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The Distant Echo by Val McDermid
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The Distant Echo

by Val McDermid

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4591210,990 (3.66)3
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1978 four friends leave a college party-heading back to the dorms via the quickest route possible and stumble onto the body of a dying girl. The friends quickly become the prime suspects in the crime, but protest their innocence. How do you prove that you haven't done something for which you are accused? The police believe they did the deed, the family of the dead girl agree, and the townspeople and college classmates concur. No solid evidence is found to prove the presumption, so they are never charged with the crime. Everyone thinks they've gotten away with murder. Flash forward to 2003 and with the advent of DNA the cold case is re-opened, but someone isn't waiting for the police to botch the investigation he/she has decided to punish the guilty.
Never read Val McDermid, but now I'm hooked. This is a well written page turner. ( )
  libsue | Nov 11, 2009 |
Book set in two times: the initial murder and then 25 years later when the 4 main suspects of the first murder are being killed off.
  Ardwick | Feb 10, 2009 |
Entertaining, complex murder mystery set in Scotland. Better than average who-done-it. ( )
  Gary10 | Dec 18, 2008 |
This murder mystery has a Scottish accent. Four university men are caught up in the homicide of a bar maid. Some twists and turns are predictable and some are not - none are annoying or insulting.

The story is well told and not disjointed. I was able to read the story in bits and pieces over several days without getting lost.

My only criticism is when the author becomes confused regarding the sleep patterns of a character. One specific night he is "feeling as if he had been asleep for minutes instead of hours" (p. 253) and then when describing a period of time taht was included the earlier description the character has "slept more deeply than he had since childhood" (p. 268.) Silly.

Well, I guessed "who done it" . . . before the end, but that's okay.

I will add author Val McDermid to my reading list. ( )
  Grandeplease | Oct 23, 2008 |
Having a police officer that raped and murdered the girl made it a nightmare for the 4 college boys that found her body. He killed 2 of them off after 25 years and was in the process of murdering the other 2. ( )
  saucecav | Sep 23, 2008 |
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Epigraph
I now describe my country as if to strangers.
-from Deacon Blue's "Orphans,"
lyrcis by Ricky Ross
Dedication
For the ones who got away; and for the others, particularly the Thursday Club, who the getaway possible
First words
November 2003; St. Andrews, Scotland
He always liked the cemetery at dawn.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0312994834, Mass Market Paperback)

It was a winter morning in 1978, that the body of a young barmaid was discovered in the snow banks of a Scottish cemetery. The only suspects in her brutal murder were the four young men who found her: Alex Gilbey and his three best friends. With no evidence but her blood on their hands, no one was ever charged.Twenty five years later, the Cold Case file on Rosie Duff has been reopened. For Alex and his friends, the investigation has also opened old wounds, haunting memories-and new fears. For a stranger has emerged from the shadows with his own ideas about justice. And revenge.When two of Alex's friends die under suspicious circumstances, Alex knows that he and his innocent family are the next targets. And there's only way to save them: return to the cold-blooded past and uncover the startling truth about the murder. For there lies the identity of an avenging killer...

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:11 -0400)

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