A Place of Execution

Protagonist(s): Detective Inspector George Bennett, journalist Catherine Heathcote
Setting: Derbyshire, England in 1963 and 1998

I've read a couple of McDermid's Kate Brannigan mystery series and enjoyed them so much that I thought I would try one of her standalones. I was not disappointed. McDermid

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is becoming one of my favorite authors.

It is a freezing cold December in 1963. 13-year-old Alison Carter lives in a tiny isolated community in Derbyshire called Scardale. She is envied by her friends because her stepfather buys her all the latest records. (And if you're an English teenager in 1963, Beatles records are a *must*.) One evening she steps out with her dog to take a walk and disappears. Newly promoted Detective Inspector George Bennett takes over the investigation. He doesn't have the experience, but everyone else is on leave. He takes Alison's disappearance to heart and in due course finds that the biggest obstacle to finding her is the distrust of the villagers. Thirty-five years later, Catherine Heathcote decides to write a book on the case that made Bennett's career. No one is prepared for what happens next.

Usually when I read a mystery, one thing stands above all the rest, whether it's the characterization or the setting or the plot. In A Place of Execution, all three are brilliantly done and each has an integral part in the book. One scene in particular will always stand out in my mind. In that scene, McDermid's language is simple and direct without being overly graphic--but I was left stunned, sickened, and with tears swimming in my eyes. Very powerful and moving! I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is one of my Top Ten reads of the year.

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An incredible stand-alone volume from Val McDermid. I found this novel almost impossible to put down (but one has to make tea and sleep, you know). A very cleverly-framed text, you don't quite know where you're at with this murder mystery. What at first looks like a rather neat and tidy

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investigation with no (or minimal) loose ends, turns out to be something else entirely.

Murder in a small, traditional English country town set in both the 1960s and modern day. And there's always a cup of tea to be had. I appreciate a writer who understands the importance of tea! ;)

It's also nothing like the Kate Brannigan series, which I started reading after this, my first McDermid book.

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This is just brilliant ! By far Mcdermid's finest book. It leads on from the Moors Murders of 1963 and interweaves this with her novel.I've rarely been so surprised by a denouncement before.

There are often novels that are about old convictions that are bought into question because of new information and the story is about unraveling the truth. This is that sort of story but in reverse. We start with a crime, the disappearance of 13 year old Alison Carter, and follow it through to the

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end of the investigation and subsequent court case. We then jump 35 years where the truth about what really happened is revealed.

The only thing I can say against this novel is that is long and perhaps a bit too wordy. Otherwise, it's a good read.

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A young girl goes missing from her home in a small close-knit Derbyshire community and a major police investigation into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance begins. Utterly believable and completely gripping it captures the emotional journey of the characters in a story which spans over

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35 years.

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On a feezing day in December 1963. 13 years old Alison Carter vanishes from her village. Nothing will ever be the same for the inhabitant of the isolated hamlet in the english countryside. Newly promoted Inspector George Bennett is determined to solve the case - even if it is just to bring home a

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daughter's dead body to her mother. As days progressed, the likelyhood that Alison has been murdered increases when a gruesome discovery is made in a cave. But with no corpse, the barest of the clues and an investigation that turns up more questions than answers, Bennett finds himself up against a stone wall... until he learns the shocking truth - a truth that will have far-reaching consequences. Decades later, Bennett finally tells his story to journalist Catherine Heathcote. But, just when the book is ready for publication,he pulls the plug on it without explanation. He has new information taht he will not divulge. Refusing to let the past remain a mystery, Catherine sets out to uncover what really happen to Alison Carter. But the secret is one she may wish she'd left buried on that dark day 35 years ago.

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Powerful British novel of a writer relating the story of a twenty-year-old crime, only to have the cop who reported the story back out. The story was about the disappearance of a young girl from a small isolated village.

This is one of most well-written mystery novels I have ever read. If you like suspense and mystery stories, it is a must read.

DI Bennett investigates the disappearance and apparent murder of a 14 year old girl from a rural ingrown community. Step-father is executed without a body being discovered. 35 years later the truth is revealed.

I suspected the outcome of this book already after the introduction but I didn't see all of it coming. A solid mysterious thriller with all the topics and aspects a good thriller needs in my opinion.

This is the first book by this author that I have read and really enjoyed it.

Back Cover Blurb:
Winter 1963: two children have disappeared in 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

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Carter vanishes from an isolated Derbyshire hamlet. For the young George Bennett, a newly promoted inspector, it is the beginning of his most harrowing case: a murder with no body, an investigation filled with dead ends and closed faces, an outcome that reverberates down the years.
Decades later he finally tells his story to Catherine Heathcote, but just when her book is to be published, Bennet unaccountably tries to pull the plug. He has new information which he refuses to divulge, information that threatens the foundations of his existence.
Catherine is forced to reinvestigate the past, with results that turn the world upside down.

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Excellent story that is difficult to describe without spoilers. It's a great cold-case novel with layers of complexity that keep the reader guessing. Read it even if you've already seen the PBS Masterpiece Mystery production.

