Distant Echo

Product Description
The award-winning Number One bestseller and Queen of crime fiction Val McDermid carves out a stunning psychological thriller. The past is behind them, but what’s still to come will tear them apart…
Some things just won’t let go.The past, for instance.That night in the cemetery.The girl’s body in the snow.
On a freezing Fife morning four drunken students stumble upon the body of a woman in the snow. Rosie has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in an ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are the four young men now stained with her blood.
Twenty-five years later the police mount a ‘cold case’ review of Rosie’s unsolved murder and the four are still suspects. But when two of them die in suspicious circumstances, it seems that someone is pursuing their own brand of justice. For the remaining two there is only one way to avoid becoming the next victim – find out who really killed Rosie all those years ago…
Review
‘A classic … McDermid pulls out all the stops. Impeccable’ Guardian
‘A few more sly, old-fashioned whodunits like this and she’ll join the sturdy ranks of the queens of crime, on course to become Dame Val or Baroness McDermid’ Sunday Times
‘She has created some of the most appealing figures in current crime fiction. Val McDermid has used the crime genre to write a novel that, above everything else, celebrates life and loyalty’ TLS
‘A real page-turner and another McDermid triumph’ Observer
‘A powerful story of murder and revenge … an exciting page-turner’ Sunday Telegraph
From the Back Cover
Four in the morning, mid-December, and snow is smothering St Andrews. Student Alex Gilbey and his three best friends are staggering home from a pasty when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in an ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are four young students stained with her blood.
Twenty-five years later, Fife police mount a cold case review. Among the unsolved murders they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has their own idea of how justice should be done. One of the original quartet dies in a suspicious house fire. Soon after, a second is killed in what looks like a burglary gone sour. But Alex fears the worst. Someone is taking revenge for Rosie Duff. He has to find out who it is before he becomes the next victim. And it might just save his life if he can uncover who really killed Rosie all those years ago.
Acclaim for Val McDermid:
'The real mistress of psychological, gripping thrillers'Jenni Murray, 'Daily Express'
'Our leading pathologist of everyday evil…the subtle orchestration of terror is masterful'Maxim Jakubowski, 'Guardian'
'Stunningly exciting, horrifyingly good'Ruth Rendell
'There is no-one in contemporary crime fiction who has managed to combine the visceral and the humane as well as Val McDermid…She's the best we've got''New York Times'
'Good pace, enough blood to make us feel that murder is far from cold and clinical, and, best of all, characters you believe in'Maeve Binchy, 'Mail on Sunday'
'Compelling and atmospheric…a tour de force'Minette Walters
'The plotting is impeccable, the atmosphere palpable, and I doubt that it will be surpassed this year'Graham Caveney, 'Sunday Express'
About the Author
Val McDermid is a No.1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold more than sixteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011. In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. In 2017, she received the DIVA Literary Prize