A Darker Domain [Paperback]

This is the first book I've read by Val McDermid. I've really enjoyed the tv serialisation of Wire In The Blood and finding out Val McDermid was the writer is what led me to her - books are usually better than films/tv adaptations. This book does not feature Tony Hill and is more of a stand alone book - although since reading it I have found it does have a predecessor - I should have read more of the review on here beforehand as I believe the cold cases that this book is based on were featured in the earlier book.

The way the book links 2 seemingly unrelated cold cases is very well done and the book is well written.
The first plot follows the reporting of miner Mick Prentice as missing by his daughter - 23 years after he disppeared, presumed to be a scab.
The second plot covers a kidnapping that happened around the same time (22 years ago) in which the daughter and grandson of a wealthy business man were held to ransom and the daughter was subsequently killed.

The first half of this book had me gripped and I found it thoroughly enjoyable, the plot was sound and I could relate to the characters.
However, I have 2 main problems with this book. By the time I was half way through I had figured out the ending, I persevered in the hope that I was wrong and there would be an unexpected twist. There wasn't.
My second problem was the ending in itself, it was very rushed with the loose ends all being tied up very quickly (within a few pages) and in a very unimaginative way.
The first half of this book was brilliant and makes me see what a talented writer Val McDermid could be (and probably is in other books). The last half was too predictable for my liking and the ending left me disappointed.

Val McDermid is best known for her gory serial-killer thrillers featuring Dr Tony Hill, but personally I have always preferred her stand-alone novels such as 'A Place Of Execution.' In these she tones down the violence of her other work and focuses more on the psychology of her characters, which I find far more engrossing than the wince-inducing torture and depravity Tony Hill and Carol Jordan regularly face - although I do enjoy the Hill books too. This, her latest, doesn't altogether count as a stand-alone novel, as it is a sequel of sorts to an earlier book, 'A Distant Echo' (and anyone who intends to read that book should do so before this one, as 'A Darker Domain' reveals its predecessor's ending), but in style and tone this is very much one of her slow-burning psychological thrillers.

In fact, for the majority of the book it represents the author at her best: the characters are believable, the dialogue convincing and the plot gripping. The story concerns two cold cases which originated within a few weeks of each other at the end of 1984 and beginning of 1985. One is the disappearance of a striking miner, the other is the kidnapping of the daughter and grandson of a wealthy and influential businessman. Gradually new evidence is uncovered which suggests there may have been a link between the two events, and it's up to DI Karen Pirie and journalist Bel Richmond to uncover the long-buried truth. The Miners Strike forms a backdrop to the story; Val McDermid grew up in a mining community and her passionate anger as she describes the hardships suffered brings home just how devastating the consequences were for the miners and their families. It all adds up to a rich, thought-provoking read.

However, a couple of major flaws emerge towards the end. Firstly, the solution to what exactly happened in the past and how the two cases are linked is actually quite obvious. Not all the details, but the main points. I kept expecting a big twist to turn the plot on its head, but it never came; there is a minor surprise at the very end, but nothing to make the reader gasp in shock. The second flaw, the one which came close to ruining the book for me, was the ending. The solution of the cases and the tying up of loose ends takes place in just TWO pages. It's almost as if the author ran out of time, or simply lost interest and decided to wrap things up as quickly as possible. One minute the investigation seems doomed - two pages later and it's all over. I can't remember the last time I was so disappointed with a novel's ending. Over three hundred pages gradually building to a climax and then a few bald paragraphs as the payoff.

Val McDermid is undoubtedly a talented writer who has produced some excellent thrillers over the years. 'A Darker Domain' starts so well I really thought it was destined to be another, but I ended up feeling disappointed and rather cheated. It's still worth 3 stars, because the majority of the book is highly enjoyable, but prepare yourself for a damp squib of a conclusion.

A Darker Domain
By Val McDermid
Harper
October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-168898-0
Paperback, $15.95, 271 pp.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

The "darker domain" of the title is the world of the coal miner. The author comes by her knowledge of that world almost genetically, as both of her grandfathers were coal miners.

One story line arises out of the national miners' strike in the UK, coincidentally something I, living in the US and not familiar with that struggle, had just seen brought to creative life in the current theatrical staging of Billy Elliot. At the height of the hardships and tensions engendered by the lingering strike, Mick Prentice, for reasons best known to himself, leaves his wife and children alone and ostracized in their community, giving his family "instant pariah status." Nine months into the strike, he was one of six men who "disappeared [apparently] . . . to Nottingham to join the blacklegs," i.e., strikebreakers. Mick's daughter Michelle ("Misha") Gibson files a missing persons report with Karen Pirie, DI and head of the Cold Case Review Team of the Fife Constabulary in Scotland. Though her mother had received money from time to time, postmarked from Nottingham but with no return address on the envelopes, a search following a present family crisis has made Misha aware of the fact that her father has well and truly disappeared. She tells Karen: "Take it from me, Inspector. He's not where he's supposed to be. He never was. And I need him found."

Karen describes herself as "a wee fat woman crammed into a Marks and Spencer suit, mid-brown hair needing a visit to the hairdresser, might be pretty if you could see the definition of her bones under the flesh," and "always a sucker for anything that made people shake their heads in bemused disbelief. Long shots were what got her juices flowing." And so she takes on the challenge of tracking down Mick Prentice.

The second story line deals with Annabel ("Bel") Richmond, an ambitious freelance reporter who by chance stumbles across startling new evidence in another old case: the kidnapping of the daughter and grandson of a rich and powerful "captain of industry." The daughter was killed during a botched ransom payoff, the kidnappers never found. When Bel approaches the man, he decides to end his long inaccessibility and to use agents of both the media and the police for his own ends to find his grandson, as well as the person(s) responsible for the events that daily continue to haunt his life. Those agents are Bel herself, to whom he promises sole access, and DI Karen Pirie (to a point).

As Karen states, "Cold cases . . . They'd break your heart. Like lovers, they tantalized with promises that this time it would be different. It would start out fresh and exciting, you'd try to ignore those little niggles that you felt sure would disappear as you got to understand things better. Then suddenly it would be going nowhere. Wheels spinning in a gravel pit. And before you knew it, it was over. Back to square one."

This is the story of two such cases, and two remarkable and dedicated young women, each searching for the truth in their separate investigations, in which each anticipates great professional rewards for a successful outcome. The book proceeds in non-linear fashion, as flashbacks and changes of scene from Tuscany to Edinburgh to mining towns as were lead the reader forward through a maze. The characters are well-drawn, and I particularly liked one with the charming name of River Wilde, the daughter, she explains, of "hippy parents." The author does a masterful job limning these disparate tales, up until the very end, which was, I am dismayed to state, a disappointment to this reader. Nonetheless, Ms. McDermid's many fans will, I think, enjoy the book.