The Distant Echo [Paperback]

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.

‘A classic … McDermid pulls out all the stops. Impeccable’ Guardian

‘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

‘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

‘A powerful story of murder and revenge … an exciting page-turner’ Sunday Telegraph

The award-winning Number One bestseller and Queen of crime fiction Val McDermid carves out a stunning psychological thriller. The past is behind them, but what’s still to come will tear them apart…

Some things just won’t let go.
The past, for instance.
That night in the cemetery.
The girl’s body in the snow.

On a freezing Fife morning four drunken students stumble upon the body of a woman in the snow. Rosie has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in an ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are the four young men now stained with her blood.

Twenty-five years later the police mount a ‘cold case’ review of Rosie’s unsolved murder and the four are still suspects. But when two of them die in suspicious circumstances, it seems that someone is pursuing their own brand of justice. For the remaining two there is only one way to avoid becoming the next victim – find out who really killed Rosie all those years ago…

The past, for instance.
That night in the cemetery.
The girl’s body in the snow, her blood scarlet against the white ground…

Four a.m. on a freezing Fife morning and four drunken students stumble upon the body of a woman lying in the snow. Rosie has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in an ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are the four young men now stained with her blood.

Twenty-five years later the police mount a ‘cold case’ review of Rosie’s unsolved murder and the four are still suspects. But when one of them dies in a suspicious house fire and another in a burglary gone bad, it seems that someone is pursuing their own brand of justice. For the remaining two there is only one way to avoid becoming the next victim – find out who really killed Rosie all those years ago… --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Four in the morning, mid-December, and snow is smothering St Andrews. Student Alex Gilbey and his three best friends are staggering home from a pasty when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in an ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are four young students stained with her blood.

Twenty-five years later, Fife police mount a cold case review. Among the unsolved murders they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has their own idea of how justice should be done. One of the original quartet dies in a suspicious house fire. Soon after, a second is killed in what looks like a burglary gone sour. But Alex fears the worst. Someone is taking revenge for Rosie Duff. He has to find out who it is before he becomes the next victim. And it might just save his life if he can uncover who really killed Rosie all those years ago.

Acclaim for Val McDermid:

'The real mistress of psychological, gripping thrillers'
Jenni Murray, 'Daily Express'

'Our leading pathologist of everyday evil…the subtle orchestration of terror is masterful'
Maxim Jakubowski, 'Guardian'

'Stunningly exciting, horrifyingly good'
Ruth Rendell

'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'

'Compelling and atmospheric…a tour de force'
Minette Walters

'The plotting is impeccable, the atmosphere palpable, and I doubt that it will be surpassed this year'
Graham Caveney, 'Sunday Express'

Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three years as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. Now a full-time writer, she divides her time between Cheshire and Northumberland. Her novels have won international acclaim and a number of prestigious awards, including the Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, the Anthony Award for best novel, and the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award. Her thriller series featuring criminal profiler Tony Hill has been adapted into the much-loved TV series Wire in the Blood.