Val McDermid, A Place of Execution (1999)

I discovered Val McDermid last year when I read Still Life, and I was more than happy to discover that she had written a lot, and so I could plunge into her back catalogue for more happy discoveries. But if I had started with A Place of Execution, I might not have had the same opinion at all. It’s even difficult for me to consider that it’s the same writer who wrote this one and the series with DCI Karen Pirie. Yes, 20 years make a lot of difference for the career of a writer.

“A Place of Execution” comes with the commendation of the Edgar Award and being ingenious. Ingenious it is indeed, I’m not disputing this. But 600+ pages, people! It really picks up after 200 pages, that’s plenty of time I could have given up. But for the good experience I had with that author, I would never have stuck around.

For two third of the book, we are in 1963 in a small village of Derbyshire in the English Peak District. On a bleak winter night, 13-year-old Alison Carter goes out to walk her dog after returning from school. She will never be seen again. The police stumbles upon a tightly-knit village, a few farmers houses gathered around the manor house, and people don’t talk to outsiders. There are few clues for Detective Inspector George Bennet. It’s his first big case and he will become obsessed with Alison’s disappearance, all the more as his own wife is expecting their first baby.

The last third of the book is set in 1998, when a journalist wants to publish a book about Alison’s case and secrets will be finally be uncovered. To say more would probably be spoilery. The plot got me hooked, but the execution (ah) left me a bit cold because of the pacing. The shock of the end twist was lessened because I had had ample time to guess and start in the right direction (I had not guessed it fully, but I was close). I wish the book had been edited of at least 100-150 pages.

Last remark: what with the cigarettes? Yes people smoked a lot in the 1960s and still some in the late 1990s, but here hardly a page goes by without someone taking a cigarette, giving one (pack!) to a witness. Secondary smoking via a book? That wouldn’t be surprising, with all that nicotine… I’m not for removing all traces of historically accurate smoking, but I would have edited that part down.

Val McDermid, Out of Bounds (2016)

The pleasure to read books in sequence is a small, simple pleasure I’m discovering probably well later than anyone else… if only I was disciplined enough to stick to it. I discovered Val McDermid’s series with DCI Pirie with her #6 Still Life, the currently second to last. Then I moved back to #3 Skeleton Road, and I bought the digital copies of #4 and #5. Am I finally starting to get logical and orderly when it comes to books? Not a chance… I had hesitated to start the series over with #1, but that was too much of a commitment.

It was great that I could follow up on Karen Pirie’s struggles and investigations. Skeleton Road ended on a major cliffhanger, which is no spoiler anymore when 4 more books have been published after that. Her partner and lover has been killed, and even though a few months have passed at the beginning of this book, Pirie is still deep in her grief. She throws herself into cases, including some which don’t belong to her, in an intense and stubborn way that will tell you that it’s personal. She just can’t let go, even when it’s not quite reasonable.

The case at hand seems simple, almost too simple. A roadside DUI accident leads to a DNA analysis that sheds light into a 20 years old rape and murder case. Science can’t lie, the young man who caused the fatal crash has to be the son of the murderer. An open and shut case for Pirie? Well, every step she takes reveals a new difficulty.

I was fascinated by the twists and turns of the plot (or should I say, of the two plots). It is a page turner from beginning to end, responsible for a few late nights. I can’t wait to read the next one!

Val McDermid, Skeleton Road (2014)

Val McDermid was a late discovery of 2023, but I was so happy that I immediately set out to read another mystery by her, in her series with DCI Karen Pirie, head of a Scottish cold case unit. I have seen that she has written many other series and I’m just like a kid in front of the candy store, not knowing what to grab first. Given the depth of her back catalogue, I’ll be high on metaphorical sugar for a while. And just like a kid on too much sugar, I just went without any kind of order. As I discovered this series with #6 Still Life, I am following it with #3 The Skeleton Road.

At this stage my post will probably be spoilery because it’s hard not to when you’re going backwards in a series. In Still Life, DCI Pirie (I’m wondering how Scottish readers pronounce it, in my head I make it rhyme with Kyrie, with a final “eh”, and as there are deaths involved it feels suitable) is still in the aftermaths of the death of the man she loved. This book Skeleton Road is closing with the death of this man, in a totally unexpected and shocking scene.

The rest of the book focuses on the long-term ramifications of the Yugoslavian war from the early 1990s. I liked it less than Still Life, but because it suffered in comparison with The Hired Man, a novel by Aminatta Forna that also deals with this subject, and with a lot more subtlety. I enjoyed that all the characters have detailed back stories and complex motivation for what they did. I really liked that one of the characters, an Oxford academic, was directly inspired by real-life Kathy Wilkes, who connected with intellectuals beyond the Iron Curtain and supported the rebuilding of intellectual life in post-Communist Balkan countries. She refused to leave during the siege of Dubrovnik.

Overall Skeleton Road suffers from an unequal pace and the multiple POV don’t really help on that part. Still, it makes me all the more eager to read everything that happened before that volume and after that one!

ps. Despite appearances I’m not doing it totally at random. I chose this book in the series because it was the only one available at my local library. Obviously, I have to put a reservation on other volumes. Now, should I go for #4 or check if they have #1? I’m torn.

Val McDermid, Still Life (2020)

I can’t believe that I’d never read a Val McDermid mystery before. Well, I might have, but then it was before 2006, because this blog has never had this name since its creation in the prehistorical ages (that’s what 2006 is in Internet years). Last year at the same period I reported on a Miss Marple-inspired short story collection and the name popped up. I should pretend that it inspired me to borrow this book from the library but that’s not true, it was just… well… chance. A random find from the New Acquisitions shelves. And the attraction of a mysterious cover…

I even took a chance at reading it in translated version. And of course, I couldn’t care less that it was not in order. The French edition is giving away some plot point, or is quite misleading, depending on the way you see it. At any case, it couldn’t be more different from the British editions.

No Scottish coastline, no beach and lobster case, which alludes to the opening scene, the discovery of the body of a man, who happened to be a main suspect in a murder 10 years go. It takes a while before one understand how the murder can be related to anything artistic and to painters. But it’s all worth it! The story is complex with lots of subplots but expertly woven. The pace was impeccable. Of course, as I chose to throw myself into a series at book #6, there’s a lot I’ve probably missed about the main characters and her team. But I immediately warmed up to DCI Karen Pirie, head of a Scottish cold case unit. In truth, I can’t wait to read her other books! The novel is set at the very beginning of 2020, and as the book ends, Karen Pirie takes her computer and her files from the office due to impending lockdown.

I feel both annoyed and lucky. Annoyed to be so late at discovering this new-to-me author. And lucky because Val McDermid is a prolific writer and I have so many titles to explore!