A Darker Domain
By Val Mcdermid
(Harper, Hardcover, 9780061688980, 368pp.)
Publication Date: January 8, 2009
Other Editions of This Title: eBook, Paperback (April 7, 2010)
Categories: Thrillers
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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the March 2009 Indie NotablesPast and present intertwine in this rare stand-alone novel of taut psychological drama—a brilliant exploration of loyalty and greed from the bestselling mistress of suspense.
Fife, Scotland, 1985. Heiress Catriona Maclennan Grant and her baby son are kidnapped. The ransom payoff goes horribly wrong and Grant is killed. Her son disappears without a trace—until 2008, when a tourist in Tuscany stumbles upon dramatic new evidence that reopens the investigation.
Fife, 1984. At the height of the politically charged national miners' strike, Mick Prentice abandons his family to join the strikebreakers down south. Labelled a blackleg scab, he's as good as dead as far as his friends and relatives care. Twenty-three years later, a young woman walks into a police station to report Mick Prentice missing. Detective Karen Pirie, head of the Cold Case Review Team, wants to know why it's taken so long for anyone to notice.
For Pirie, already immersed in the Prentice investigation, a second foray into a 1980s investigation gone cold—this time, the Grant kidnapping—offers an opportunity to make her mark. But it's sure to come at an extremely high price. As she works to unravel these mysteries, two decades of secrets will lead Karen Pirie into a dark domain of violence and betrayal—darker than any she has yet encountered.
Scottish crime writer Val McDermid is the author of twenty-three novels. Her books have won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, been named New York Times Notable Books, and been nominated for the Edgar Award. She lives in the north of England.
"This renowned Scottish writer's fascinating new book is dark, less violent than some previous titles and heartbreakingly vivid. Its greatest strength is its depiction of the horrendous miners' strike of the mid-1980s. . . . This is a wonderfully written book you can't put down."
-Romantic Times
"A DARKER DOMAIN is a prime example of a crime novel that manages to encompass politics, sexual relations and social changes as it examines two unsolved crimes of the mid-1980s. . . . McDermid digs into the two cold cases through a pair of terrific investigators."
-Connecticut Post
"McDermid pulls us deeply into the lives of the victims and their families. . . . Pirie is a complicated heroine made all the more appealing by her everywoman demeanor."
-USA Today
"Gripping and intense. . . . A strong, suspenseful psychological thriller. . . . McDermid pulls together these disparate cases with the aplomb and skill that will remind readers of her masterpiece, A Place of Execution. McDermid takes us into the heart of a mining community where unity meant survival."
-Mystery Scene
"Multifaceted and relentlessly gripping. . . . McDermid advances each of the storylines separately until they are so intertwined that it becomes impossible to separate them, the intrigue mounting with each page turned."
-BookPage (Mystery of the Month)
"Complex and layered plotlines come together, and McDermid does an excellent job creating tension around a cold case. Sure to be a hit with McDermid's large fan base, it should also appeal to those who read other Scottish police mysteries."
-Booklist
"This is McDermid's storytelling at its best, and DI Pirie, with her blend of humor and tenaciousness, is both likable and believable. A great read; highly recommended for fans of the genre."
-Library Journal
"McDermid keeps the suspense high as she also delivers an emotionally wrenching story about people abandoned by those they trust the most."
-South Florida Sun Sentinel
This book is on these lists:
Ramthumper's Wish List by RamthumperMarsha's Wish List by marsha
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