HarperCollins The Distant Echo

Ce n'est que mon second titre de cet auteur que je commence seulement à découvrir et que je recommande aux hésitants pour les raisons suivantes qui m'ont progressivement plongée dans sa lecture. D'abord déçue de ne pas retrouver les deux profileurs Carol et Tony dont je venais juste de prendre connaissance dans l'excellent "Fever of the Bone", j'ai eu du mal à accrocher à l'entrée en matière de ce récit qui débute en 1978 en Ecosse (révision géographique à prévoir !) et ne met en scène que des policiers peu sympathiques et peu compétents. Les véritables héros de l'histoire sont un groupe de quatre amis étudiants (bien retenir leurs noms et les nicknames qui leur sont assignés) qui découvrent le corps mortellement blessé d'une jeune barmaid par une nuit de décembre enneigée sur le haut d'une colline-cimetière. Le fait qu'ils connaissaient la victime et qu'ils avaient des mobiles éventuels et la possibilité matérielle de s'attaquer à elle les fait rapidement passer du statut de témoins à celui de suspects. Et même s'ils ne sont pas inculpés, faute de preuve matérielle suffisante et apparemment aussi par incompétence de la police, ils vont traîner cette culpabilité durant les 25 années qui suivent. On les retrouve en 2003 quand le cas non résolu (cold case) est ressorti des archives pour le confronter aux nouvelles techniques d'investigation scientifique. Un nouveau personnage mystérieux surgit qui sème la confusion et ne fait qu'augmenter la liste des suspects sans qu'on puisse comprendre, avant le dénouement, les motivations des uns et des autres, victimes, suspects, coupables, hommes de loi... Récit superbement mené, passionnant, dans une belle langue accessible et agréable à lire, avec des personnages très réalistes et attachants, dans des scènes qui tantôt tirent les larmes, tantôt donnent la chair de poule, c'est un vrai "page-turner" une fois qu'on est installé dans le décor ! Et je me permets de reprendre le commentaire figurant sur la couverture : "Cunningly plotted" car c'est effectivement présenté avec une grand finesse psychologique.

I was a third of the way into this novel before DC Karen Pirie made an appearance. She will be a principal character in later books of this series. This decision by the author lets the reader get familiar with a case of a murdered girl through the eyes of four suspects, the murdered girl’s family, and the police in charge of the investigation at the time. The initial story happened twenty-five years ago, so when Pirie comes in, she’s a rookie assigned to a cold case team. Four students attending the University of St. Andrews stumble across a dying girl who has been stabbed in a cemetery. Earlier, the four friends and roommates “borrowed” another roommate’s car without his permission and went joyriding, going to a popular student hang-out and having a few drinks, and attending a student party. All were drunk, and the girl, Rosie, was a barmaid at the club where they had been earlier in the evening. Ziggy, a medical student, provides a feeble attempt at resuscitation, while Alex, the fastest of the group, goes for help. Alex had tried to flirt with Rosie before and invited her to the student party. The other two students, Mondo and Weird (his nickname), had also been at the club with Alex. Mondo had been known to flirt with Rosie himself. When a police officer arrives on the scene, the students are immediately regarded as suspects because of their inebriated states and the blood on their clothes. They are taken to the police station and questioned extensively. It isn’t long before the entire town hears about Rosie’s murder. Because of the lack of concrete evidence, the students are released and try to resume normal lives. Rosie’s murder is never solved. Twenty-five years later, DC Karen Pirie is assigned to a cold case team investigating Rosie’s death. Discoveries in science have enabled the police to look at old evidence using DNA analysis that wasn’t available then. Unfortunately, the evidence in Rosie’s case has gone missing. Pirie spends her Christmas Eve digging through box after box of evidence from that time, hoping to find any evidence that had been misplaced in another container. From her diligence, the reader learns a little about her. She’s relentless, she’s smart, and she’s vastly underrated. When two of the former suspects are murdered, police interest in the case ramps up again. This novel is written in two parts, the part that takes place in the past with Rosie’s murder and the second part, which takes place in the present with the cold case team. I found the story engaging, so much so that I didn’t mind that Karen Pirie isn’t a central character in this one. Mystery readers should enjoy it.

If I find an authour and series that I like I try to backtrack and find the first book in the series and restart there. I was not disappointed because it’s Val McDermid. I also purchased the second book in the series and was even happier. I recommend anything she writes!

Gute Story, reicht aber nicht an Topniveau der ersten Tony Hill Titel heran.

I hadn't read a Val McDermid book for years but , in the past, have loved her deep forensic detail. I've been pulled back to reading more crime lately so thought her most recent series would be a good place to start. It's 561 pages split into 46 chapters so quite a brick of a book. The crime happens in 1978 which is a clever tactic as it gives the author plenty of opportunity to explore the casual prejudices that were acceptable during that time - automatic suspicion of a man who might be gay and using the term "WPC" as two obvious examples. I was expecting a brief explanation of the crime then the rest of the book being set in the present where the case is being picked up to reinvestigate. It's much better than that though with the first 200 pages giving the story around the murder of Rosie Duff in the 1970s which gives the reader a real sense of engagement with the characters and gets them firmly established before moving them all on 25 years, ready to react when the case is reopened. The murder and subsequent investigation are well constructed with a twist that I didn't predict even though the clues were all there. Having got about 2/3 through I could see the end coming and couldn't put the book down until I had finished. VM is an accomplished writer and this is a great example of her craft - I'm looking forward to reading the next one in the series. Slightly oddly, Karen Pirie only appears briefly in the story, even though she is the character who is going to carry forward the series of books. Quite a clever way to introduce her as we know very little yet and this gives the author plenty of space to expand in future books.