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A Place of Execution, by Val McDermid
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On a freezing day in December 1963, Alison Carter vanishes from her rural village, an insular community that distrusts the outside world. For the young George Bennett, a newly promoted inspector, it is the beginning of his most difficult and harrowing case--a suspected murder with no body, an investigation with more dead ends and closed faces than he'd have found in the anonymity of the inner city, and an outcome that reverberates through the years.
Decades later Bennett finally tells his story to journalist Catherine Heathcote, but just when the book is poised for publication, he unaccountably tries to pull the plug. He has new information that he refuses to divulge, new information which threatens the very foundations of his existence. Catherine is forced to reinvestigate the past, with results that turn the world upside down.
A Greek tragedy in modern England, Val McDermid's A Place of Execution is a taut psychological thriller that explores, exposes, and explodes the border between reality and illusion in a multi-layered narrative that turns expectation on its head and reminds us that what we know is what we do not know.
A Place of Execution is winner of the 2000 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a 2001 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel.
- Sales Rank: #254431 in Books
- Published on: 2009-10-27
- Released on: 2009-10-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .92" w x 5.50" l, .82 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 416 pages
Amazon.com Review
Penzler Pick, August 2000: Val McDermid, better known in England than in the U.S., is a well respected writer of crime fiction. Her three ongoing mystery series feature red-haired PI Kate Brannigan; Lindsay Gordon, a lesbian socialist journalist, and Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, clinical psychologist and detective inspector respectively. A Place of Execution is McDermid's first stand-alone mystery, and with it, she redefines the term "village mystery."
It is 1963, the Beatles are becoming wildly popular in England, and the Swinging Sixties are about to change the post-war Western world. But in the village of Scardale in the Peaks District of Derbyshire, a desolate area beloved of hikers and climbers, nothing has changed for hundreds of years. The village has remained small and insular--most villagers are related, and the most common second names are Carter and Lomas. When Alison Carter, aged 13, disappears while walking her dog, the case is given to a young detective inspector named George Bennett. As Bennett gets to know the families in the village and their concerns, he realizes that this case is not as simple as it first seems. The villagers seem to be closing ranks, and Bennett suspects they may be protecting one of their own. Central to his investigation are Alison's mother and her husband. When Ruth Carter remarried, she chose Philip Hawkin, an outsider who is now the current squire of the village. As Alison's stepfather, he raises all kinds of red flags for Bennett. But so does Alison's close relationship with her cousin Charlie who, too conveniently, it seems, finds a vital clue.
All this is complicated by the fact that the police and the villagers cannot find Alison's body; there are also other disappearances in the area which may or may not be connected. To reveal more about this riveting mystery would be to give too much away. McDermid takes the reader through a maze of conflicting facts and theories, and when Bennett, with the help of local police, solves the case, the real story is only just beginning--especially for Bennett, who will question not only his own part in solving this case, but ultimately the profession he has chosen. --Otto Penzler
From Publishers Weekly
This superb novel should make Gold Dagger-nominee McDermid's reputation and bring her new readers in droves. It's December 1963 and teenage girls all over Britain are swooning to the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand." In the tiny, remote village of Scardale, Derbyshire, 13-year-old Alison Carter is envied by her peers because her stepfather buys her all the latest records. When Alison goes missing one dark night, Dist. Insp. George Bennett takes control of the case, despite being new to the job and the district. Other children have gone missing recently from towns and cities in the north, but somehow Alison's case is different. Although the police feverishly track down clues and organize searches over the moors, any hope that they'll find the girl fades as the days go by. Obsessed by the case, George is tormented by his lack of success and by the suffering of Alison's mother. Little more can be said without giving away key plot points, but McDermid spins a haunting tale whose complexity never masks her adroitness at creating memorable characters and scenes. Her narrative spell is such that the reader is immersed immediately in the rural Britain of the early '60s. She clearly did extensive research on how police work was done at the time, and it has paid off beautifully. The format of the novel is unusual, with much of it purporting to be a true crime book, but McDermid keeps the suspense taut, and her pacing never flags. This is an extraordinary achievement, and it's sure to be on many lists of the best mysteries of the year. 10-city author tour. (Sept. 20)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Readers will be reminded of the real-life Moors Murders and of Stephen King's fictive eerie-village tales as they make their way through this compelling, funhouse-mirror mystery. McDermid turns the English village cozy on its head as she presents Scardale, a village whose hard-bitten inhabitants try to keep the world out and their secrets in. Part of the mystery is set in the '60s, when several children disappeared and were later found murdered in nearby Manchester. The stepdaughter of Scardale's leading citizen goes missing next. The local police investigating the disappearance are met with byzantine resistance from the villagers at every turn. The mystery deepens throughout, even extending, with a shocking ending, 30 years into the future. McDermid, who won the British Gold Dagger Award in 1995 for Mermaid Singing, brings some cunning new twists to the psychological-suspense genre. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
114 of 117 people found the following review helpful.
A Place Of Execution
By tregatt
This is by far the best novel I've read all year! Not only does it
possess an intriguing and tightly paced plot, but it also boasts of a
prose style and language that will be appreciated by readers
everywhere.