Oh, if only Val McDermid would write more books like this: stand-alone crime novels which are gripping and believable and that leave resonances after you've read the last page. Here, she is so good at conjuring up the 1960s and takes us to the histrionic setting where children go missing and are

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murdered. Told in flashback, both the contemporary and historical scenes are brilliantly realised. I didn't want this book to end. So much better than those predictable and formulaic forensic-psychologist-serial-killer books that she's better known for. More like this please Val.

© Koplowitz 2011

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In 1963 as the story begins, it's the time in England when the Beatles released their first album and the time of The Great Train Robbery.
The setting is the Derbyshire area, known for the Peak District National Park.

A constable gets a call from a woman asking for help. Her fifteen-year-old daughter

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is missing.

Since two other children have been missing recently, police set up an immediate search.

Alison Carter lived with her mother and step-father in a small hamlet of Scardale which is made op of only a few houses and about three families who were closely connected.

The investigation, led by Det. Inspector George Bennett is very thorough but stalls. Then one resident remembers an old mine. At that scene, evidence is found that points to one person. Further investigation makes police certain but there's not a body. Officials must decide if there is sufficient evidence to try this person for murder.

The setting of the small hamlet is well described as is the confidence of the residents that Alison will be found. Then we experience their realization that she won't.

Then the story moves to 1998 when George Bennett is retired. A woman meets George's son and tells him she's writing a book about the events in Scardale. She wants to return there for research. New events come to life that will shock the reader.

A well plotted, well written story which is vastly entertaining.

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One of the best mystery books I have ever read..You are kept on the edge and it is difficult to put the book down with out knowing the resolution..

This is a great mystery. I thought I figured it out but there were still some details that I missed. McDermit is a great writer. You get engrossed in the books right away. I recommend this one very highly. Then you will be a fan like me.

very riveting. there's always a sense that something is not as it seems but i never guessed what it was. the plot around the policeman is convincing and makes the book a bit more than just a whodunnit

READ IN DUTCH

My first book from Val McDermid and it didn't disappoint me. I had seen the series with Tony Hill, but this isn't one of them.
I liked to see into one village so closed to strangers, I couldn't even believe there are actually places where people still live like that. I liked the plot,

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but sometimes it was a little bit slow and taking the speed out of it, which didn't make it easy to continue reading. It also had the doom to be my Holidaybook, and as I don't seem to be able to read whenever I'm on holiday, this might not have helped either.

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Excellent murder mystery set in the English countryside with the village in question having a dark secret. Really well done.

Well enough written and paced, with the awkward sentence or so, the entire story depends on the unlikely setup and is so full of detail that the characters, which seem to offer promise, really aren't given room to be more than ciphers with a stereotype as a label - upright police officer with

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supportive new wife, smarmy news reporter, old knowing village woman, nasty piece of work villain, self promoting police superior. The police sergeant Thomas almost comes through, but it's not enough.

This meta mystery is so clever it cuts itself. Lest you not notice, Book II, Part II is located before Book II Part I and that placement is all that gives Book II Part I its tension. Also a reference is made to The Wicker Man to rub in the rubes using the police to their own ends aspect.

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A beautifully crafted police procedural within a highly entertaining cast of characters. Val McDermid can not only hold the reader's attention with an edge of the seat thriller but expertly disguises the real human story behind the killing of Alison Carter until the closing chapters. Her writing

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style is nothing short of brilliant showing once again why she has few equal to her as a crime writer.

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Another new mystery writer, for me, although I see that McDermid has written quite a few books. This story is about the disappearance of young girl from a small, isolated village in Britain, and how young George Bennett, newly promoted inspector, takes on the case, seemingly against all odds

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including the intransigence of the local populace, and the small detail of not finding the body. But build the case he does, bit by bit, and draws the noose (literally) around the neck of the girl's stepfather, who is discovered to be a pedophile specializing in pornographic pictures of young children by themselves, and being molested by him, including the vanished stepdaughter. The case goes to court, and against all odds the stepfather is hanged despite the lack of a body. The tale is well told in developing the police case, the pressures of the job and from the media to find someone responsible, and in the development of the court case where circumstantial evidence piles up and leads to the conviction. The guilty man goes to the gallows admitting his perversion with the children, but denying that he murdered the girl.

Then, some 24/30 years later, an enterprising journalist, who is friends with George's son and fiancé, works with George to write a book about the crime, the investigation, and the trial. George is entirely cooperative and happy to talk about the great coup of his early career, so it is all the more surprising when he writes to the journalist to say that he has changed his mind and she can under no circumstances publish the book; and in the meantime, he has a stroke which renders him incommunicado. Catherine, the journalist, decides to return to the small village where it all happened, and where George had visited the day before writing to her, to find out what could have spooked George so much; and she does when she meets the grown woman that the "vanished" girl has become. And then comes out an ever stranger story of a village's "justice" exacted on the pervert that they had discovered in their midst.

McDermid writes well. I thought the story plodded a bit from time-to-time, but generally it is well told, with a good cast of characters, and a well developed plot that does leave you guessing till the end.
(Nov/00)

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i really didn't like this book, and won't read any more of this writer. admittedly, the resolution of the mystery was ingenious (and in truth the author wrote it from a story that someone else told her, so no wonder it never really felt like hers) but i solved it at the beginning of the book, which

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i try never to do. meanwhile the writing was stiff, and so were the characters too. others may of course have enjoyed it thoroughly, and i wish them well.

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