VAL McDERMID
VAL McDERMID 3-BOOK BUNDLE
Table of Contents
A Place of Execution
The Distant Echo
The Grave Tattoo
About the Author
Also by Val McDermid
Copyright
About the Publisher
VAL McDERMID
A Place of Execution
Praise for A Place of Execution
Compelling and atmospherica tour de force
MINETTE WALTERS
Val McDermid is a roaring Ferrari amid the crowded traffic on the crime-writing roada crime writer capable of holding her own in any companyshe is a strong enough writer to create her own distinctive world
JANE JAKEMAN, Independent
A gut-wrenching tale that spans two decades and brings the resonance of Greek tragedies to England. Psychological suspense that probes, prods and disturbs. A terrific achievement
MAXIM JAKUBOWSKI, Time Out
This is an engrossing story, with its atmospheric portrait of a closed, inbred communityA Place of Execution is a substantial book and an impressive one, possibly the best McDermid has written, and it takes this most accomplished writer into higher territory
SUSANNA YAGER, Sunday Telegraph
Beautifully writtenthis book is not simply a puzzle; it is almost an archaeological delving into a multi-layered, enclosed society. It may be that McDermid will write better novels than this in the future, but I do not see how
GERALD KAUFMAN, Daily Telegraph
A Place of Execution has verve, depth and an unerring grasp of human responses
She
Like a complex jigsaw puzzle, the pieces eventually fall into place, and for those who choose crime fiction for plotting and denouement, this will prove surprising and completely satisfying
SUSIE MAGUIRE, Scotland on Sunday
A Place of Execution makes you question your assumptions about the whole crime genreA crime novel about a miscarriage of justice, A Place of Execution is a wake-up call to crime writers everywhere. A terrific and original novel, brilliantly executed
PAUL DAVIES, Daily Mirror
It [A Place of Execution] must be in the running for best crime novel of the year. She has propelled herself into the ranks of the very best in the businessIf youve never read any McDermid, try this. Basically, if you can read at all, try this. Atmosphere, characters, strong plot, tension, menace its got the lot
JANICE YOUNG, Yorkshire Post
Deserves to be the crime novel of the year
Prima
There is a great deal to admire in this novelabove all the books formal adventurousness and subtle orchestration of different narrative levels, that sets it apart from most thrillers. With A Place of Execution, McDermid has wrought a powerful, resonant novel about power and its abuse, about the pasts hold on the present, about the nature of knowledge
LIAM MCILVANNEY, Glasgow Herald
Arguably her finest yetFear infuses every pagein this epic tragedy
ERIC JACKSON, Manchester Evening News
This is an extraordinarily accomplished bookthe whole affair is a complete success
F. E. PARDOE, Birmingham Post
Acknowledgements
This was not an easy book to write. To delve into a past so recent that it is within many peoples living memory is to invite the exposure of ones mistakes. Many people helped me to minimize the opportunities for such embarrassment. Douglas Wynn, true-crime writer, told me the tale that formed the distant seed of inspiration for this book and also helped me with research into historical cases. The staff of the Social Sciences department of Manchester Central Reference Library provided courteous assistance, as did their colleague Jane Mathieson. Without retired inspector Bill Fletcher, I could never have hoped to re-create the world of a county police force in the 1960s. Mark at the Buxton Advertiser provided invaluable access to the bound volumes in the cellar, and the Manchester Evening News library team also went out of their way to support my quest for authenticity. Dr Sue Black was generous with her forensic experience and Diana Muir supplied crucial assistance that both exposed the fatal flaw in the plot and allowed it to be salvaged. Peter N. Walker also allowed me to pick his brains for period detail and was kind enough to check the finished manuscript for glaring errors. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my responsibility.
I have taken some liberties with the geography of Derbyshire and with the city of Derby itself. The village of Scardale does not exist, although there are several approximations to it in the White Peak.
Writers are a bit like old buildings we need a lot of shoring up. So thanks to my scaffolding team Jane and Lisanne, Julia and both Karens, Jai and Paula, Leslie, Mel and, most of all, to Brigid.
Dedication
To my evil twin; laissez les bon temps rouler, cher.
Contents
Praise for A Place of Execution
Acknowledgements
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
PART TWO
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
PART THREE
The Remand
The Murder Charge
The Committal
The Trial 1
The Trial 2
The Trial 3
The Trial 4
The Trial 5
The Trial 6
The Trial 7
The Verdict
A Place of Execution
BOOK 2 PART ONE
PART TWO
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
PART THREE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
About the Author
By the Same Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Epigraph
You shall be taken to the place from whence you came, and thence to a place of lawful execution, and there you shall be hanged by the neck until you be dead, and afterwards your body shall be buried in a common grave within the precincts of the prison wherein you were last confined before your execution; and may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
The formal death sentence of the English legal system
LE PENDU: THE HANGED MAN
Divinatory meaning: The card suggests life in suspension. Reversal of the mind and ones way of life. Transition. Abandonment. Renunciation. The changing of lifes forces. Readjustment. Regeneration. Rebirth. Improvement. Efforts and sacrifice may have to be undertaken to succeed towards a goal which may not be reached.
Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling S. R. Kaplan
BOOK 1Introduction
Like Alison Carter, I was born in Derbyshire in 1950. Like her, I grew up familiar with the limestone dales of the White Peak, no stranger to the winter blizzards that regularly cut us off from the rest of the country. It was in Buxton, after all, that snow once stopped play in a county cricket match in June.
So when Alison Carter went missing in December 1963, it meant more to me and my classmates than it can have done to most other people. We knew villages like the one shed grown up in. We knew the sort of things shed have done every day. We suffered through similar classes and cloakroom arguments about which of the Fab Four was our favourite Beatle. We imagined we shared the same hopes, dreams and fears. Because of that, right from the word go, we all knew something terrible had happened to Alison Carter, because something we also knew was that girls like her like us didnt run away. Not in Derbyshire in the middle of December, anyway.
It wasnt just the thirteen-year-old girls who understood that. My father was one of the hundreds of volunteer searchers who combed the high moorland and the wooded valleys around Scardale, and his grim face when he returned home after a fruitless day scouring the landscape is still sharply etched in my memory.
We followed the hunt for Alison Carter in the newspapers, and every day at school for weeks, someone would be bound to start the speculation rolling. All these years later, I still had more questions for George Bennett than the former policeman could answer.