The Garnethill series
Maureen O’Donnell is a former psychiatric patient with personal experience of surviving sexual abuse. But when people she knows die violently she musters her compassion, courage and humour to delve into their lives and find the truth.
The books
Garnethill
Maureen O'Donnell is about to end her affair with psychotherapist Douglas. But after a drunken night out she wakes to find him tied to a chair in her living room with his throat slit. The police suspect her and her brother Liam.
Maureen has to enter the world of people who either won’t, or can’t, speak to the police to find the real killer.
Winner of the CWA John Creasy Dagger for Best First Crime Novel
Exile
Maureen is now working for Glasgow Woman’s Aid, helping victims of domestic abuse get out and away.
There is no succor for her though, her family are still denying her sexual abuse by her father, she is haunted by a financial legacy from Douglas and her best friend and collaborator falls out with her.
When a woman on GWA’s files is found murdered in London, Maureen flees south to find out what happened to her.
Resolution
Maureen O'Donnell is back in Glasgow facing the darkest episode in her life: her father is polluting the city and she's wondering whether to kill him or herself.
But when an stallholder in the flea market where she's working dies after a brutal beating, Maureen questions why anyone might want to kill the old woman.
More about the Garnethill district
Garnethill is a hilly district near the centre of the Scottish city of Glasgow.
It’s the location for Glasgow School of Art, designed by innovative Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
As well as the community of art students it’s long been a multicultural area, home to a beautiful synagogue built in the 1880s and a long-established Chinese community.
The Urban Glasgow website has a collection of photos of Garnethill and nearby areas in the mid-1970s.
Despite the dissatisfaction expressed by the photographer in his introduction, if you’ve never been to Glasgow or don’t know this part of the city they give you a good idea of what the area looked like at that time.
You can see photos of the area as it looks now on the Glasgow Album website.
Walking tour of Garnethill
If you’d like to visit for yourself, the Glasgow Women’s Library has a guided tour with an introduction to the history of the area and stories of women who lived there, including artists, suffragettes and people who have made Garnethill a cultural and multicultural hotspot.
You can book on a tour or download the PDF guide from the website and walk it yourself.