The Distant Echo (Karen Pirie, #1) by Val McDermid

The Distant Echo (Karen Pirie, #1) Reviews

• 
  Matt

  As she begins the Karen Pirie series, McDermid offers readers a wonderful introduction to another fast-paced novel and lays the groundwork for what could be an exciting few stories. Scotland, 1978: After a night of drinking, drugging, and partying, Alex Gilbey and his three closest mates stumble upon Rosie Duff, who's been raped and stabbed, bleeding out in the middle of a blizzard. By the time the authorities are alerted and brought to the scene, Duff has died and there is little doubt that the boys must have some involvement. All four adamantly deny anything to do with the murder, though they must admit knowing Duff as the barmaid from their local watering hole. While never able to nail them down to anything concrete, everyone whispers that these four got away with the perfect crime. After twenty-five years, DC Karen Pirie is assigned the cold case review of the Duff murder, which she begins in earnest. A man by the name of Graham Macfadyen comes out of the woodwork to admit that he is a relative of Rosie Duff and wants her killers brought to justice. He is certain that Gilbey and his friends are responsible, hoping that new DNA technology can bring about their eventual arrest and conviction. While the investigation brings back old and awkward memories for Gilbey, he is further unsettled when two of his friends die under mysterious circumstances and a sinister reminder of the Duff case appears at their memorial services. Gilbey cannot rest until the killer is finally put behind bars and the stalking of his friends is put to rest. Could Macfadyen be using this investigation to get the justice that Duff deserved or does he have darker desires, murdering those who will never be forced to face justice? McDermid offers up some interesting twists in this opening novel, which will entertain and intrigue the curious reader.
  
  Having read a number of McDermid's past novels, I rushed to this one in order to see what she might present. The use of the extended flashback not only lays the groundwork for a sensational novel, but allows the reader to connect with the characters on a much deeper level. While all could have been rammed into a preface, McDermid chose to spin the tale out in the first half of the book, giving intricate detail to the struggles that Alex Gilbey and friends faced in the light of the December 1978 murder of young Rosie Duff. Then, to propel the story into 2003-04, with more drama and antics offered the reader a foundation on which to build. Adding Macfadyen to the mix surely offered another interesting aspect to the story, though his connection to Duff is not as controversial, at least in the narrative, as could be expected. While she does appear throughout the investigation, DC Karen Pirie is only peppered throughout the story, perhaps in a way to introduce her to the reader, though she does not take centre-stage, at least not in this novel. It leaves me to wonder if McDermid needed to test the waters before bringing her out in full-force, which has me wanting to rush for the next novel to see what she offers. I will be doing so right away, for this was a great read and highly entertaining throughout. McDermid has a wonderful series on her hands, though I am unsure if it will be entirely 'cold case' centred. I suppose I ought to read on to see what she has to offer.
  
  Kudos, Madam McDermid for an exciting opening novel. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us next.
  
  Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
  
  http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
  
• 
  Paul O’Neill

  This was my first Val McDermid book and it certainly won't be my last!
  
  Check out all my book blogs at http://constantreaderpauloneill.blogspot.co.uk/
  
  McDermid delivers a fantastic crime / mystery story set in my homeland of Fife, Scotland and she does a great job for presenting the different areas of Fife exactly how they are like in real life.
  
  The story begins when four lads drunkenly stumble upon our victim, Rosie, after a night out who has been left for dead. The book then tells the tale of the murder investigation as the public pin the murder on the four lads. The story then picks up again years later when the case is reopened as a cold case.
  
  Characters
  
  This book is very much about the effects of false blame and how a close group of friends manage to survive during this. Our main characters are all very lovable and real. McDermid does a great job shows the progression from young lads to fully grown men. You can't help but feel for them all throughout their struggles.
  
  Structure
  
  I love how McDermid weaves the story from the past into the present day. You get the full story instead of mere flashbacks.
  
  Writing
  
  The writing was crisp, sharp and concise. You can't ask for much more. All I want when reading thrillers/crime/mysteries is writing that moves the story along quickly using simple language. McDermid certainly achieves this. I enjoyed the odd Scots attitude or saying. It was very well done.
  
