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The Distant Echo (Paperback)

by Val McDermid (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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The Distant Echo + A Darker Domain + A Place of Execution
Price For All Three: £13.14

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  • This item: The Distant Echo by Val McDermid

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Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

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Product details

  • Paperback: 576 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Reprint edition (6 Feb 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007217161
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007217168
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.6 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #6 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > M > McDermid, Val
    #8 in  Books > Fiction > World > Scottish

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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 'Reminiscent 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 The real mistress of pychological gripping thrillers' Jenni Murray, Daily Express 'McDermid's capacity to enter the warped mind of a deviant criminal is shiveringly convincing' Marcel Berlins, The Times Praise for Killing the Shadows: '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 'Good pace, enough blood to make us feel that murder is far from cold and clinical, and, best of all, characters you believe in' Maeve Binchy, Mail on Sunday '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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The Distant Echo
50% buy the item featured on this page:
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£4.96
A Darker Domain
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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews
5 star:
 (11)
4 star:
 (17)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written as ever - but too easily solved., 1 Nov 2006
By Phil Robertshaw (Wirral, England) - See all my reviews
  
It's hard being a reader of crime fiction, particularly a whodunit. You spend a whole book trying to work out where it's all leading, and then you get to the denouement to find you were completely wrong and didn't see it coming at all. That's what makes some books so good, right?

Well, yes. Unfortunately this doesn't take into account that when you are actually successful in working out 'whodunit', it's a disappointment. It's almost a battle of wits between author and reader, and if the author fails to outfox you, you feel let down.

I didn't work out the solution to this from an early stage, but as the book developed it gradually began to slot into place, and I hoped in vain that I was wrong about the identity of the killer. It's a shame, because this book is as well written as any of Val McDermid's other novels. She is a hugely talented writer and the only thing that prevents me from giving this one five stars is that it was too predictable.

Read this anyway, and try not to work out the solution. While it's not quite as good as the Tony Hill or Kate Brannigan series, it's still a very decent crime novel.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An icy cold murder, and a secret hidden for years., 16 Nov 2003
By M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Distant Echo (Hardcover)
Val McDermid returns to fine form with a Distant Echo with an absolutely sensational thriller and an utterly compelling page-turner. I was somewhat disappointed with A Place of Execution; although good, it was rather long, and lacked the tightly driven plot and dramatic tension that is usually synonymous with McDermid’s work. The actions of the past and how much these dealings come back to haunt us are woven through A Distant Echo, as throughout the first half of the book, the reader is catapulted back to New Year’s Eve in 1978 and then, in the second half of the book, bought forward to 2003 where redemption and truth are finally revealed.

McDermid creates a solid and chilly atmosphere as she describes a bleak and cold Scottish winter in the town of Kirkcaldy and in the University Town of St, Andrews, where our four main protagonists live. On a frosty, icy night four young University students Tom, Alex, David, and Sigmund, full of optimism about their lives and careers, find the blood soaked body of Rosie Duff, a local girl, who has been brutally stabbed. What happens next turns into a riveting tale of recrimination and blame, as the boys faced with a seemingly, disinterested and inadequate local police force, face a life branded as killers. A Distant Echo, in classic whodunit style really keeps you guessing, and the tension and suspense never ceases as time periods are transcended and the real killer remains at large.


McDermid, to her credit, infuses the narrative with lots of things Scottish. References are constantly made to homemade shortbread, nappies, black bun, sultana cake, Scottish country dancing, grouse, and whiskey. You really get a sense of familiarity, and that McDermid is completely passionate about her roots. She also raises lots of issues to do with gay bashing, hate crimes, and religious intolerance, so the story always has a sense of propinquity, immediacy, and relevance. A Distant Echo is a superbly crafted thriller and worth the wait; it without doubt reflects Val McDermid’s unique talent as a one of the world’s most pre-eminent mystery writers. A must read for lovers of murder mysteries.

Michael

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Between Very Good and Excellent, 11 May 2003
By G. J. Oxley "Gaz" (Tyne & Wear, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Distant Echo (Hardcover)
Four students stumble upon the dying body of a young lady in the early hours of mid-December 1978 after a drunken binge, and each of their lives is changed from that day on.

The setting for the first part of the book is the late 1970s and the students all attend St Andrews University. They've been tight friends for years and we recognise their different characteristics: the paternal one who watches out for the others; the slightly effete one rescued from bullying by the others; the athletic one with the heart of gold; and the off-the-wall, slightly irresponsible one. McDermid is a skilled writer however and never allows them to become mere stereotypes.

The second, pacier half of the novel brings the action up-to-date with the earlier murder still unresolved, and the four students still under suspicion from the murdered girl's family. At its conclusion it delivers a truly satisfying double whammy of surprises which delighted me no end as I didn't see either coming.

I look forward to reading more of this author's works. Previously, I'd only read "The Mermaids Singing" which was again, a very well-plotted thriller.

Clearly Val belongs in the big league of crime fiction writers as the work of hers that I've read stands comparison with the big guns of the genre.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Her Strongest, But Has Its Virtues
"The Distant Echo," (2002) is a stand alone British mystery/thriller by increasingly well-known Scottish-born author Val McDermid, now considered a leading practitioner, in... Read more
Published 17 days ago by Stephanie DePue

4.0 out of 5 stars A great novel, with an unpredicted ending...
This is my first Val McDermid novel, and won't be my last.

The opening, where four students stumble across a murder, ticks the first box of a crime thriller very... Read more
Published 2 months ago by I. Solutions

5.0 out of 5 stars NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED...
In 1978, when four young university students, after a night of carousing, make their way home, one of them, Alex Gilbey, stumbles across the nearly dead body of nineteen year old... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lawyeraau

3.0 out of 5 stars Phew!
I am relieved that I read this and liked it. Unfortunately, my first experience of Ms McDermid was the truly abysmal Grave Tattoo and I was in danger of being scarred for life... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Officer Dibble

1.0 out of 5 stars Tame and meandering
I found this book at a friends house and having heard a recent R4 interview decided to give it a go. It very easy to read which is it's saving grace. Read more
Published 5 months ago by G. Turner

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent "whodunit"
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is a standalone story, so it doesn't matter if you have read any other books by the author first. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Al

3.0 out of 5 stars The Distant Echo
Frustrating read. Seriously overlong the author could have easily lost 100 pages from the manuscript. At times her prose was cliched. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Rich

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Val, but a bit too serious
I picked this up for $1.50 in a charity shop as I was eager to give her a go and it was well worth the time and nominal fee. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. P. Waters

4.0 out of 5 stars Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from the Dark Side of the Moon
Val McDermid grew up in Kirkcaldy, a small mining community on the east coast of Scotland and studied English at Oxford University. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2007 by Craobh Rua

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written as ever - but too easily solved
It's hard being a reader of crime fiction, particularly a whodunit. You spend a whole book trying to work out where it's all leading, and then you get to the denouement to find... Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2006 by Phil Robertshaw

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