Series
Publication
HarperCollins (2009), 239 pages
Original publication date
1998
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Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML:�??Kate Brannigan is a breath of fresh air.�?��??Publishers Weekly Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, who does for Manchester what VI Warshawski has done for Chicago. When Kate Brannigan agrees to track down a missing songwriter, a search that takes her into the seediest parts of Leeds, little does she realize that finding her is a prelude t
User reviews
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
First book in the Kate Brannigan series and a great read. Kate tracks down missing song-writer Moira Pollock and shortly after that Moira turns up dead.
LibraryThing member cathyskye
Setting: present-day Manchester, England
Protagonist: Kate Brannigan
Series: #1
Kate Brannigan is hired by rock legend Jett to locate his former partner,
Moira. Kate finds Moira, who reluctantly agrees to return to Jett. Kate goes
back to her investigation of counterfeiters only to be brought back in
weeks later when Moira is murdered. Jett wants to know which member of his
inner circle is the culprit. As Kate questions Jett's entourage, she
discovers that everyone close to him wanted Moira dead.
I enjoyed the setting, the fast pace, and Kate herself. I'll definitely be
looking for others in this series.
Protagonist: Kate Brannigan
Series: #1
Kate Brannigan is hired by rock legend Jett to locate his former partner,
Moira. Kate finds Moira, who reluctantly agrees to return to Jett. Kate goes
back to her investigation of counterfeiters only to be brought back in
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sixweeks later when Moira is murdered. Jett wants to know which member of his
inner circle is the culprit. As Kate questions Jett's entourage, she
discovers that everyone close to him wanted Moira dead.
I enjoyed the setting, the fast pace, and Kate herself. I'll definitely be
looking for others in this series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member EdGoldberg
Kate Branigan is a private investigator. She's investigating knock-off clothing. Her boyfriend, Richard, is a music reporter. They're invited to a concert and after-party for a singer named Jett. At the party, Jett asks Kate to find his former girlfriend/muse, Moira. Although computer fraud, not
She finds Moira who agrees to meet with Jett. Several weeks later, she's found dead in Jett's mansion. Now Kate has to find a killer.
McDermid has populated Dead Beat with interesting characters: Kevin, Jett's overcontrolling business manager, Neil Webster who is writing Jett's authorized biography, Gloria, the overbearing administrative assistant and Tamar, Jett's hanger-on.
The book moves quickly. Not much blood and guts. Not a police procedural. More like a cozy mystery. I'd read other books of McDermid and probably would try one of her other series. Definitely worth a read.
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missing persons is her strong point, she is obliged to accept.She finds Moira who agrees to meet with Jett. Several weeks later, she's found dead in Jett's mansion. Now Kate has to find a killer.
McDermid has populated Dead Beat with interesting characters: Kevin, Jett's overcontrolling business manager, Neil Webster who is writing Jett's authorized biography, Gloria, the overbearing administrative assistant and Tamar, Jett's hanger-on.
The book moves quickly. Not much blood and guts. Not a police procedural. More like a cozy mystery. I'd read other books of McDermid and probably would try one of her other series. Definitely worth a read.
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LibraryThing member Darrol
Ok story; little breezy for my tastes. I will give the series a chance or two. Too Miss Marple for my tastes (too much "like a cozy mystery"); every suspect in a defined space. Rock world not that interesting to me; give me organized crime.
LibraryThing member Balthazar-Lawson
This is the first in the Kate Brannigan series and I really liked it. I've several others in the series and was always wanting to know where the series started. It was well worth the read. It's an easy read, easy to follow but wholly entertaining.
LibraryThing member AntT
Brannigan is a bit too pert for my taste, but the plot and writing are fine, if I ignore the cutesy factor. That the characters are almost all "types" is something else that bothered me. Disappointing after Wire in the Blood.
LibraryThing member AntT
Brannigan is a bit too pert for my taste, but the plot and writing are fine, if I ignore the cutesy factor. That the characters are almost all "types" is something else that bothered me. Disappointing after Wire in the Blood.