  Final thought
  
  To me, this book was a look at how police procedure can hinder where it should help. It told the story from the police and from the other characters point of view. I think this adds a lot more flavour than just having it be about the cops, it made it feel very real.
  
  Overall, a very strong book and I'll be reading more McDermid very shortly.
  
• 
  Gary

  Having previously read other books in this series and enjoyed them immensely, I decided to start the series from the very beginning with the novel ' The Distant Echo'. This is the Inspector Karen Pirie series by author Val McDermid, who works in Fife investigating cold cases.
  With the development of forensics it is possible to reopen old cases that were previously unsolved as Karen Pirie looks into a 25 year old case of a murdered barmaid named Rosie Duff. Four young men known as Gilly, Ziggy, Weird, and Mondo had been drinking stumble across a body in the snow in the early morning on their way home from a party. The police suspect one or more of the men of raping the woman but cannot get enough evidence to bring it to court and so the case goes cold. Rosie's brothers and the local community believe at least one of the men is guilty causing a lot of bad feeling.
  This is an excellent whodunit with a well paced plot and strong characters.
  I fully intend to read the remaining books in this series.
• 
  BrokenTune

  "He always liked the cemetery at dawn. Not because daybreak offered any promise of a fresh beginning, but because it was too early for there to be anyone else around. Even in the dead of winter, when the pale light was so late in coming, he could guarantee solitude. No prying eyes to wonder who he was and why he was there, head bowed before that one particular grave. No nosy parkers to question his right to be there."
  
  The Distant Echo is the first in the Karen Pirie series. The later books in this series make reference to the first book and give away a major spoiler, so if you're looking to try the Pirie series, start with this one (even though the other ones can easily be read as standalones apart from Out of Bounds). However, I'm not sure it is justified to label The Distant Echo as a Karen Pirie book, because she doesn't play a huge part in this story - she merely appears in it.
  
  I will not go into the details of the plot other than to say that this is a story of a murder investigation that takes place in St. Andrews/Fife (East of Scotland) and continues to haunt the people involved for more than 20 years.
  
  It's always a sign of a good book to me when a book manages to draw you in and makes you feel like you are watching the story from within the story. A couple of weeks ago, I posted a question about whether a familiar setting is enough to create that bond between reader and the book that takes you into the story itself. For me it isn't enough. I also need atmosphere that is actually written, not just implied by my own knowledge of the location(s). And I need characters that come to life. That's what makes a good book for me.
  Val McDermid's books tick all of these boxes for me. At least, most of the books I have read so far. What amazes me about her writing is that she manages to pitch the tone just right for her characters - all of them are individually distinct, all different, and even after 30 books, including several series, the characters seem to stay themselves and not rub off on each other. Interestingly, I cannot stand McDermid's Tony Hill series (Mermaids Singing, Wire in the Blood, etc.), but it just goes to show how diverse her repertoire of characters really is when I get to be a fan of her other books and series.
  
  Even in this book, there were a couple of characters that I did not like at different times, but as the story progressed, the characters actually developed and changed my appreciation for them. No stylised, two dimensional characters here!
  
  "Alex’s enthusiasm was growing thin. All that kept him going was a dogged conviction that the answer he so desperately sought was out there somewhere. It had to be. He’d covered the south side of the loch and now he was working his way round to the north shore. He’d lost count of the number of fields he’d looked into. He’d been stared at by geese, by horses, by sheep and even, once, by a llama. He vaguely remembered reading somewhere that shepherds put them in with their flocks to act as a defence against foxes, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how a big lazy lump with eyelashes a model would die for was going to deter anything as fearless as the average fox."
• 
  Brenda

  Four drunk young men nicknamed Gilly, Ziggy, Weird, and Mondo stumble across a body in the snow at 4 a.m. The police investigate, believing that one or more of the men committed the murder, but the case goes cold. The community, especially the victim’s brothers, has always believed these men were guilty. 25 years later, a cold case review begins and the truth is finally revealed.
  
