Book description
A riveting psychological thriller, now a major ITV drama, from the
Number One bestselling Queen of crime fiction Val McDermid.
In the Peak District village of Scarsdale, thirteen-year-old girls
didn't just run away. So when Alison Carter vanished in the winter of
'63, everyone knew it was a murder.
Catherine Heathcote remembers the case well. A child herself when
Alison vanished, decades on she still recalls the sense of fear as
parents kept their children close, terrified of strangers.
Now a journalist, she persuades DI George Bennett to speak of the hunt
for Alison, the tantalizing leads and harrowing dead ends. But when a
fresh lead emerges, Bennett tries to stop the story - plunging Catherine
into a world of buried secrets and revelations. 'From the first pages,
we know we're in the hands of a master this book will earn its author a
place in that rare pantheon - the truly literary suspense novel' Jeffrey Deaver
'Beautifully written … It may be that McDermid will write better novels
than this in the future, but I do not see how' Daily Telegraph
'One of the best detective stories I've read' Ruth Rendell
'A substantial book and an impressive one, possibly the best McDermid
has written and it takes this most accomplished writer into higher
territory' Sunday Telegraph
'A Place of Execution is a wake-up call to crime writers everywhere. A
terrific and original novel, brilliantly executed' Mirror 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. Now a full-time
writer, she divides her time between Cheshire and Northumberland. Her
novels have won international acclaim and a number of prestigious
awards, including the Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, the
Anthony Award for best novel, and the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year
Award. Her thriller series featuring criminal profiler Tony Hill has
been adapted into the much-loved TV series Wire in the Blood.
