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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly McDermid's best novel, 7 Mar 2008
Val McDermid has written some outstanding novels (The Torment of Others, Wire in the Blood and Mermaids Singing come to mind) but somehow, somehow this one probably tops the lot. It is utterly immaculate in its (forgive the pun) execution, in its structure, in its characterisation and in its capacity to surprise and even deceive the reader. I need not go over the summary of the story here as so many others have already done that, but can I just repeat the words of the Daily Telegraph's Gerald Kaufman, who stated that 'It may be that McDermid will write better novels than this in the future, but I do not see how.' I concur with that view absolutely.
For those of you who remember seeing Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' the first time, you will probably recall wanting to see the film all over again immediately, realising at the end that most of what had gone before was not as you had assumed. So it follows that in A Place of Execution, despite admirably detailed accounts of the investigations into the case of a missing teenage girl back in 1963, which in effect come to a seemingly satisfying conclusion three-quarters of the way through the book, the final quarter which unravels itself 35 years later in 1998 manages to completely dismantle our earlier belief that justice had been done and made me want to read the 1960s part of this book again to see if I could have guessed what was coming. Of course, I already knew that there was going to be a twist to this tale and I took much pleasure in taking guesses as to what it would be; a miscarriage of justice was the most obvious, but that cannot be said to be true because for all human reasons other than legal, justice was clearly served even if there were some unexpectedly high prices to be paid, it later emerged, on the part of more than one victim.
This is storytelling at its best. The characters are so real that I feel that I want to contact them and talk about their experiences. I led myself to understand that A Place of Execution is based on a true story, in which case it only serves to underline that truth is invariably stranger and more convincing than fiction. There are some stories that just cannot be made up, and I reckon that this is one of them. Knowing the story was based on real-life events had left this novel on my library shelves at home for more than a year - what a mistake that was, and I discovered this within a handful of pages. It has few flaws, it has been written by a masterful and confident writer at the top of her game and I recommend it without reservation.
If you haven't read it yet, then do not hesitate : order your copy today. And while you're at it, buy at least a half-dozen more Val McDermid novels, because in the world of suspense, mystery and crime writing she really has very few peers.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A multi-layered thriller which asks difficult questions., 24 Aug 2006
"A Place of Execution" is a chilling tale set in rural Derbyshire, and woven around the disappearance of Alison Carter, a teenage girl. The year is 1963, and the place is the (fictional) backwater village of Scardale; secluded from modern life, populated by only a few families who have been inbreeding for generations; and ruled, like in medieval days, by a squire who owns everybody and everything in the village. And it is none other than the stepdaughter of much-hated new squire Phillip Hawkin, a newcomer to Scardale's tight-knit society, who has disappeared.
Following the investigation led by newly minted D.I. and Jimmy-Stewart-look-alike George Bennett and his more experienced partner, Sergeant Tommy Clough, we as readers slowly become familiar with Scardale and its inhabitants, who are reluctant to open up to outsiders - even if they don't hate them as much as Hawkin - and in that reluctance, provide less than the much-needed help in discovering Alison. In fact, when ultimately a suspect is arrested, on the strength of evidence tying him to both Alison's disappearance and another horrific crime, Alison is still missing. And she remains missing throughout the suspect's trial. It will take all of 35 years and a new investigation by journalist Catherine Heathcoate, who befriends Bennett after having met his son Paul, and who is able to procure Paul's help in convincing Bennett to revisit those long-past events which never ceased to trouble him, to reveal a truth which by then seemed all but buried for good ... and like the story's protagonists, many a reader may be left wondering whether this is not the way it should have stayed.
"A Place of Execution" is a well-plotted thriller which ambitiously tackles issues from depravity, vice and vengeance to sin, deceit, guilt and justice; and all of these, on multiple levels. It purposely leaves the questions it asks unanswered, forcing its readers to come to their own terms with each of these issues. And by changing its narrative perspective from George Bennett in 1963 to Catherine Heathcoate in 1998, it offers the reader two different angles from which to see the events and the questions they pose.
Unfortunately, for me, the change of the narrator's viewpoint brought with it a certain loss of depth and perspective. Whereas the social setting of Scardale village and the characters introduced in the book's first part are compellingly drawn down to their last unique feature and down to the last one of the supporting characters, those introduced in the second part are in many respects only superficially sketched pastiches that failed to engage me. And whereas in the book's first part nothing is left to coincidence and random, the second part is riddled with coincidences; each of which individually might have been within the realm of possibilities, but which taken as a whole were just a tad too much for me to accept. I couldn't shake the impression that for the sake of the coveted change of narrating perspective in the book's second part, Ms. McDermid was willing to sacrifice more than a negligible part of the integrity and the feeling of authenticity she had so effectively created before; and for the sake of driving the plot to its conclusion she sacrificed the character development which had worked so well in holding the story together in the beginning.
Fortunately, the book's second part is decidedly shorter than the first one; and while it dragged a little for the reasons mentioned above, I still found myself interested enough to read on to learn how it would end and whether my suspicions as to the solution of the mystery itself were correct - only to find that while I had correctly guessed the core facts as such, the book's end does not offer a simple solution at all. Rather, in real life, it would almost certainly have been only the beginning of a very long and difficult healing process on which the protagonists would have had to embark.
To her credit, Ms. McDermid shuns the gore and sensationalism to which her book's central theme would easily lend itself. And even if you are reading "A Place of Execution" primarily for the mystery story it contains, there is plenty to puzzle over in terms of clues, pseudo-clues, red herrings, red flags and more. Bear with George, Tommy and Catherine until the end. You won't regret it - not half as much as *they* find themselves wishing they had never touched the case of Alison Carter's disappearance.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Read !!!, 23 May 2006
Have now read a few titles by Val McDermid and this is, to date, by far the best read. Gripping from beginning to end, I would recommend this book to anyone.
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