  As is typical of Val McDermid’s books, the pace is slow and steady. That allows for strong characterization. The four young men were well-developed, both in their early 20’s and in their mid-40’s. The police were portrayed as a small-town, inept force. DC Karen Pirie appears later in the book as a secondary character. I assume she will become more prominent in the second book, which I will read soon.
• 
  Lobstergirl

  Bad nicknames, murdered lass, working class Scottish louts, torture of homosexual youth, angry manhating lesbian, missing evidence, revenge killings, shocking twist, paint chips.
• 
  Eline Van Der Meulen

  Really enjoyed this first part of the series!
  Dutch review:
  https://elinevandm.wordpress.com/2022...
• 
  M(^-__-^)M_ken_M(^-__-^)M

  The distant Echo Val Mcdermid you know how sometimes you think a story is heading in a certain direction and then it doesn't this is one such story. A cold case crime fiction starting in 1978 4 university students and long time friends discover a dying naked woman in the early hours of the morning on there way home after an all night party, what follows is allegations of murder rape and a cover up by the authorities and the girls brothers begin a brutal crusade convinced the boys did it. Some sketchy evidence pointing blame to them is finally squashed. Lets travel forward 25 years, 2003 and DNA technology will reopen this cold case, but the crucial evidence has vanished, and someone is murdering the 4 grown boys. The kick about this wasn't who the killer was it was pretty obvious early on but it was how to catch the killer without any evidence and then before he killed everybody else but I really thought his plan might be to make the last boy alive commit suicide with a confession note to the murder of Rosie, but this was the right plan but badly executed, so in the end he failed. Had a great time with reminders of late 70s nostalgia the weird loopy criss crossing story my crime addiction fix is abated.
• 
  Repix

  Una historia bien escrita, excesivamente larga y con un desarrollo muy predecible, excepto para los investigadores. Entretenida, al menos.
• 
  Tom Mathews

  This is the book that first got me interested in Val McDermid. It's still one of my favorite of hers.
• 
  Lisa

  3.5 stars
  A carefully woven and paced crime / mystery / thriller. Very enjoyable and I recommend the audio version.
  
• 
  Bill

  
  Val McDermid is one prolific crime writer. Probably best noted for her Wire in the Blood mystery series, she's also written the Lindsay Gordon and Kate Brannigan series.
  The Distant Echo is the first book in another of her series, this one featuring Scottish police inspector Karen Pirie.
  
  I will qualify this by saying that Karen Pirie does not play a major role in this particular story, but I presume it is more of a way of introducing her to the other books in the series. Having said that, as with other McDermid books I've read, this was an excellent thriller / murder story. The book is set during two particular time periods. We begin in the past in 1978, in St Andrew's Scotland. This is where we are introduced to the case that will take up both time frames of the story, that being the murder of Rosie Duff. Near Xmas of 1978, four college students, all childhood friends, are out on a jaunt through the pubs prior to heading off to a drunken revelry at another student's accommodation. On their way back to their own residence early in the morning, they take a short cut and discover the body of Rosie. Before they can summon the police, she dies and even though they are at treated as witnesses, there are suspicions from both the police and Rosie's family that they are the one(s) who have raped and murdered the girl.
  
  The first half of the story follows this initial investigation, lead by ACC MacLennan, who is basically unsuccessful in proving they are innocent or guilty, or in discovering the perpetrator. The four boys lives are turned on end. They are assaulted by the press, by the Rosie's brothers who want to take the law into their own hands, and under suspicion by the police. The first part ends in tragedy, with another death (you can find whose for yourselves).
  
  The second half of the story i in the present where the new ACC, James Lawson, has taken over the cold case squad of the Fife police department. Lawson was a uniform constable who was first on the scene after discovery of her body. Karen Pirie is one of the inspectors on his team who is responsible for investigating Rosie's cold case. The four friends have grown apart and are now being stalked by someone (or so it seems). New information turns up, especially the fact that Rosie had a child when she was very young and he wants more information about the investigation and wants justice for her.
  
