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Overview
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, A Place of Execution is a taut psychological thriller that explores, exposes, and explodes the border between reality and illusion in a multilayered 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.
Synopsis
One of the most acclaimed novels of suspense of our time, A Place of Execution won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was hailed by critics as “a marvel from start to finish” (The Wall Street Journal) and “a modern masterpiece” (The Denver Post).
New York Times Book Review
Val McDermid's elegiac study of a henious crime and its aftermath, is very much in the (P.D.) Jamesian mode, both in its inventive use of devices of detection and its mournful view of murder as a moral reckoning.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
A 2001 EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST NOVELThe Barnes & Noble Review
To put the matter simply, veteran crime writer Val McDermid's latest novel, A Place of Execution, is an astonishing piece of work: suspenseful, moving, evocative, and filled with unexpected twists and turns. Not surprisingly, it was a finalist for the British Crime Writers Association's Gold Dagger Award as Best Novel of 1999. Its American incarnation seems poised to repeat that success and should become a primary contender for all of the mystery field's major awards.
The bulk of the narrative takes place in 1963 and is set against the bleak, inhospitable Derbyshire countryside. The story begins with the disappearance of 30-year-old Alison Carter, who vanishes without a trace while walking her dog on the moors outside her isolated village of Scardale. Alison's disappearance triggers a protracted, painstakingly detailed investigation that affects the lives of literally dozens of people. Included among them are Alison's distraught mother; her remote, self-absorbed stepfather; her xenophobic Scardale neighbors; and a decent, dogged police inspector named George Bennett, whose determination to unravel the mystery develops into a personal crusade that will color the remainder of his life.
For weeks on end, the investigation goes nowhere. And though the few available clues indicate probable foul play, Alison's body is never found. Eventually, despite the absence of a body, investigators unearth an incriminating cache of physical evidence, identify a particularly loathsome culprit, and successfully prosecute him for murder. Most suspense novels would end at this point, but McDermid has a whole new set of surprises in reserve.
Moving her narrative forward almost 35 years, she takes us into the distant aftermath of the crime and into the life of Catherine Heathcote, the investigative journalist whose re-creation of the Alison Carter case constitutes the first 300 pages of this novel. The final section recounts the unexpected revelations that Catherine -- in conjunction with the now retired George Bennett -- gradually uncovers. These revelations cast the events of 1963 in a startling new light, transforming a straightforward tale of murder and its consequences into a wholly original account of conspiracy, sexual misconduct, and carefully calculated revenge.
McDermid's novel really is, in that overworked phrase, a tour de force. Even its reliance on a single, massive coincidence seems somehow justified and lends the narrative the emotional resonance of classical Greek tragedy. A Place of Execution is, throughout, an intelligently constructed, masterfully sustained performance and deserves the attention of discerning readers on both sides of the Atlantic.
--Bill Sheehan
Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has just been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).
From the Publisher
"One of the most ingenious mystery novels ever."--Newsday
"Inventivly conceived and wonderfully written...A marvel from start to finish."--Wall Street Journal
"Val McDemid's best work to date."--Times Literary Supplement
The Wall Street Journal
Masterly....Inventively conceived and wonderfully written, A Place of Execution is a marvel from start to finish.New York Times Book Review
Val McDermid's elegiac study of a henious crime and its aftermath, is very much in the (P.D.) Jamesian mode, both in its inventive use of devices of detection and its mournful view of murder as a moral reckoning.Toby Bromberg
Val McDermid has created a novel so intense and vivid that the reader suspends her own reality and enters the world of Scardale in 1963. The story is tightly told with characters so memorable that they become part of our life. A brilliantly logical denouement stuns and shatters us, making this a most remarkable reading experience.— Romantic Times
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 Cahners Business Information.Internet Book Watch
It was just a couple weeks before Christmas when teenager Alison Carter disappeared. Perhaps in London no one would notice, but in the tightly woven farming community of Scarsdale, that is a frightening shocker. Detective Inspector George Bennett takes charge of the inquiry in the small Derbyshire hamlet, knowing this case could end his career before it starts. With no clues and even fewer suspects, the police turn to the lass' stepfather Philip Hawkin as the alleged killer. In 1998, journalist Catherine Heathcote wants to write a true crime book focusing on the Carter case. She obtains cooperation from the now retired George. However, as Catherine conducts her research, George learns something new that shakes him. Soon he suffers a heart attack that leaves him unconscious, and if he survives, he will probably be brain damaged. Already highly regarded by fans and critics, Val McDermid has written her masterpiece, a novel that is a sure shot to make all the lists. A Place Of Execution is a serious tome centering on what is justice and who is answerable to society and the victims when the system fails. The characters are fully developed, and the middle sixties feels genuine. This novel is Ms. McDermid's most ambitious and complex work, but she more than triumphs with this extraordinary book.—Internet Book Watch