Val McDermid was one of the first U.K. Crime writers I got hooked on, with her Tony Hill series, and for some reason she went off my radar.
I don’t usually buy books based on having watched a TV series, but when Karen Pirie appeared on our screens, even though I was late to the game, I decided to read the first book in the series, Distant Echo.
Why oh why did I stop reading this woman’s books.
Distant Echo
1978. What starts out as an innocent night out at University, for four friends, has an impact on the rest of their lives.
Walking home they find a young woman, Rosie Duff, who has been viciously attacked, bleeding in the snow. They try to help but she dies.
They instantly become the focus of the police investigation, and although only ever “considered” witness by the police, they are damned by public opinion.
When nobody is ever charged with the murder they are always considered the murderers who got away with it.
The four have been friends from childhood and each has their idiosyncrasies, and secrets.
The police become even more suspicious of the boys when they get caught trying to hide the fact that they’d borrowed a fellow students Land Rover, without his permission, on the night of the crime.
The story of the murder, and subsequent investigation takes up much of the first half of the book, and it’s an intriguing read.
The effects of one lie, the car. The test of the relationships between the boys as each begins to doubt one of the others story. They’d been to a house party on the night of the murder, and none of them can account for what they did for the entirety of the time they were there. Could one of them have sneaked out and attacked the girl, who they all knew, from the local pub.
2003. A cold case review team has been set up by the Police. The murder of Rosie Duff is one of the first investigations.
Science has moved forward, so examination of the evidence should help, but it’s gone missing.
The men, now in their forties are still considered by many as the chief suspects and have struggled to escape the rumours that they got away with murder.
Rosies brothers were free with their fists back in the 70’s and one of them hasn’t changed much.
But there’s somebody else out there holding a grudge, and the identity of the killer has never been established.
So when, around the 25th anniversary of the murder approaches, and the four find themselves under threat, and worse, is it somebody out for revenge, or is the real killer trying to stop any reinvestigation by getting rid of the main witnesses.
The second half of the book is addictive as the first.
I changed my opinion three or four times as to who the real killer of Rosie Duff was, but when it was finally revealed it was a real “doh” moment.
That person was on my radar but dismissed, but the reveal made real sense.
As always the book is so much better than the TV adaptation, but I’m glad I watched it to trigger my interest.
Val McDermid is firmly back on my reading list, and right up there with my favourite authors.
Pages: 577. Publisher: Hemlock Press
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