  The story, for all of its length, moves along very nicely both in the past and present and is a tense thriller. I have to say that once we got into the second half I was pretty sure I knew who the killer was but it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the story. There were a few times where I shook my head at what seemed incongruous actions but they regularly happen in mysteries but sometimes you just have to shrug them off. They weren't wildly out of place anyway. All in all, it's an interesting story, well-written and tensely presented, with an overall satisfying ending. (4 stars)
• 
  aPriL does feral sometimes

  As a female, what struck me most about this book was 'the lads'. I've been heterosexually married several decades but I still find 'the lads' as foreign as I would find walking about under a blue burqa in Afghanistan. So, this book ended up being kind of a National Geographic article for me on a certain level.
  
  I tried to 'connect' with 'the lads' that the author created as the characters we were to be interested in, since they were the victims of prejudice and nefarious plots, but I found myself thinking a lot 'see what a mess you got yourself into?' In the end, I gave up trying for sympathy and read the story as about an exotic culture I cannot understand. I realize many 'lads' do very well later in life and that is when they make sense to me. However, because I kept expecting the four protagonists to die tarnished by their own blaring misdeeds, even if blameless of murder, I couldn't really connect at all. Most of my friends generally have been nerds and geeks, or activists or religious people, not that I haven't been friends with a variety of folks. 'The lads' types in my life did not seem as if they would survive their 20's, and to be their friend was expensive since they seem to destroy every room, every stick of furniture and other belongings or goods, cars, and gambled or drank up or smoked or snorted up their paycheck in a few hours. They invented the modern concept of meaningless sex before girls had a clue. They scared the crap out of me. McDermid obviously has an intimate insiders grasp of what 'lads' are, and kindly allows her lads to be seen as decent young men (deep down) for the first half, and as normal middle-class men later.
  
  Anyway.
  
  The lads are being lads, meaning getting as drunk as they can possibly get between vomiting fits (always makes it a challenge) at a party. They stole (borrowed) a classmate's car to get there, and then they tried very hard to talk the women at the party into a one-night acquaintance in a bed. Having enjoyed reaching a state of mental derangement where walking is peculiar, they stumble through a park after leaving the party and trip over a woman's body. The friends, Alex (Gilly), Tom (Weird), Davey (Mondo) and Sigmund (Ziggy) get her blood all over themselves since being drunk has made the processing of coordination a bit difficult. Being basically wonderful lads, they decide to get a policeman (at least three of them decide - Weird is giggling at how funny the woman looks because he got high on hallucination-causing drugs on top of the alcohol). The policeman takes a look and soon the 19-year-old men are under suspicion of murdering the barmaid. It seems two of them have been trying to get laid by her for some time. It doesn't help their offended and frightened protestations of innocence when the cops find juvenile records of laddy hi jinks and mayhem. The brothers of the murdered girl are not university lads like our heroes, but are pure small-time thugs who decide beating up and dumping our lads individually down into wells where they won't be found for three days will get them to confess when the police are unable to make them talk. However, the police clear up the brothers' muddy sense of injustice with threats of long terms in prison if they try anything like that again, so they slander the lads as much as possible. Three of the lads end up leaving the country when they graduate from college, profoundly affected by the suspicion heaped upon them as well as the vision of the bloody body, which haunts them when they sober up.
  
  The second half of the book finds our lads no longer lads, but respectable family men earning incomes in respectable middle-class work. Then they begin dying one by one in 'accidents'. Oh oh.
  
  A very well-written book which explores the psychological impact of a murder on four friends who never could resolve what happened that night to themselves or others. The quartet breaks up and only two maintain contact as the years pass; but when the quartet starts dying in accidents, the surviving lads know they need to find out who the real killer is. The question for us readers is, who will still be breathing by the last page? Hopefully it will be the one you liked best.
  