The mystery takes place in the early 1960s in the small
close-knit northern village of Scardale-- a community that appears to
be cut off from the modern world. A young 13 year old girl, Alison
Carter, has gone missing. The back drop to this is the disappearance
of two other children from other northern towns. Tensions mount as
the police try to figure out if there is some kind of link between the
three cases, and if there is a mad man at work; or if Alison's
disappearance is a one off and the work of someone closer to home and
equally sinister. DCI George Bennett, who heads the
search/investigation for the missing girl, realises that he's not only
facing a time constraint to finding her alive but also the insular
distrusting attitude of the villagers, who may because of their
suspicious natures be hindering the investigation.
The book is
divided into two parts. The first section deals with the police
investigation of Alison's disappearance; and later as they begin to
doubt ever finding her alive, the search for her killer. We also get a
look at how the police put their case together for the Crown, and the
trial. The second part of the book takes place in the late 1990s when,
a reporter, Catherine Heathcote, decides to write a book about
Alison.
I was totally engrossed with this book. Cooking and eating
dinner took a definite backseat as I delved into the twists and turns
of the novel. And there was a plot twist unlike anything I've ever
read before. I really enjoyed this book immensely and recommend it
highly to anyone to enjoys mysteries. Sadly, novels of this caliber do
not come often enough. This is a definite gem, and worthy of the five
star rating.
59 of 61 people found the following review helpful.
Sure about turning off the light?
By taking a rest
I think one good measure of a mystery is how early in the book you can make an educated guess about what the truth is. If the solution is apparent too soon, bad mystery, the farther into the book you have to travel, can indicate just how clever the writing has been. Wild guesses don't count.
This is the first book I have read by Ms. Val Mcdermid, I will be backtracking to her earlier work, and whatever comes next is an automatic purchase. This lady writes an amazing story. Even though the book runs to 404 pages, you will be in a select group if the riddles are solved much before the last several dozen pages. And if it is the last dozen, don't worry, this Authoress is that good at not showing her hand, her complete hand until the very end.
The book is set in a contemporary time frame, but the isolated nature of where the story unfolds makes the reader feel as though it's the 19th and not the 20th Century. Ms. Mcdermid also plays with what may or may not actually be true. From the very beginning, even prior to the start of the story, the reader is getting set up, or perhaps misdirected, for the Author's voice and the voice of the Author in the tale share a line that is indistinct at best. I thought it very clever, and it added an interesting element that stayed at the back of my mind throughout the work.
I finished the book on a very stormy night, which could have been taken directly from the book. The storm had driven my 8-year-old son into the room. When I finished, Ms. Mcdermid had succeeded in scaring the blazes from me. I suggested my son might want to keep the light on for a bit. To my disappointment he said no.
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful.
Much more than a police procedural
By A Customer
In modern British fiction writing much of the interesting work (engaging with social issues, politics, and class) is found with genre writers. As some novelists retreat into an insular examination of the lives and loves of writers (and other creative types), genre writers - in dealing with the underside of humanity - can examine the big questions. At the vanguard of modern British crime writing are the likes of Ruth Rendell, Denise Mina, John Harvey, Michael Dibdin, and the writer of the book under review, Val McDermid.
McDermid is an interesting writer. Her previous books have included a PI series, and pyschological thrillers that geuninely shock (such as The Mermaids Singing). This book, A Place of Execution, is something of a departure.
It falls readily into two principal parts. The first section comprises a police procedural. It is set at the time of the notorious Moors Murders in 1963 (what is it with British writers and 1963? John Lawton's A Little White Death and Reginald Hill's Recalled to Life, also use the year as a starting point). The Moors Murders were child killings that horrified British society and still have an effect today. As the novel opens a child goes missing in a small isolated village. The child is the step daughter of the local squire. A new police inspector is involved, and this first section follows his investigation. It is written in the third person, but the chief protagonist is the inspector and we follow his attempts to win the trust of the small community, and the police politics that is played out in the background. One does not wish to give too much away about the investigation, as there are a number of twists throughout this section. But the section concludes with a trial at which the inspector's own character and motivation is questioned.
McDermid excels at the portrayal of the effect of the loss of a child on a family and on a community. Also convincing are the relationships McDermid draws. The developing friendship between the investigating police sergeant, and the recently graduated inspector; the close relationship between the inspector and his wife (a peripheral character in the novel, but a convincing anchor of stability in his personal life); and the manner in which he wins the trust of local people. There are some grotesque local characters created; but coming from a small locality myself these characters are not out of place, and are only symptomatic of a general approach to non-locals. The class distinction between the squire and the villagers is also acutely observed.
If the novel were to stop at the conclusion of the trial there would be a highly satisfying genre procedural.
However, it is with an audacious second half that McDermid excels. It transpires that the first half is a memoir written by a journalist. The inspector then tries to block publication.
In this section we follow the professional writer researching, gathering information, and examining an incident from over thirty years before. Many of the characters in the first half are revisited, older, and with prejudices reinforced, or challenged by their own experiences.
Character development is wonderful , and the investigation becomes a gripping thriller.
In this section McDermid turns all that you have accepted in the first half on its head.
This is an excellent novel. Its characterisation is, without exception, of the highest quality; and it is strongly plotted. Its sole flaw, to my mind, is the conclusion. It is bold, but not wholly convincing. However, for me, its merits outweigh this. This is compelling, and looks at the extremes of love and loss. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
If you enjoy this book I would suggest you try On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill, which has similar virtues, and is as well written.
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