political career seems to have been lifted a little too easily from the Tommy Sheridan scandal. The sub-plot, involving a crooked pair of officers after they raid a car and take the thousands of pounds stored inside it, also fails to take flight. That said, DS Morrow is always compelling, not least because the recent birth of her twins maintains that vulnerable edge that she always has to struggle against.