• 
  Shawn Callon

  This well-written book centers on the rape and murder of a young bartender near the University of St. Andrews, Scotland many years ago. Four male students came across her dying body in the snows of winter but despite their efforts in applying first aid she dies a bloody death. The students are immediate suspects but there's little if any clear evidence of their guilt although all have questionable alibis and the police believe one student in particular has a clear motive.
  The story moves forward to the early twentieth century and we are presented with the lives of the four friends as adults. Two significant events take place; firstly the Chief Constable re-opens this cold case and mysteriously the son of the dead woman appears. It turns out she had a child when she was fifteen and was sent away to give birth. The boy was adopted.
  Unfortunately, the story suffers from an unexciting style of writing; at times it's almost boring. There's too much side detail which detracts from the main plot. It wasn't until I had read about two thirds of the book that the pace picked up. One of the four friends dies in suspicious circumstances and the wife of the main character, Alex, has early severe contractions indicating a premature birth.
  From that point onwards, the book becomes more of a joy to read with some red herrings and suggestions as to the identity of the real killer or killers.
  
  This review was written by Shawn Callon, author of The Diplomatic Spy.
• 
  Ellen

  The Distant Echo (Audio CD) by Val McDermid.
  
  The 1st in the Karen Perie series.
  The mutilated body of a young woman barely clinging to life is found by 4 college students on a blustery cold winter night. One of them frantically runs for help while the others wait with the unconscious victim. The victim, Rosie, is know to them all and they soon become implicated in her murder.
  Although there is not enough evidence to convict the students of her murder they continue to live with shadow of suspicion hanging over their heads. They're lives have been changed forever by that gruesome discovery.
  Rosie's murder took place in 1978 and has yet to be solved. Then, 25 years later, it's reopened as a cold case. That marks the beginning of 2 more murders. The victims just happen to be 2 of those college students who discovered Rosie's body those many years ago.
  I found this story compelling and well paced as it kept me focused on the plot and characters. The character of Karen Perie is not in the forefront of this story, which I found most unusual to most investigated mysteries with an inspector. Val McDermid is an author worth following.
• 
  Ken

  The first book in the Karen Pirie series opens strongly as four drunk students stumble across a dead body in a cold snowy late December night in 1978.
  
  The victim was barmaid Rosie Duff and the four guys knew her from the pub, which subsequently makes them the prime suspects in this murder case.
  Both the freezing Fife landscape and the late 70's attitudes really helped set the scene.
  
  The second half is set 25 years after the events as a 'cold case' review is ordered.
  In the meantime two of the four have died in suspicious circumstances.
  
  Whilst the opening part was my favourite I'd really grown attached to Alex and his three friends, the stigma that was attached to them felt even more brutal seeing as they were only trying to help.
  Especially as others are happy to dish out some retretribution.
  
  A really strong enjoyable mystery that makes for both a fascinating whodunit and the effects on a person who's been wrongfully accused.
• 
  Miriam

  Well, this was disappointing. This book started out with a great premise, and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with it. Every part of this book dragged, even during the final showdown I was impatient, hoping they'd just get on with it. Another problem for me was that I knew who the real murderer was less than halfway through the book, so everything after that was pretty anticlimactic. The characters weren't particularly engaging either, and I kept shaking my head at their sheer stupidity. The ending, once it finally arrived, was supremely satisfying, with a cut away from the action and a brief summary that several murders would not be prosecuted despite a full confession from the murderer.
  My one-word summary: disapponment.
• 
  Susan

  Oh- ETA: after writing the review I realized that in good conscience I could not give the book even two stars. In the GR rating system when I started here two stars was 'OK' and one 'didn't like it'. I didn't like it so changed to the one star the book deserves.
  
