A few years have passed since I last read one of Denise Mina’s novels. Her most recent book, The Good Liar, appeared on a number of those “Best Books of The Year” lists that newspapers like to put out every December, so I was pleased when it showed up, neatly wrapped, under the Christmas tree. I devoured it in a few sittings in that quiet spell between Christmas and New Year.

The dilemma at the heart of the book is a simple enough one. To what lengths would you go to avoid admitting you were wrong? Would the fear of shame or the loss of reputation be enough for you to stay silent even if that silence led to a terrible injustice? That’s essentially the conundrum faced by Claudia O’Sheil, the central character in The Good Liar. O’Sheil is a forensic scientist and an expert in blood spatter analysis, a technique that proves central to some gruesome killings among London’s elite.

Mina is a very accomplished storyteller and has achieved the commercial success to prove it. In The Good Liar she is in a comfortable groove and in complete control of the plot and characterization. It’s all carried off with confidence and poise, but I had a sense of the author coasting. There is nothing wrong with that, particularly when the end result is a novel as entertaining as this, but Mina is capable of more.