Trick Of The Dark [Paperback]

Wonderfully compelling stuff (Daily Mail )

A workout for the grey cells, perfectly executed (Daily Telegraph )

This standalone from the Scottish force of nature, and creator of Robson Green's Wire In The Blood TV series, is a brutally clever story (Daily Mirror )

Keeps you guessing till the last page (Bella )

Layered with emotional and psychological complexity, this outstanding page-turner has television success written all over it (Scottish Daily Record )

An accomplished thriller, jumping from the past to the present and back with ease, taking in a range of characters and their perspectives...Trick of the Dark had me ruminating for days (Sunday Tribune )

A broad, winding murder mystery (Sunday Telegraph )

Thoughtful, tender and always entertaining (Guardian )

A fascinatingly rich and complex mystery lies at the heart of this novel - McDermid's most ambitious and best yet

When Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of cuttings about a brutal murder, it instantly grabs her attention. The murder occurred in the grounds of her old Oxford college - a groom battered to death just hours after his wedding. As his bride and wedding guests sipped champagne, his alleged killers were slipping his bloodstained body into the river.

Charlie doesn't know who sent the package, or why, yet she can't get the crime out of her head. But as she delves deeper, and steps back into the mysterious world of Oxford colleges, she realises that there is much more to this crime than meets the eye...

Val McDermid has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and is the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010.