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Loading... Report for Murder (1987)by Val McDermid
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is one of Val McDermid's first books and as such, it's not bad. Not as great as her current novels are, but not bad. A prestigious girls school might have to close because a developer wants the land. The school sponsors a benefit weekend with a craft fair and concert. Lorna Smith-Couper, a noted cellist and school graduate is to perform. Lindsay Gordon, a friend of one of the school's teachers, Paddy Callahan, has been asked to cover the event for the publication. Before Lorna can perform, however, she is brutally murdered, and Paddy is arrested. The fact that many people had opportunity and motive seems to make no difference. The school's headmaster asked Lindsay and noted novelist Cordelia Brown, another of Paddy's friends and also a graduate, to look into the murder, in hopes of freeing Paddy. Can they save Paddy? The book has a good plot and lots of action. So, if you're interested in McDermid's early works, put this on the list. In her debut novel, Val McDermid puts a distinctly lesbian spin on a pair of well-tried mystery formulas: the "country house" murder associated with Agatha Christie, and the "locked-room" puzzles of John Dickson Carr. This one is set in a girls' boarding school in the Derbyshire moors. Clearly a formative work, but one which shows early promise of things to come. In her debut novel, Val McDermid puts a distinctly lesbian spin on a pair of well-tried mystery formulas: the "country house" murder associated with Agatha Christie, and the "locked-room" puzzles of John Dickson Carr. This one is set in a girls' boarding school in the Derbyshire moors. Clearly a formative work, but one which shows early promise of things to come. no reviews | add a review
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Lindsay Gordon, self-proclaimed cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist is less than overjoyed at the prospect of spending a weekend at a posh girls' boarding school. Tensions are running high over the school's financial problems; the fact that school alumna and reknowned musician Lorna Smith-Couper, will return to the school to perform at a benefit concert only exacerbates anxieties. When Smith-Couper is found strangled with her own cello string right before the concert, Lindsay and Cordelia find their new relationship tested in unique ways as they seek to find the murderer among a long list of suspects. ...a clever mystery, a good read, and a heroine who is my kind of woman: Lindsay Gordon is smart, tenacious, daring, lusty, loyal, and class-conscious to the bone --Barbara Neely, author of the Blanche White series. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Posted a longer review on my blog http://wildmoobooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/report-for-murder-by-val-mcdermid.html ( )