The major issue in reading a crime series is that most of the time, we read it in an order that is different than the one in which they were written. There are multiple reasons, it could be that the order of translation itself is incorrect, or the order in which we get access to the books is wrong, etc. But generally it doesn't cause much confusion other than some seeming inconsistencies in the main protagonists of the series, due to our reading of the series in a different order. The story line of each novel though is mostly self-contained and rarely spills over into the next novels in the series.
It is due to this confidence that I started reading 'Exile' the second novel in Denise Mina's 'Garnethill Trilogy', the first being 'Garnethill'. The confidence was misplaced as the initial parts of the novel tell of events that reveal the main antagonist of the first novel. The writing in this novel is of very high quality, which isn't surprising for me having read a few of her standalone works, but the revelations about the previous novel (which is perfectly right from the perspective of the main character 'Maureen'.) have kind of put me of the entire series, which is sad, because it is rare to see such powerful writing.
Anyway, heads up to anyone wanting to read the 'Garnethill' trilogy, read them in the order they were published. That's the best way to do it.
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