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
Val McDermid is probably best known for her gritty, gory novels featuring Detective Inspector Carol Jordan and psychiatrist Dr Tony Hill, televised as 'Wire in the Blood' (taking the name of the second novel in the series). By the time she published the first of those novels, however, she had
As the novel opens, Kate is in drawing towards the conclusion of an investigation into traders in counterfeit goods (raging from high end watches to designer leisurewear). She finds herself accompanying Richard, her music journalist boyfriend, to a gig by Jett, a local boy who had made good after having grown up in straitened circumstances in Mossside. At the after-concert part Jett commissions Kate to find Moira, his former partner (both musical and romantic). They had parted several years ago and Jett was conscious that his career had been declining ever since. After leaving Jett, Moira had fallen on very hard times, and subsided into a life fuelled by drug abuse and financed by occasional prostitution. This sort of investigation is not in Kate's normal line of business but, as a special favour to Jett she agrees.
McDermid's great quality is her ability to construct plausible and convincing plots, and this is evident here. Brannigan's investigation into Moira's disappearance is detailed, and gripping, but never stretches the reader's credibility. Her later novels are noted for their grimness, with each new murder seeming to surpass all its predecessors for macabre qualities. This is not evident in the Brannigan novels where the crimes, and the attendant investigations fall within the bounds of familiar experience. They are related in the first person, and Brannigan has a wry, self-deprecating wit that keeps the reader fully engaged. I am surprised that these novels have never made their way onto television.
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already written two separate series, each featuring engaging female protagonists. Her first three novels revolved around Lindsay Gordon, lesbian journalist who solved fairly traditional whodunit style mysteries. Then, in 1992 in 'Dead Beat', McDermid introduced her feisty, Manchester-based private investigator, Kate Brannigan.As the novel opens, Kate is in drawing towards the conclusion of an investigation into traders in counterfeit goods (raging from high end watches to designer leisurewear). She finds herself accompanying Richard, her music journalist boyfriend, to a gig by Jett, a local boy who had made good after having grown up in straitened circumstances in Mossside. At the after-concert part Jett commissions Kate to find Moira, his former partner (both musical and romantic). They had parted several years ago and Jett was conscious that his career had been declining ever since. After leaving Jett, Moira had fallen on very hard times, and subsided into a life fuelled by drug abuse and financed by occasional prostitution. This sort of investigation is not in Kate's normal line of business but, as a special favour to Jett she agrees.
McDermid's great quality is her ability to construct plausible and convincing plots, and this is evident here. Brannigan's investigation into Moira's disappearance is detailed, and gripping, but never stretches the reader's credibility. Her later novels are noted for their grimness, with each new murder seeming to surpass all its predecessors for macabre qualities. This is not evident in the Brannigan novels where the crimes, and the attendant investigations fall within the bounds of familiar experience. They are related in the first person, and Brannigan has a wry, self-deprecating wit that keeps the reader fully engaged. I am surprised that these novels have never made their way onto television.
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LibraryThing member Carol420
Kate Brannigan agrees to search for a missing songwriter as a favor to a fading rock star who wants to revitalize his career. She finds her, but the consequence of the discovery is murder. Now Kate is pulled into the murder investigation, and finds more suspects and motives than she anticipated,
Val Mcdermid is one of my favorite English authors. I like the realism and daily detail in all her novels. Her Tony Hill series is one of the best.
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all the while dealing with her job as a private investigator and with a distracting boyfriend. Val Mcdermid is one of my favorite English authors. I like the realism and daily detail in all her novels. Her Tony Hill series is one of the best.
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LibraryThing member thorold
Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, a partner in a Manchester security consultancy that does investigation work mostly in commercial and computer fraud cases. She does the legwork whilst her business partner Bill Mortensen does the clever stuff with floppy disks and modems (yes, 1992 was a long
The story is a bit silly, but it just-about works (taking into account a fair amount of self-parody), and tough-talking Brannigan and her cynical throwaway comments about the world she moves in are fun. And it's not obvious until quite late in the book who the murderer is going to be.
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time ago!). In this opener, she is persuaded against her better judgment to take time off from a counterfeit wristwatch investigation to undertake a missing-person enquiry for a rock-star client (yes, they still had those in Manchester in 1992 too...). And, without too much obvious grinding of the cogs of narrative inevitability, she finds herself face to face with her first corpse and investigating a murder. And not just any old murder, but a murder in a mansion containing a finite number of suspects. The story is a bit silly, but it just-about works (taking into account a fair amount of self-parody), and tough-talking Brannigan and her cynical throwaway comments about the world she moves in are fun. And it's not obvious until quite late in the book who the murderer is going to be.
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0007327641 / 9780007327645
Pages
239