The Long Drop

The Long Drop is Denise Mina's first foray into true crime. It is the story of Peter Manuel, a serial killer operating in the 1950s in Glasgow.

True crime stories always have two versions: the official verdict and the story people tell each other. Sometimes the difference is staggering.

On the 19th of September 1956 Peter Manuel broke into a suburban villa in Glasgow and shot three women in their beds. Then he made himself a ham sandwich.

The father of the house, William Watt, was five hours drive away, on a fly fishing holiday but police still suspect him. Watt was odd. He had taken the guard dog with him, which he never did. He established his alibi like a man trying to establish an alibi. William Watt was accused of the murders and sent to prison for three months.

Released, Watt decided to investigate the murders himself and put out the word that he would pay for information. Peter Manuel came forward and the two men met for a drink in Glasgow. They spent eleven hours together, drinking, driving, talking. The next time they met was in the High Court in Glasgow, where Manuel was accused of those murders and many others.

The Long Drop is a reimagining of the trial and of the drunken night the two men spent carousing in Glasgow.