Report for Murder
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Review
‘Move over V.I. Warshawski’ Options
‘McDermid has created a complex and prickly detective. The relationship intertwines a realistic romance with a solid detective story.' Washington Times
‘[She is] fresh and funny with a sparkling sense of time and place’ Literary Review
Review
'Move over V.I. Warshawski' Options 'McDermid has created a complex and prickly detective. The relationship intertwines a realistic romance with a solid detective story.' Washington Times '[She is] fresh and funny with a sparkling sense of time and place' Literary Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you're interested in beginning to read the works of Val McDermid, this is not a book I'd recommend you start with. This may sound somewhat strange advice, after all, where better to start than the beginning? However, it must be said that McDermid's later works are generally considered to be of a higher calibre than her earlier publications.
This aside, the Lindsay Gordon novels are still a gripping read. The writing isn't so mature, but the story lines are gripping enough for it to be passed over. As the first of the series, this book introduces Lindsay as a character and gives a brief background that is not fully built on until the fourth novel, Union Jack. From the off, it's obvious that Lindsay isn't your average protagonist. Anyone who describes herself as a 'cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist' has got to break the mould just a touch.
The book works very much to the formula of an Agatha Christie novel, with Lindsay and her new lover Cordelia running around gathering alibis, establishing motives, and narrowing down the list of suspects. The plot takes a number of twists and should leave you guessing until the last chapter as to the real culprit.
Alongside the murder investigation, emphasis is also put on Lindsay's developing relationship with Cordelia, which makes for an interesting sub-plot. Some of the dialogue is somewhat wooden, and McDermid never lets you forget where Lindsay's political and social ideals lie. Nevertheless, the characters are engaging and have a knack of making you care for them and their lives.
Overall, if you're looking to discover what all the recent rave reviews about McDermid are about, this isn't the book for you. But if you're interesting in an entertaining and enjoyable read from a strongly feminist slant, then this may well be the book for you.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From what i gather this is the first book of Ms Mcdermids to ever be published (but dont quote me on that! :) ). A lot of people say she started off badly and matured into the great writer that she is but I can't agree with that. Yes, she has improved over the years but the characters and stories she tends to write now are darker than the initial Lindsay Gordon ones. This means a lot of wit and humour has been lost from the early years.
If you like a good laugh mixed in with your basic whodunnit then you'll love this book.
Lindsay Gordon is a journalist down on her luck and short for cash which leads her to take a job covering an event at an all girls school. Not long after a body is discovered and she gets embroiled in trying to solve the crime since one of her friends gets accused of the murder.
She manages to start up a relationship along the way too!
A good, relatively short read to relax to on a saturday afternoon.
Happy reading..
If you like a good laugh mixed in with your basic whodunnit then you'll love this book.
Lindsay Gordon is a journalist down on her luck and short for cash which leads her to take a job covering an event at an all girls school. Not long after a body is discovered and she gets embroiled in trying to solve the crime since one of her friends gets accused of the murder.
She manages to start up a relationship along the way too!
A good, relatively short read to relax to on a saturday afternoon.
Happy reading..
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Val McDermid was recommended to me as a fine crime writer and I chose this title at random - not realising it was her early teenage ramblings. How did this get published ? Clunky laborious prose; a tedious, totally uninteresting plot; and embarrassingly bad dialogue. It's a real chore to read. Near the end a surprise event had me hoping that, at least, we might get a dramatic twist. I even thought I had guessed the culprit !. Wrong. In an awful, formulaic ending, we find it was the suspect-so-obvious-you-thought-it-was-a-red-herring that did it after all. Please don't criticise me for spoiling: if you'd waded through this dreadful prose in the hope of a twist at the end and been disappointed, you wouldn't care either. I may give Ms McDermid another go for the sake of fairness, but this book is one to avoid at all costs.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
great read
this is the 1st book i have read by Val, i can assure you it wont be the last. after what i thought was a pretty slow start, i have to say that the book soon turns into a cant put... Read more
Published 1 month ago by tom elder
Poor editing
I am very disappointed by the lay out of this book. Every few pages two words merge. I read quickly and its like a jolt when it happens making me have to stop and go back. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr C Evans
report for murder
very dissapointed in this book having read everything else written by val mcdermid and thoroughly enjoyed them i purchased the lyndsey gorden series, had i bought these to start... Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2010 by Mr. T. C. Martin
Synopsis - 1st Lindsay Gordon mystery
Freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon is strapped for cash. Why else would she agree to cover a fund-raising gala at a girls' public school? Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2009 by Maria2222
Sorry Val....
...you know that I'm a genuine fan of yours as a regular contributor to your forum and owener of more than a dozen of your novels, but your debut publication REPORT FOR MURDER was... Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2008 by OEJ
C plus for effort
This novel won an award in 1987 for Val Mcdermid (the panel must have had an `off' day). It is the first of her' Lindsay Gordon Novels' this one set in a Private Girls boarding... Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2007 by Bc V. Price
A bit disappointing
When Paddy Callaghan asks her friend Lindsey Gordon, a journalist, to join her for a money raising weekend at the private girls school where she is a house mistress little do they... Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2007 by P.M. Wood
Smart, Tenacious, Daring, Loyal and Class Conscious
"The fact that she cheerfully despised the job she was about to do was not a new sensation. In the unreal world of popular journalism which she inhabited, she was continually faced... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2005 by prisrob
A good holiday read
I read this book after reading the Kate Brannigan series, and found the same witty style was here in full force. The story infolds at a slow pace, but you soon get into it. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2003 by Cat lover
Worth reading, but I prefer the Brannigan stories.
The five schoolgirl "Lindsay Duncan" books and the five Manchester private eye "Kate Brannigan" books are worth buying as a set then reading in chonological... Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2000 by Mr. D. J. Carr
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