Page Updated: 04/09/2007

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Val McDermid - Page 5

Dead Beat Final Edition Common Murder Report for Murder

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Paperback - Vista (1993)

Paperback Gollancz

Dead Beat
Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, a female private detective set to do for Manchester what V.I. Warshawski has done for Chicago. As a favour, Kate agrees to track down a missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realise that finding Moira is a prelude to murder…
'Kate Brannigan is a sparky, funny and much to be welcomed entrant into the still tiny profession of the female private eye... [Dead Beat is] tough, exciting, moody and unpredictable' The Times
'The story and characters are convincing and Kate is an attractively persistent sleuth whom I hope to see again' Sunday Telegraph
'You’d have to go far to meet a tougher girl gumshoe... Her adventures make witty and corrosively unsentimental reading' She
'Fresh and funny, with a spanking sense of time and place' Literary Review
'A sparkling debut' Mike Ripley, Daily Telegraph

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Paperback - Women's Press (1998)

First British Edition Women's Press (1991)

Final Edition
When she returns from a self-imposed exile in Italy, journalist Lindsay Gordon finds her world turned upside down. The lover she thought would wait for her has found a new partner; and exchange-lover has been murdered; and a former colleague has been jailed for the crime. But some disagree with the jury's verdict and soon Lindsay is embroiled in an investigation involving blackmail, stolen government documents and the vested interests of a group of people determined to keep her from finding the truth…
'One of my favourite authors.' Sara Paretsky
'Witty and corrosively unsentimental reading.' She
'Move over Morse . . . a refreshing detective story' New Woman

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Paperback - Women's Press (1998)

Common Murder
A protest group hits the headlines when unrest explodes into murder. Already on the scene, journalist Lindsay Gordon desperately tries to strike a balance between personal and professional responsibilities. As she peels back the layers of deception surrounding the protest and its opponents, she finds that no one ratepayer or reporter, policeman or peace woman - seems wholly above suspicion. Then Lindsay uncovers a truth that even she can scarcely believe ...
'Val McDermid is an inspiration.' Herald
'McDermid's snappy, often comic prose keeps the story humming.' Publishers Weekly
'Move over V I Warshawski , . . pacey and wittily written . . . bound to make McDermid one of our favourite detective writers.' Options
'A well-pitched and topical mystery' Sunday Times

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Paperback - Women's Press (2001)

Paperback Women's Press

Paperback Women's Press

Report for Murder
Freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon is strapped for cash. Why else would she agree to cover a fund-raising gala at a girls' public school? But when the star attraction is found garrotted with her own cello string instants before she is due on stage, Lindsay finds herself investigating a vicious murder. Who would have wanted Lorna Smith Cooper dead? Who had the key to the locked room in which her body was found? And who could have slipped out of the hall at just the right time to commit this calculated and cold-blooded crime?
'Plot, characterisation, pace are all first-rate.' Sunday Telegraph
'Fresh and funny with a spanking sense of time and place.' Literary Review
'McDermid cannot write an uninteresting sentence.' Women's Review of Books
'A rattling good yarn, wittily written, with an irresistible if infuriating heroine… just give us another instalment of Lindsay Gordon, please Val' Journalist

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