- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins (6 May 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007142838
- ISBN-13: 978-0007142835
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,505,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Distant Echo
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Val McDermid's The Distant Echo is, even more so than with her previous work, a masterpiece of trickery and misdirection. In 1978, four male students find the body of Rosie Duff half-buried in the snow and their lives are variously damaged by the suspicion that falls on them when the murder is never solved; a quarter of a century later, the case is reopened and suddenly the quartet start to be killed one after the other.
This is an effective thriller because it is so intelligent about the ways in which time changes things--secrets that seemed important become trivial and investigative techniques become ever more accurate. It is also intelligent about the ways in which things do not change--the friendships of the four men persist even when one becomes a fundamentalist preacher and another a post-modern literary theorist. Unusually for McDermid, this is a very Scots book as well--the investigating officers Maclennan and Lawson are very much men of a particular time and place. McDermid has a real sense of how to make forensic details count in a murder story--she also, more importantly, has a heart--this is a novel that makes us care passionately about victims and suspects alike. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Praise for The Distant Echo:
A powerful story of murder and revenge… an exciting page-turner’ Sunday Telegraph
‘She has created some of the most appealing figures in current crime fiction.Val McDermid has used the crime genre to write a novel that, above everything else, celebrates life and loyalty’ TLS
‘A real page-turner and another McDermid triumph’ Observer
‘McDermid’s plot is a classic, and she pulls out all the stops to achieve a sense of mounting anguish, as her hero juggles multiple red herrings, mixed loyalties, differing police agendas and complicated family ties. Impeccable’ Guardian
Reminiscenet of one of Ruth Rendell’s Barbara Vine thrillers – a few more sly, old-fashioned whodunits like this and she’ll join the sturdy ranks of the queens of crime, on course to become Dame Val or Baroness McDermid’ Sunday Times
‘There is no one in contemporary crime fiction who has managed to combine the visceral and the humane as well as Val McDermid … She’s the best we’ve got’ New York Times
‘The plotting is impeccable, the atmosphere palpable, and I doubt that it will be surpassed this year’ Graham Caveney, Sunday Express
‘McDermid has become our leading pathologist of everyday evil, and she both thrills and scares in this tale of celebrity stalking with a difference … The subtle orchestration of terror is masterful’ Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unputdownable read,
By
This review is from: The Distant Echo (Paperback)
Distinctly less gruesome than some of McDermid's novels (that's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned), "The Distant Echo" is a cleverly plotted and thoroughly believable read. The characters are engaging and convincingly drawn, and it's nice to see Val setting a novel in her native Scotland for once!The story spans 25 years, beginning in 1978 when four students - the "laddies fi' Kirkcaldy" - at St Andrews University stumble across the body of a young woman while walking home from the pub late one snowy night. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, coupled with the inability of the police to identify any other suspects, has catastrophic consequences for the four young men. The fallout from the unsolved murder of Rosie Duff reverberates down the years and comes back to haunt Alex, Ziggy, Davey and Tom in ways they could never have imagined. "The Distant Echo" is a gripping read, with an excellent plot and believable characterisation, and I for one had no inkling of the eventual denouement! Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from the Dark Side of the Moon,
By
This review is from: The Distant Echo (Paperback)
Val McDermid grew up in Kirkcaldy, a small mining community on the east coast of Scotland and studied English at Oxford University. The books she has written featuring Tony Hill and Carol Jordan have provided the basis for the popular "Wire on the Blood" television series. Her novels have won a number of awards, including the Macavity award, the Anthony Award and Grand Prix des Romans d'Aventure. "The Distant Echo", meanwhile, has picked up the Sherlock and Barry Awards and has been nominated for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year. It is one of her stand-alone books, was first published in 2003 and is largely set in Scotland.
The story begins in December 1978 with four students at St. Andrew's University staggering home together after an end-of-term party. Alex "Gilly" Gilbey, Sigmund "Ziggy" Malkiewicz, Tom "Weird" Mackie and Davey "Mondo" Kerr grew up in the nearby village of Kirkcaldy and - despite differences of opinion about David Bowie and Pink Floyd - have been close friends since school. Taking their usual short-cut over Hallow Hill, a hidden tree-root and a shove form Weird sees Alex literally stumbling across something he'd rather have avoided. Rosie Duff, the Lammas Bar's nineteen year-old barmaid, has been raped, stabbed and is barely alive when Alex lands on her. Ziggy, a medical student, tries to keep her alive while Alex runs for help - however, by the time he returns with PC Jimmy Lawson, Rosie has died. Worse is to come : DI Barney Maclennan, who leads the subsequent murder investigation, views the four friends as the prime suspects rather than key witnesses. The police's attempts at an investigation, and their suspicions about the students, become common knowledge : the early part of the book covers the initial investigation and its effects on the four friends. However, they aren't charged, and the case never comes to court. In late 2003, Fife Police announce they are to look into Rosie's murder again as part of a full-scale cold case review. While the Laddies fi' Kirkcaldy were never charged, there are some who are still convinced of their guilt - including Rosie's brothers, a pair with a violent record. By now, Alex is living in Edinburgh, Mondo is in Glasgow, while Ziggy and Weird are living in America. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Rosie's murder, a date Alex has never been able to forget, he receives a phone call : one of his three friends is dead, killed in what turns out to be an arson attack. Attending the funeral, he notices a wreath made of rosemary and white roses. The message, unsigned, reads "Rosemary for Remembrance". Alex, remembering that Rosie's full name was Rosemary Duff, has started feeling somewhat edgy... This is the first novel by McDermid I've read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's difficult not to feel sorry for, and worried about, Alex and his friends bearing in mind what the investigation is doing to them, the strain it puts on their friendship and how they are widely viewed as pariahs. The book features plenty of twists and turns, is very easily read and is one I would highly recommend.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing, but a little disappointing,
By
This review is from: The Distant Echo (Paperback)
My first encounter with Val McDermid, on a recommendation. And it wasn't bad, but I don't think she's in the same league as the likes of Ian Rankin or Graham Hurley in this genre. The characters are surprisingly two-dimensional, and some of the dialogue used to establish character lacks conviction - the spirituality of the Christian is particularly unconvincing and stereotyped, you hear more convincing Godspeak on the God Channel. I also found it hard to believe that police procedures could be as shoddy as this plot demands that they are. All that said, it was an enjoyable, engrossing read that took me through several twists and turns, while never really delivering against the puff on the jacket or in the reviews on this page.
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