Denise Mina's "The Field of Blood" premieres

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of meeting Scottish crime writer, graphic novelist, and all-around cool chick Denise Mina at the New Zealand International Arts Festival (pictured second from right, with (left to right) myself, my friend Louise Ross, and Kiwi crime writer Paul Cleave).

Mina wrote her debut crime novel, GARNETHILL, while she was studying for a PhD in law at Strathclyde University. It went on to win the CWA John Creasey Dagger for Best First Novel, and kickstarted an intriguing writing career that has seen Mina writing crime novels in multiple series and standalones, graphic novels, plays, and more.

After the 'Garnethill trilogy' and a standalone, Mina's fifth novel, THE FIELD OF BLOOD (2005), introduced a new heroine, journalist Paddy Meehan - who has since featured in two more novels, THE DEAD HOUR and THE LAST BREATH. Mina's website says that the Paddy Meehan books are meant as a five-book series fitting "together into a biog of Paddy as she moves through the newspaper industry during the turbulent eighties and nineties, carving a place for herself".

I'm pleased to share that a British TV adaptation of THE FIELD OF BLOOD will screen on New Zealand television next week. Here's the official blurb about the television version:

The Field of Blood (NZ premiere, exclusive to Vibe)
Paddy Meehan is a new kind of heroine. A young, female, feisty and funny trainee reporter, she often oversteps the mark between reporting crimes and solving them - while sometimes becoming part of the crime along the way.

Paddy has always had ambitions to be an investigative reporter. But in the male dominated world of Scottish newspapers in 1982, no-one will take her seriously. Not only is she young and female, she's not as thin and glamorous as her rival trainee journalist. And her close-knit family can't understand why she doesn't want to just settle down and marry the boy next door. Then a big murder case breaks, and a member of Paddy's family is implicated. Paddy has to make a choice – does she follow the case, and risk being seen to betray her family, or does she turn her back on the career she's been longing for? This suspenseful two-part crime drama is based on the first of Denise Mina's Paddy Meehan novels, and stars the cream of British acting talent including David Morrissey (State of Play), Peter Capaldi (Torchwood: Children of Earth) and introducing Jayd Johnson as Paddy Meehan.

The Field of Blood will screen at 9.30pm on Vibe, from Thursday, 5 April. You can see a clip from the TV show, which is also available on DVD, below:



Have you read THE FILED OF BLOOD, or watched the hit mini-series in the UK? What do you think?