Val McDermid Mystery Collection

Val McDermid Books and Novels

VAL McDERMID grew up in a Scottish mining community and then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years and is now a full-time writer and lives in South Manchester. In 1995, she won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year.

A Place of Execution by Val McDermid

Amazon.com
Penzler Pick, August 2000: Val McDermid, better known in England than in the U.S., is a well respected writer of crime fiction. Her three ongoing mystery series feature red-haired PI Kate Brannigan; Lindsay Gordon, a lesbian socialist journalist, and Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, clinical psychologist and detective inspector respectively. A Place of Execution is McDermid's first stand-alone mystery, and with it, she redefines the term "village mystery."
It is 1963, the Beatles are becoming wildly popular in England, and the Swinging Sixties are about to change the post-war Western world. But in the village of Scardale in the Peaks District of Derbyshire, a desolate area beloved of hikers and climbers, nothing has changed for hundreds of years. The village has remained small and insular--most villagers are related, and the most common second names are Carter and Lomas. When Alison Carter, aged 13, disappears while walking her dog, the case is given to a young detective inspector named George Bennett. As Bennett gets to know the families in the village and their concerns, he realizes that this case is not as simple as it first seems. The villagers seem to be closing ranks, and Bennett suspects they may be protecting one of their own. Central to his investigation are Alison's mother and her husband. When Ruth Carter remarried, she chose Philip Hawkin, an outsider who is now the current squire of the village. As Alison's stepfather, he raises all kinds of red flags for Bennett. But so does Alison's close relationship with her cousin Charlie who, too conveniently, it seems, finds a vital clue.
All this is complicated by the fact that the police and the villagers cannot find Alison's body; there are also other disappearances in the area which may or may not be connected. To reveal more about this riveting mystery would be to give too much away. McDermid takes the reader through a maze of conflicting facts and theories, and when Bennett, with the help of local police, solves the case, the real story is only just beginning--especially for Bennett, who will question not only his own part in solving this case, but ultimately the profession he has chosen.

Report for Murder by Val McDermid

Killing the Shadows by Val McDermid

Clean Break : A Kate Brannigan Mystery by Val McDermid

English kick-boxer and Rudyard Kipling fan Kate Brannigan appears in her fourth adventure, chasing down art thieves in Italy while unravelling a nasty case of product tampering in her homeland.

Common Murder : The Second Lindsay Gordon Mystery by Val McDermid

Deadline for Murder : The Third Lindsay Gordon Mystery by Val McDermid

Amazon.com
This mystery, part of the popular Lindsay Gordon series, is set in Glasgow, Scotland. Author Val McDermid, who grew up in a Scottish mining community, captures the sharp, colorful dialects of characters who live in newly renovated yuppie flats, low rent dives, and everything in between. On her way to solve the mystery of one friend's murder and another's conviction for the same, scrappy, soft-hearted journalist Lindsay Gordon learns a thing or two she didn't expect--or want-- to learn about the complications of lesbian love.

Conferences Are Murder : The Fourth Lindsay Gordon Mystery by Val McDermid

Booked for Murder : The Fifth Lindsay Gordon Mystery by Val McDermid

Amazon.com
The fifth book in Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon mystery opens with the "accidental" death in London of bestselling author Penny Varnavides, one of Lindsay's oldest friends. When police learn that the bizarre conditions of Penny's death match those described in the manuscript of her unfinished novel, they arrest Meredith Miller, the long-time lover Penny had recently parted from on bad terms. Reluctantly lured across the Atlantic on the chance of helping Meredith, Lindsay (a crusty but lovable expatriate Brit) meets up with old friends and uses her journalistic expertise (and some old but impressive business cards from her days on a national newspaper) to dig up information. Who knew the contents of Penny's unfinished book? And who might have wanted her dead? Dodging rude secretaries, obstructive literary agents, slippery publishers, and one determined baseball bat (should this have been a cricket bat?), Lindsay slowly eliminates possibilities until she is ready to confront the killer. While not the most exciting volume in the series, Booked for Murder does show off Gordon's sleuthing skills, as well as her ability to turn the tables on evildoers.

OxfordBooks.com / Oxford, MS

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