Report for Murder cover art

Report for Murder

Lindsay Gordon Crime Series, Book 1

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Report for Murder

By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Caroline Guthrie
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About this listen

The first novel in the Lindsay Gordon series.

Freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon is strapped for cash. Why else would she agree to cover a fund-raising gala at a girls' public school? But when the star attraction is found garrotted with her own cello string minutes before she is due on stage, Lindsay finds herself investigating a vicious murder.

Who would have wanted Lorna Smith Cooper dead? Who had the key to the locked room in which her body was found? And who could have slipped out of the hall at just the right time to commit this calculated and cold-blooded crime?

©1987 Val McDermid (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd Crime Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Police Procedural Psychological Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Thriller Suspense Murder

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Critic reviews

"The real mistress of psychological gripping thrillers; no one can plot or tell a story like she can." (Daily Express)

"The Queen of Crime reigns." (Independent)
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McDermid is funny and entertaining as ever in this first book of the series. She has never disappointed me yet. A great listen if you like an intelligent, female detective and a Scottish accent

Riveting, witty and brilliant as always

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Very good as always. Guessed the villain for a change! Look forward to the next one.

Excellent

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I have enjoyed many of Val McDermid’s books but this didn’t seem to be up to her usual standard. I wonder if it was an earlier work and just published or come to my attention now. The prose does seem quite naive and her later works are much more polished. Plus, the attention to the gay relationship seems overly prominent and who wants to know how often they ‘coupled’? Maybe some years ago such a pairing was not so common in her books. I realise I’m making excuses for a normally good writer for this disappointing book.

Not up to usual standard

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She really is finding her way in this, and some of the 1980s social observation has dated badly, and there's a bit much of it.
Its ok. Fans of her later stuff will be disappointed perhaps, but it's interesting as a curiosity piece. Its enough fun for a read, but no better than a random pulp novel you might pick up in a holiday let.

Its her first book, its from 1987, and it shows

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I was looking forward to the book as I have read other books by this author but although I enjoyed it I was a little disappointed as well - the narrator wasn’t very good and the main character was really irritating and annoying but don’t know if that was because of the narrator

Poor narration

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