Val. McDERMID - A Place of Execution.

A Place of Execution.

VAL McDERMID.

HarperCollins

Book Jacket.

Winter 1963: two children have disappeared

off the streets of Manchester; the murderous

careers of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady have

begun. On a freezing day in December,

another child goes missing: thirteen-year-old

Alison Carter vanishes from the isolated

Derbyshire hamlet of Scardale, a self

contained, 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 murder with no body, an

investigation with more dead ends and

closed faces than hed have found in the

anonymity of the inner city, an outcome

which reverberates down the years.

Decades later he finally tells his story to

journalist Catherine Heathcote, but just when

the book is poised for publication, Bennett

unaccountably tries to pull the plug. He has

new information which he refuses to divulge,

and 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, A Place

of Execution is a taut psychological suspense

thriller that explores, exposes and explodes

the border between reality and illusion in a

multilayered narrative that turns expectations

on their head and reminds us that what we

know is what we do not know. A monstrous

tale of deception, the technique of the telling

is the greatest deception of all.

val McDERMID grew up in a Scottish mining

community then read English at Oxford. She was

a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last

three years as Northern Bureau Chief of a

national Sunday tabloid. She is now a full-time

writer and lives in South Manchester.

Val McDermid is the highly acclaimed author of The Mermaids Singing and The Wire in the Blood, tense psychological thrillers featuring

criminal profiler Tony Hill. The Mermaids

Singing won the 1995 Gold Dagger Award for

Best Crime Novel of the Year.

She has also written six crime novels featuring

Manchester P I Kate Brannigan, and the latest in

this much-praised series, Star Struck, won the

Grand Prix des Romans dAventure in France.

A further five novels feature journalist sleuth

Lindsay Gordon.

ISBN 0 00 232676 0

Author photograph by Jerry Bauer

Jacket image by Slatter Anderson

HarperCollins Publishers.

www.fireandwater.com

Visit the book lovers website

A Place of Execution is compelling

and atmospheric A tour de force

MINETTE WALTERS

ACCLAIM FOR

THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD

The Wire in the Blood is truly frightening. McDermids capacity to enter the warped mind of a deviant criminal is shiveringly convincingThis is a writer who just gets better and better

MARCEL BERLINS, THE TIMES

Tension-filled The story, handled with verve, wit and style, never flags

FRANCES FYFIELD, MAIL ON SUNDAY

Tense and shocking

ANDREW TAYLOR, INDEPENDENT

This is a wholly satisfying read which cleverly subverts tradition and expectation. Having already awarded her previous Tony Hill novel a Gold Dagger, someone better be smelting the platinum

IAN RANKIN, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

Val McDermid is an accomplished storyteller, and this scary, fast-moving tale is engrossing

DAILY TELEGRAPH

Terrific chiller from Manchesters answer to Thomas Harris

LUCRETIA STEWART, GUARDIAN

This is a clever and exciting thriller

SUSANNA YAGER, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

ISBN 0-00-232676-0

9 780002 326766

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

The Wire in the Blood

The Mermaids Singing

Kate Brannigan novels

Blue Genes

Clean Break

Crack Down

Kick Back

Dead Beat

Lindsay Gordon novels

Booked for Murder

Union Jack

Final Edition

Common Murder

Report for Murder

Nonfiction

A Suitable Job for a Woman

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors imagination.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollinsPMMisfiers

77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London w6 sjb

The HarperCollins website address is:

www.fireandwater.com

Published by HarperCollins Publishers 1999

13579 108642

Copyright Val McDermid 1999

Val McDermid asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

isbn 0 00 232676 0

Typeset in Linotype Minion and Times by

Palimpsest Book Production Limited,

Polmont, Stirlingshire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Caledonian International Book Manufacturing Ltd, Glasgow All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

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 recreate the world of a county police force in the i96os. Mark at the Buxton Advertiserprovided 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.

To my evil twin; laissez les bon temps rouler, cher.

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.