On a cold December evening in 1978 drunken four coeds from St. Andrews University stumble upon the bleeding body of Rosie, a local barmaid, in the snow. Before one of them returns with help, she has died and each of them are suspects.

Slowly their personal secrets are revealed as their lives are torn apart. Eventually they are able to focus enough to complete their college education and begin their careers.

Twenty-five years pass and their past comes back to haunt them. Rosie's murder has not been solved and a close relative of hers appears and wants revenge. One by one the co-eds of 1978 begin to meet their fates and their makers until Rosie's real murderer is revealed.


Superb Thriller   November 12, 2003
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

Award winning British author Val McDermid chronicles a murder at St. Andrews, Scotland in 1978 and the long-lasting effects twenty-five years later. Returning home from a late night party in St. Andrews, college students Tom, Alex, David, and Sigmund, stumbled over the snow and onto the blood-soaked body of Rosie Duff, a barmaid at a local pub. Though medical student, Sigmund "Ziggy" tried to staunch the flow of blood, Rosie was dead by the time Alex returned with help.

While the narrative may seem lengthy, every bit of it shows how the discovery of Rosie's body caused the lives of these four men to spiral out of control, never to be the same again. Ziggy's homosexuality is revealed, causing a rift with his friends David and Tom. Tom finds salvation and later becomes a minister. Alex seeks solace with David's younger sister, Lynn, whom he later marries. David later marries a much younger Helene and distances himself from his family. And at the crux of this fractured friendship is the thought that each man believes that one of the others may have been responsible for murdering Rosie.

Fast-forward twenty-five years, when two of the four friends are killed under suspicious circumstances. Though Alex suspects that someone is taking revenge for Rosie's murder, he cannot convince the former officer assigned to the case, Jimmy Lawson, that his family's lives are in danger. Racing against the clock to find the true identity of Rosie's killer before any more murders are committed, he encounters many obstacles, the least of which is the fact that evidence relating to Rosie's murder has mysteriously disappeared.

The ever present suspense constantly leaves the reader guessing and wondering as to the identity of Rosie's killer. And while the revenge killings twenty-five years later seem very cut and dry, nothing is truly as its seems. Ms. McDermid has spun a very twisted tale, the culmination of which will leave the reader stunned in this expertly crafted thriller.


A classic story of murder and redemption   November 17, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Val McDermid returns to fine form with an absolutely sensational thriller and an utterly compelling page-turner. I was somewhat disappointed with A Place of Execution; although good, it was rather long, and lacked the tightly driven plot and dramatic tension that is usually synonymous with McDermid's work. The actions of the past and how much these dealings come back to haunt us are woven through A Distant Echo, as throughout the first half of the book, the reader is catapulted back to New Year's Eve in 1978 and then, in the second half of the book, bought forward to 2003 where redemption and truth are finally revealed.

McDermid creates a solid and chilly atmosphere as she describes bleak and cold Scottish winters in the town of Kirkcaldy and in the University Town of St, Andrews, where our four main protagonists live. On a frosty, icy night four young students Tom, Alex, David, and Sigmund, full of optimism and idealism about their lives and careers, find the blood soaked body of Rosie Duff, a local girl, who has been brutally stabbed. What happens next turns into a riveting tale of recrimination and blame, as the boys faced with a seemingly, disinterested and inadequate local police force, face a life branded as killers. A Distant Echo, in classic whodunit style really keeps you guessing, and the tension and suspense never ceases as time periods are transcended and the real killer is gradually revealed.

McDermid, to her credit, infuses the narrative with lots of things Scottish. References are constantly made to homemade shortbread, nappies, black bun, sultana cake, Scottish country dancing, grouse, and whiskey. You really get a sense of familiarity, and that McDermid is completely passionate about her roots. She also raises lots of issues to do with gay bashing, hate crimes, and religious intolerance, so the story always has a sense of propinquity, immediacy, and relevance. A Distant Echo is a superbly crafted thriller and well worth the wait. And it without doubt reflects Val McDermid's unique talent as a one of the world's most pre-eminent mystery writers. This is a must read for fans of murder mysteries.

Michael


The Distant Echo   January 15, 2004
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

At four o'clock in the morning in December of 1978, four students from St. Andrews School in Scotland stumble across the bloodied body of barmaid Rosie Duff. She is still alive, if barely, and the fastest of the students, Alex Gilbey, runs off through the blinding snow to find help. He eventually staggers up to a police car, covered himself in Rosie's blood and soaked in sweat, looking, he is uncomfortably aware, more like a man guilty of murder than a respectable citizen reporting a crime. Sure enough, in the absence of other suspects, Gilbey and his friends, the self-styled "Laddies fi' Kirkcaldy," are suspected of the murder--Rosie dies shortly after the boys find her--though definitive proof of their guilt is never uncovered.

The murder investigation of 1978 and its repercussions for the four students are the subject of the first part of The Distant Echo. The second part opens twenty-five years later, when Rosie's murder is reinvestigated as part of a cold case review. Modern forensic techniques such as DNA analysis will, it is to be hoped, finally exonerate Gilbey and his friends and bring the real killer to light. But, of course, things don't go as smoothly as one would like for the Laddies fi' Kirkcaldy....

It is a measure of McDermid's success that one cannot be at all confident about the identity of Rosie's killer until it is revealed at the book's end. Until then even the unlikeliest of suspects seem as if they just might have committed the crime. The Distant Echo is tense--I read the last 120 pages or so in one sitting, it being impossible not to do so--and its complex characters well drawn. I am not convinced that in the end the motivation of the killer makes perfect sense, but my niggling doubts are far outweighed by my appreciation of the good read McDermid has given us.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece


Val McDermid is a Master Storyteller   October 22, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Ms. McDermid has delivered another taut and intelligent mystery for her legions of devoted fans, which I count myself a proud member.

I will leave it to others to give a plot and character overview, but believe a reader new to her work will be drawn to how well she constructs her plots and characters. Also, she's very fair in how she places clues in the story for those of us who like to work out the "who done it" before the final exposition.

If you are looking for a book to burn the midnight lamp over, this will keep you engrossed.

My only criticism was a minor character (deviant, bad guy)was named Brian !!