A JOURNEY THROUGH A TANGLED WEB OF DECEIT — A REVIEW

In an upscale suburb of Glasgow, a young woman named Sarah Erroll has returned from a trip. She is asleep when she hears a noise. And then two young men enter her room, and from that moment on, everything about her life spins out of control.

In another part of the city, a woman named Kay is admiring a lovely bowl and thinking of its history. She is a house cleaner, so the loveliness of it is not a regular part of her life. A single mother of four kids, she struggles to make ends meet.

Pregnant with twins, Detective Inspector Alex Morrow has just returned from a funeral. Her life is a tangle of connections that she would rather forget. But she is thrust into the midst of an investigation of the murder of Sarah Erroll.

And then, a few days later, a wealthy banker charged with the financial ruin of others has hung himself.

How do all of these lives entwine? What connections are there between them, and what will Alex unexpectedly learn about her own family as she begins to unravel the secrets, deceptions, and mysteries behind Sarah’s murder?

From the beginning, we know the identities of the two young men, but do not know who did what during the frantic moments on the stairs in Sarah’s house. How will the inspectors finally sort it all out, and who will finally point them in the right direction?

The End of the Wasp Season was a captivating story that had me riveted to the pages, with emotions aroused immediately for the various characters, from the flawed children of the dead financier, Lars Anderson, to the sad life of Sarah, as her mother’s dementia cost her a fortune. Then there is the narcissistic Lars Anderson himself and how his choices rippled outward to affect all who crossed his path. Even each detective left an indelible mark on the pages as they seemingly came to life. Especially those, like the power hungry DS Grant Bannerman, who evoked contempt from this reader. In my opinion, this book is Mina’s best so far. Five stars.