THE LONG DROP by Denise Mina (fiction)

Denise Mina is a well-regarded Scottish crime writer who’s genius is recreating for the reader the realistic, dank and dark streets of Glasgow.  “The Long Drop” is different from her other mysteries in that it is a semi-fictionalized account of Scotland’s most famous serial killer, Peter Manuel, known as the “Beast of Birkenshaw.”  Between 1956 and 1958, he murdered eight people.  It is a sad fact that in today’s world one is used to much higher death figures, but back in the day in a country where firearms were not common, he struck terror in the hearts of many. The long drop refers to a method of hanging used at the time.

Mina has structured her book by alternating chapters of Manuel’s murder trial and the time of the actual events.  They are equally fascinating.  Manuel is clearly a psychopath who suffers no remorse for his horrendous deeds.  Instead he fancies himself a writer and fabricates elaborate stories. When he is accorded his moment in the witness box, he blathers on with lie after lie making his life the story he wanted to live.

During Hogmanay celebrations seeing in the New Year of 1956, Manuel murdered the Smart family, mother, father and son who lived in a small town outside of Glasgow.  Gruesomely, before the bodies were discovered, he returned to the house several times as if to verify his deed.   He was responsible for the hideous murder of several women, and the wife, daughter and sister-in-law of William Watt.

Here is where the story really becomes weird because Watt, soon to be matey with Manuel, was at first one of the chief murder suspects.  Watt, was searching for the murderer in an attempt to vindicate himself, and was introduced to Manuel by his lawyer as a person of interest who might have information on the real culprit.  Manuel played this card to the hilt and soon had roped Watt into a night of boozing and comradely bonding, including an introduction to the real-life feared crime boss Dandy McKay.  Despite their vast difference in background and looks, the two men had things in common.  Both longed to be accepted as one of the lads, both were drinkers trying to outdo the other, both were looking for friendship, each exaggerated his talents. Watt spent money liberally during this strange evening and Manuel took advantage of his generosity.  It wasn’t until Watt got his brother involved that the suspicion that Manuel was really the murderer arose.  It seemed Manuel knew too many little details of the crime and his boasting began to implicated him as he went deeper into the story with his boasting.

Manuel’s trial was famous, and weirdly it gave him what he was looking for all along.   Mina has written a fascinating book of true crime with a dark setting that places the reader in the middle of the smokey decade of the 50s when the Glaswegian underworld was to be feared.