The Distant Echo - Val McDermid

The Distant Echo

By Val McDermid

  • Release Date: 2007-04-01
  • Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Score: 4
4
From 91 Ratings
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Description

This "cunningly plotted" (New York Times) thriller is now on Britbox as Karen Pirie!

Bestselling, award-winning author Val McDermid delivers her most stunning story yet in The Distant Echo--an intricate, thought-provoking tale of murder and revenge.

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

Twenty-five years later, police mount a cold case review. Among the unsolved murders they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has his own idea of justice. One of the original quartet dies in a suspicious house fire and soon after, a second is killed. Alex fears the worst. Someone is taking revenge for Rosie Duff. And it might just save his life if he can uncover who really killed Rosie all those years ago.

Reviews

  • A Disappointment

    3
    By RedDog1
    After relishing ALL of McDermid’s Carol Jordan-Tony Hill novels, I was looking forward to this stand alone offering. Bad decision. Too slow, drawn-out plot development, and a conclusion/summation filled with revelations not hinted at in the book. Unfair to the reader, and not even cleverly presented. I’ll stay with the memories of the “Wire in the Blood” series….

  • The Echoing Effect of Crime

    4
    By steveinatwater
    Val McDermid’s The Distant Echo opens in 1978 as four college friends, nicknamed after Bowie and Pink Floyd songs, stumble upon the body of a barmaid Rosie Duff in the snow while headed back to St. Andrew’s in Fife after a night of partying. The police investigation centers on one or more of the group as being responsible, however the case goes cold. Twenty-five years later the case is reopened as part of a cold case review and assigned to DC Karen Pirie overseen by ACC Lawson, an officer who was on the original investigation. This is a wonderfully engaging tale of the echo-effect of one crime on the lives of the four friends, the victim’s family, and a small town police force. McDermid’s writing is steady with bursts of action keeping the reader gripped as it builds towards its resolution. The book’s structure, 1978 and 2003, and its pace is brilliant, allowing the reader the time to connect with the characters and better feel the impact of the crime...and the story twists...wow, enough said. The irony is while this is the first of McDermid’s Pirie series, the DC remains a side character, somewhat of a mystery, but with just enough that you want to read so much more about her. I gave the book a 4.5 because of a few minor editing quibbles.

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