The Distant Echo by
Val McDermid
pbk out May 02
(HarperCollins)
at £10.99
Val McDermid, Manchester's very own queen of crime, takes a break from her three
different series here (Tony Hill/Wire In The Blood thrillers, Kate Brannigan private
eyes novels, Lindsay Gordon reporter-sleuth stories) and returns to her native
Scotland for a stand-alone tale of murder and suspicion that spans twenty five years.
In the first part of the book it is 1978 and students Alex Gilbey and his three pals, the
Laddies fi' Kirkcaldy, stumble across a body in the snow on their way back to their St
Andrews digs. Barmaid Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed and left in an ancient
Pictish cemetery. A police investigation fails to find her killer though suspicion falls
heavily on the students and there are those in the town who believe them guilty and
seek vengeance. Part two kicks off twenty five years later, in 2003, when a cold case
review re-examines the murder and sets off a train of events that leads to the death of
two of the friends. Alex Gilbey believes someone is targeting the four of them and he
may well be next on the list, unless he can prove someone else is guilty of Rosie's
murder.
Another cracker from McDermid, less gruesome than the Hill books, but a substantial
(almost 500 pages) and riveting read. It took a little while as a reader to distinguish
between the members of the central quartet but there's no doubting the sheer quality
of the storytelling and the thrill that McDermid delivers.
Manchester Evening News 10.5.03
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
