Name: A Place of Execution
Rating: 3.958333333333333 (12 reviews)
ISBN: 9780312979539

Val McDermid

Police Inspector George Bennet, who investigated the never-solved disappearance of thirteen-year-old Alison Carter from her cloistered village decades ago, finds shattering new evidence, leading writer Catherine Heathcote to investigate further. Reprint.

A Place of Execution

Sian Wadey

A Place of Execution by Val McDermid

I'm a big fan of Val McDermid, her writing is always impeccable and as soon as one chapter ends you want to start another immediately! I look forward to reading more of her work.

Nadine 

Well executed crime thriller taking place in 1963 and 1980's good twist at the end that you could perhaps have expected, but it was well enough cloaked not to be obvious.

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.

Luke

Francine Corry

Winter 1963: two children have disappeared off the streets of 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 Carter vanishes from her town, 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 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 which reverberates through the years. Decades later he finally tells his story to journalist Catherine Heathcote, but just when the book is poised for publication, Bennett unaccountably tries to pull the plug. He has new information which he refuses to divulge, new information that threatens the very foundations of his existence. Catherine is forced to re-investigate the past, with results that turn the world upside down. A Greek tragedy in modern England, Val McDermid's A Place of Execution is a taut psychological thriller that explores, exposes and explodes the border between reality and illusion in a multi-layered narrative that turns expectations on their 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.

A Novel

zoe 

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).

Kemie G

Konrad Lischka

A riveting psychological thriller from the Number One bestselling Queen of crime fiction – Val McDermid.

A Place of Execution

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