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Shortlisted for the Galaxy Thriller & Crime Novel of the Year Award 2011.
A fascinatingly rich and complex mystery lies at the heart of this novel - McDermid's most ambitious and best yet.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 4 November 2010.
October 2010 Good Housekeeping selection.
Fans of a good thriller will enjoy Trick Of The Dark by crime writer Val McDermid, in which a shamed psychiatrist find herself drawn into a murder case that has taken place at her old Oxford college.
Comparison: Mark Billingham, Stuart MacBride, Simon Kernick
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Synopsis
Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid
When Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of cuttings about a brutal murder, it instantly grabs her attention. The murder occurred in the grounds of her old Oxford college, a groom battered to death just hours after his wedding. As his bride and wedding guests sipped champagne, his alleged killers were slipping his bloodstained body into the river. Charlie doesn't know who sent the package, or why, yet she can't get the crime out of her head. But as she delves deeper, and steps back into the mysterious world of Oxford colleges, she realises that there is much more to this crime than meets the eye...
Reviews
'Wonderfully compelling stuff'
Daily Mail
'A workout for the grey cells, perfectly executed'
Daily Telegraph
'This standalone from the Scottish force of nature, and creator of Robson Green's Wire In The Blood TV series, is a brutally clever story'
Daily Mirror
'Keeps you guessing till the last page'
Bella
'Plenty of surprises in store...A touching portrait of a group of young women on the verge of coming out about their sexuality in the hothouse atmosphere of an Oxford college'
Sunday Times
'McDermid, as usual, plots and writes with a commanding elegance'
The Times
'Sensitive and insightful'
Guardian
'McDermid writes a fluid, compelling novel of manners underpinned by a believable plot, and Charlie Flint is a fascinating addition to the canon of female investigators'
Irish Times
'An accomplished thriller, jumping from the past to the present and back with ease, taking in a range of characters and their perspectives. For me, the sign of a good thriller is that it leaves you pondering not whodunit within the pages but howdunit - how did the writer craft such a tricky tale - afterwards. Trick of the Dark had me ruminating for days'
Independent
About the Author
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Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three years as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. Now a full-time writer, she divides her time between Cheshire and Northumberland.
In 2010 she received the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, which honours outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing. Margaret Murphy, then chair of the CWA, said: "The
CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger award acknowledges the work of an author who
has made an outstanding contribution to the genre. Val McDermid is a
worthy winner whose work has entertained and thrilled millions of
readers as well as many more who have enjoyed the TV adaptations her
books have inspired."
McDermid has achieved major success with her series of books featuring criminal profiler, Dr Tony Hill. The first book in the series, The Mermaids Singing, won the 1995 Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year, while the second, The Wire in the Blood, lends its name to the highly acclaimed television series featuring Robson Green as Tony Hill. The Last Temptation was a Top Ten bestseller. The Torment of Others came out in paperback in 2005. Beneath the Bleeding came out in summer 2007 and went straight into the Top Ten.
A Place of Execution was awarded the LA Times Book of the Year Award, and has gone onto become the most nominated award-winning thriller in the USA since 2000. Killing the Shadows received critical acclaim on its release in 2000. 'The Grave Tattoo' was published in 2006 in hardback and stayed in the Top Ten for over a month. 'A Darker Domain' is due for publication in 2008.
A Place of Execution was adapted into a successful ITV drama with Juliet Stephenson. Val McDermid is also a regular contributor to Radio 4, where she recently presented the series From Ban to Booker and was recently awarded Stonewall's Writer of the Year.
McDermid has also written six crime novels featuring Manchester PI Kate Brannigan, and the last of these, Star Struck, won the Grand Prix des Romans d'Adventure in France. A further series of novels featured journalist-sleuth Lindsay Gordon, with the latest of these, Hostage to Murder, published in November 2003.
She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009.
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Categories
Crime / Who-dunit
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