  Well, it looks like I am in the minority on this one, and I am OK with that, especially since I generously rounded up to two stars. Problems I had with the book:
  
  >it was just really tedious to read - for example, did I really need to know each and every item in each and every one of the three trips that new parents took to the car with the new-baby gear? NO!! Unfortunately, McDermid thought that I did; she was wrong, on that and so many other times.
  >The characters are somewhat superficial and none were particularly likeable.
  >I am unsure why it is called a Karen Pirie book because she has only the tiniest of parts in the book, and really it was a poor first impression as I thought she was not particularly intelligent, likeable, or interesting. Certainly, I have no interest in learning any more about here in any more books.
  >I guessed who dunnit really early on so there was no suspense for me in the book.
  >I am really tired of the trope of having people with poor childhoods being made the assholes in the book. Yes, some people who grew-up in abusive homes grow up to be assholes. But, most of us end up as generally nice people, who usually only hurt ourselves rather than other people. And really, as if we do not have a difficult enough time with the stigmas and taboos around being abused as children, let us now also have to deal with the stereotypes created by this type of book. BLARGH!
  >It was BORING... just boring. Nothing happens for too many pages except navel-gazing and discussions of navel-gazing. Did no one edit this book?
  
  Normally, I am more generous with first books of a new series. But, this one was not good (and two stars is generous), and this is a seasoned author, and an acclaimed one at that. I think this is my first McDermid book. I am fairly certain it will also be my last.
• 
  The Cats’ Mother

  Best thriller I've read in a while, even if I did guess whodunit midway, it didn't spoil it for me. I enjoyed all the Scottish references and descriptions, and slang - you need to have lived there to get some of them, and liked the two part story. Good characters, great suspense and a satisfying ending.
• 
  Kasa Cotugno

  I chose this because I have a reviewing obligation for a latter volume in the series, but also because Val McDermid is one of this year's Man Booker judges and I was curious. Far far from formulaic, this promises to be an intriguing series that I'll probably devour if the succeeding stories are as compelling as this was.
• 
  Shannon M

  4.75 stars 
  
  THE DISTANT ECHO is listed as the first book in the Karen Pirie series, but I believe that author Val McDermid meant for this to be a stand-alone novel, the same as “A Place of Execution” published two years earlier. Karen Pirie appears late in the story and plays a minor role.
  
  The novel is divided into two parts. The first part takes place in 1978. Four drunken friends, university students, stumble across the body of a dying woman, someone they slightly knew, a young barmaid at a local tavern. As it is immediately obvious that the barmaid, Rosie Duff was raped and murdered, the four friends are considered suspects by the local police, and because they all have secrets, their final half-year at the university is disrupted by fear and distrust. Their ten-year friendship is irrevocably changed under the spectre of suspicion. Meanwhile, the investigation into the Rosie’s murder goes nowhere.
  
  The second part of the novel takes place 25 years later. A cold case review is undertaken of the Rosie Duff murder, although it is currently at a standstill as the initial physical evidence has been misplaced. Then one of the four university friends is murdered, a new character who is obviously unbalanced appears, and the lives of the three remaining former friends are thrown again into upheaval.
  
  The main character in both parts is Alex Gilbert. He is the only one who is consistently referred to by his real name. The other three friends are usually referred to by their nicknames (Mondo, Ziggy, and Weird), and the reader remembers them by these nicknames and not by their real names. Alex is not a particularly interesting character — he’s rather bland, although his family status does play an important part in the plot. However, McDermid has surrounded him with interesting characters (Mondo, Ziggy, and Weird), and also made him part of the general pattern of suspicion that surrounds the initial Rosie Duff murder investigation. Consequently, having such an unexciting character at the centre of the story does not put off the reader.
  
  I did consider the actual murderer a suspect while reading the first section and was surprised that no one asked pertinent questions about his whereabouts during the time of the murder. In the second section, however, the author’s careful misdirection drew my suspicions away from him. And this is why the blurb advertises this novel as a “masterpiece of misdirection”.
  
  At no point during the story did I consider Karen Pirie a major character. Her nature was only half formed at this point — steadfast and diligent, but without the clearly defined uniqueness (and depth) that is found in the later Karen Pirie books. (I found Jackie, also a minor character in the book, to be far better fleshed out than Karen Pirie. So if McDermid had a clear image of Pirie’s traits in mind while writing this one, she could have done it with a few well-written strokes, as she did with Jackie.)
  
