A Glasgow thriller with a past

Paddy Meehan's Glasgow has come clean. Nine years have passed since the horrific child murder of "Field of Blood" and six since the drug-fueled spousal abuse of its sequel, "The Dead Hour." It is now 1990, and the Scottish city has been scrubbed clean of both soot and gangs, "revealing pale yellow sandstone that glittered in the sun" to lure tourists and expatriates home. Paddy has come up in the world, too. The beleaguered copy girl and former police reporter is now a columnist, a well-paid single mother who has given up worrying about her tendency to gain weight, and finally seems comfortable in her own skin.

The only things that could disrupt this new world order are Paddy's past and her concern for her son. Sure enough, both soon blow up in her face when former flame and fellow reporter Terry Hewitt is found murdered, one of the child murderers is released from prison, and 5-year-old Pete becomes a pawn used to manipulate the otherwise self-assured woman.

The newly freed convict is a child himself. Callum Ogilvy, the young cousin of Paddy's former fiance Sean, is barely 19 and no longer sure exactly what did happen in that muddy field. What he keeps repeating is that he wants a peaceful life, "to work in a factory and live within a loving family structure." But when Paddy and Sean pick him up after his release, hoping to dodge Paddy's colleagues - all of whom are desperate for an interview - the young man shows an anger that terrifies Paddy. Whether it is inherent or the result of nearly a decade in prison, she can't tell, but she knows she wants him nowhere near Pete. Sean has already told young Callum about Pete, however, and to make matters worse, Paddy can't hide her son's existence from another threat.

After Terry's execution-style death - he has been stripped naked and shot in the head - a cold-eyed man comes to visit. Although Pete is not home, he notices the young boy's toys before taking off, and Paddy realizes she will have to track him down if she ever hopes to sleep well again.

As happened in the first two books of this series, Paddy's career of writing for the Daily News gives her an entree into the police investigation surrounding Terry's murder, as well as into the gossipy bars where cops and journalists gather. Mina excels at this kind of writing, the back-and-forth of competitors and colleagues, the way tension and love bind people uneasily. She's a leisurely writer; although Terry's murder opens the book, the action plays out slowly, and she lets us soak up the abundant ambience and personality.

Very little in Paddy's life is simple. Her sister, a nun, has begun to doubt her vocation, and Paddy's own feelings toward her family and her dead ex are flooded with ambivalence. Paddy feels vaguely responsible for Terry's death, even though he chose the violent path of his recent life. He'd left Glasgow to report from war-torn countries, and one of the official theories is that he was executed by the IRA. Although Paddy is not assigned to Terry's story, she takes it on herself to investigate. She hadn't seen him in years, though, and isn't sure what he was up to, all of which makes the surprise even bigger when she learns that she is Terry's sole heir, and that among his belongings are suitcases full of notes.

When one of Terry's recent collaborators dies as well, Paddy begins to draw connections that reach beyond the obvious foreign sources. And when the one unconflicted bond in her life - her love for her son - is threatened, she dives into the gritty undercurrents in her newly clean city.

Clea Simon is a freelance writer and the author of "Cattery Row."