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A Darker Domain

by Val Mcdermid

A Darker Domain Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Past 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.

Review:

"When Michelle Gibson reports her father, Mick Prentice, missing at the start of McDermid's intricate but underwhelming stand-alone psychological thriller, Det. Insp. Karen Pirie, head of the Fife police Cold Case Review Team, isn't interested until Michelle reveals that Mick disappeared during the 1984 miners' strike. At the time, everyone believed Mick went 'scabbing' in Nottingham. Later, Karen is summoned to the home of wealthy Sir Broderick Maclennan Grant, whose daughter, Catriona, and baby grandson, Adam, were abducted in 1985. A botched ransom hand-off left Catriona dead and Adam nowhere to be found. New evidence linked to the kidnapping has surfaced, and now Karen has two missing people to locate. McDermid tries to pack too much story into one book, and the connection she draws between the cases feels forced. Fans of the Scottish author may be better off waiting for the next outing of McDermid's series to feature psychologist Tony Hill (The Mermaid Singing, etc.). Author tour. (Feb.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

The bestselling master of suspense presents this stand-alone thriller--a brilliant exploration of loyalty and greed that intertwines past and present.

About the Author

Scottish crime writer Val McDermid is the author of twenty-two novels. Her books have won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, have been selected for the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of the Year list, and have been nominated for the Edgar Award. She lives in the north of England.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
katknit, February 24, 2009 (view all comments by katknit)
A badly botched kidnapping, and a long-missing person are the two latest cases brought to the recently formed Cold Case Review Team, headed by newly promoted DI Karen Pirie. These cases are more than 20 years old, one brought back to the surface by a mother desperate to locate a donor for her medically fragile son, and the other by a well known investigative reporter who stumbled upon a crucial piece of evidence while vacationing in Italy. Unfortunately, DI Pirie’s boss is more interested in public relations and budgetary issues than he is in stirring things up. Not one to become too concerned with riling up the boss, ignoring the rule book, or stepping on important toes, however, Karen is determined to get to the bottom of things.

Val McDermid has produced a page turner here, expertly revealing bits of evidence via the technique of interspersing chapters about then amongst the chapters about now. The reader gets the evidence as soon as the tecs do, and puzzling yet intriguing bits they are. The Italian bureaucracy, the ethics of journalism, the corrupting power of money, and the refusal to cave under any of these pressures, drive this plot to a truly surprising conclusion. A Darker Domain is crime fiction at its best, and McDermid is at the top of her game.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061688980
Author:
Mcdermid, Val
Publisher:
Harper
Author:
McDermid, Val
Author:
by Val McDermid
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - General
Subject:
Police
Subject:
Kidnapping
Subject:
Thrillers
Subject:
Mystery fiction
Subject:
Cold cases (Criminal investigation)
Copyright:
Publication Date:
February 2009
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
355
Dimensions:
9.30x6.50x1.36 in. 1.24 lbs.

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