  The book is long but the writing is so outstanding that I never stopped reading it except to rest my aging eyes. The only part that disappointed me, a bit, was the ending, which felt rushed. It was here that the character of Pirie could have been deepened, but instead we receive only a second-hand recounting of the final investigation and arrest. I wonder if McDermid decided to cut down part of the ending so that the focus remained squarely on Alex and how “suspicion” can mar lives.
  
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  My reviews for other books in this series:
  
  Broken Ground (Karen Pirie, #5)
  
  Still Life (Karen Pirie, #6)
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• 
  Steelwhisper

  4.5* rounded down.
  
  -- mild spoilers ahead! --
  
  
  
  
  Wow. I really needed reading this one.
  
  First things first, I grade McDermid against herself and against other crime writers I like a lot. If I graded her against the average romance (m/m or else), I'd need dozens of stars to find a just balance.
  
  There's thick plot, an era and a place portrayed so perfectly as to put you right there, and I never guessed at the murderer, even though the red herring was more than just that. But then, I rarely ever guess correctly, so that may be just me, but on the plot and story level this book thoroughly satisfied me. A big solid chunk of a book.
  
  What I also dearly needed was a book cleaning my reader palate of bad, overblown-blowsy, theatrical, over-cute and strainedly "chic" language. I read too much of that lately and it started to clog all my senses and to sour me on books. The amount of genuine Scottish and British expressions was just right to firmly anchor the book (and not so overdone as to read like a direct attempt to dazzle), there were similes and descriptors which worked for me without having to think about it, and she effortlessly creates atmosphere.
  
  Maybe what I find the most enchanting is the way how McDermid writes men, and psychopaths. She managed to have me side and sympathise with four lads, during the earliest era of modern lad culture. And she somehow managed to do that without being in any way forgiving about their faults. These were real, genuine boys and men, without any of the artificial affectations so common in romance, and that felt like a fresh breath.
  
  Oh and the 0.5* lacking from this is because I can't seem to not want Tony or Carol in her books ;P
  
• 
  Christine PNW

  Liked it, but I totally figured out whodunit.
• 
  Mike

  Four college friends stumble across a dead body in the snow on the way home after a night of partying. First as witnesses and then as suspects, the characters fail to generate much endearment. It’s a well written story with various twists and revelatory developments. However, the whodunit is somewhat apparent, yet the police seem unable to solve the crime. This is the first in a series, which a friend recommended but unfortunately it was not an engaging crime drama. Only a three-star rating.
• 
  Eti

  Харесах! Качествен криминален роман, напълно заслужено получил награда "Шерлок".
  
  Много ми хареса историята и начина, по който е поднесена. Допаднаха ми и героите до известна степен (не бяха дразнещи и досадни)...
  
  Това е първият случай на Карен Пири и изненадващо за нея не е отделено почти никакво "екранно време". С нея или без нея - нямаше голямо значение.
• 
  Megan

  1.5 stars.
  
  For a novel supposedly about Karen Pirie, she featured very rarely throughout these pages. 🙄
• 
  K.A. Laity

  [my review from AKnifeandAQuill.wordpress.com]
  
  This is my first read by The Wire in the Blood author Val McDermid. Don’t look at me like that! I only got back into crime recently and I tend toward the noirish end of crime (AKA everything goes wrong, you know who did it just not what’s going to happen to them because of it, but it’s bound to be bad) rather than the puzzles-to-solve whodunit end of the spectrum. This mostly has to do with how phenomenally lazy I am. Plotting a good detective novel takes a great deal of effort.
  
  I would imagine.
  
  So McDermid managed not only to weave a big fat mystery engagingly through a BIG FAT NOVEL of 500+ pages but managed to make me afraid for the outcome, caring about the characters — even ones I didn’t like! — and while I had an idea who the killer would be, I had no idea how it could be proved.
  
  And yes, I cried. I remember asking a famous writer if he cried when he killed off a very beloved character and he looked at me like I was insane. I kind of thought he was either lying or a bit of a dick (maybe both). I’ve always shared Robert Frost’s opinion, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” McDermid made me cry for my favourite character and curse her for killing [gender suppressed as mildly spoilerish]. She also gave a new shape to my nightmares. I even tweeted her that she had done so and she tweeted back because she knew what it would be:
  
  bottle dungeon.
  
  Oh yeah. Shudder. I can’t recall the last time I had to stop reading because I couldn’t take it. I have read and watched a lot of horror in my day and while I wince with empathy, I seldom stop. I had to stop. And then I had to read to find out what happened even if it were the worst. The sweat’s popping out just thinking about it again. Claustrophobia is a terrible thing.
  
  So yeah, read it. And shudder.
• 
  Jaksen

  Written January, 2016: Not really read this one, just want it off my list for now. I cannot stand the narrated version. Accents, the sound of the voice, it grates on me. I will READ this one when I get the time.
  
  Written November, 2018: Okay so I got the hardcover - finally - and read it.
  
  At first I didn't much like this book. In 1978 four young men discover the body of a barely-breathing young woman in the snow. (In fact, one of them stumbles over her.) One runs off to get help, another is with her as she dies. This is no spoiler; it all happens in the first few pages. But though the writing is very good I really didn't care much about any of this ...
  
  At any rate, with no suspects about, all four boys/young men become suspects. The first half of the book is mostly about them and how the friendships among them become strained as they are dragged before the police over and over, questioned and suspected of murder, and how life becomes rather hellish in the small college (Scottish) town in which they are living.
  
  Flash forward to present day - or 2003. What happens then and how it's resolved is one big ball of confusion. I kept thinking - what, how, where, why? It all does make sense - in hindsight - as to how things are resolved, but I finished the book while shaking my head. So a good enough mystery, a C+ in my rating system, but certainly not among the best I've ever read.
  
  Three stars
  
  And oh, Karen Pirie is barely a character here. I suppose, since it's her first appearance in the series, she gets to be No. 1.
  
  Shrugs.
• 
  Diane

  My first time reading this author, won't be my last! I had glanced through a few reviews of this book (something I don't normally do), and the main concensus was bear with the book it gets better as you go. I agree, the first 1/3 of the book was spent on character development and the murder itself. The next third we finally meet the main series character (Inspector Karen Pirie), but only touched on her until the end. The story line was really good and the guilty party was fairly well hidden until the last quarter or so. A great whodunit and worth the read. I did find it a challenge getting use to the author's writing style, but a persevered and am glad I did!
  
  4 stars and a thumbs up!
  
  From the blurb: Student Alex Gilbey 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. And the only suspects are the four young students stained with her blood. Twenty-five years later, Fife police mount a cold case review. Among the unsolved murders they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has their own idea of how justice should be done. One of the original quartet dies in a suspicious house fire. Soon after, a second is killed in what looks like a burglary gone sour. But Alex fears the worst. Someone is taking revenge for Rosie Duff. He has to find out who it is before he becomes the next victim. And it might just save his life if he can uncover who really killed Rosie all those years ago.
• 
  Brenda H

  Four friends are returning home after a night of revelry. Taking a shortcut through the local cemetery, they discover a nearly dead woman. As three remain to comfort and try to help the woman, the fourth races off to get help from the local police. This sets into motion a series of events that will change these young men forever and haunt them the rest of their lives.
  
  The police are suspicious of the young men and begin to take their lives apart. Talking to their friends, searching their home and turning a blind-eye to local hoodlums taking their own justice – these actions mark the 4 men as suspects though the police can find no evidence that they were responsible, thus branding them in the minds of the townpeople as murderers.
  
  Now, 25 years later, the police department is performing a review of cold cases in the hope that advances in DNA analysis will finally solve these crimes. And, again, the men are considered suspects.
  
  This story was good though the local police force seemed more inept and bumbling than usual. It was also billed as #1 in the Karen Pirie series though she has a very small part in the story. The book was well-written and had a good pace. The author put out enough clues that you could solve along as the story unfolded (though the actual killer was kind of obvious early on)
  
  Rating: 3.75