A Darker Domain: A Novel

In 2007 Inspector Karen Pirie of the Cold Case Team in Fife, Scotland is embroiled in two concurrent cases, one from 1984, the other 1985. Misha, the daughter of miner Mick Prentice, reports her father as a missing person long after his disappearance. Misha is desperately searching for a donor match for her ill son, the boy's only hope for survival. Mick has been blacklisted for all the intervening years, the conventional wisdom that he ran off during the Miner's Strike of 1984. Consequently, his family has suffered the fate of Mick's supposed abandonment, ostracized from a community ruled by a rigid social construct, the only comfort to starving families united in a common goal. Only Inspector Pirie will unravel Mick's troubled past and the true story behind his disappearance. Loyal to a fault, Mick was the last person anyone would expect to turn away from his fellow miners.

Yet another case awaits the inspector's attention, a botched murder-kidnapping from 1985. Catriona Maclennan Grant and her baby son are kidnapped, Cat's wealthy father, Brodie arranging the handoff with the perpetrators, working with the local police. But Brodie's pride exceeds his wisdom, the man's impulsive actions resulting in tragedy. Then, in 2007, Bel Richmond, a reporter of some repute, discovers a viable piece of evidence while vacationing in Tuscany, stumbling on what appears to be a crime scene. Bel instantly recognizes the value of her find, returning to Scotland with her evidence as an entrée to Brodie Maclennan Grant and the family's fascinating story. Indeed, Grant does appreciate Bel's ingenuity; promising the reporter an exclusive, Brodie charges Richmond with learning more about the occupants of the villa in Tuscany, hoping after all these years to find resolution to the terrible night of the violent confrontation.

McDermid weaves these unlikely threads into a mystery that involves the bitter conflicts of the miner's strike and an old man's hope, a landscape defined by local politics, the terrible months of desperation during the strike and a country whose past is scarred with turmoil and disillusionment. The mining town is laid bare in all its poverty, people clinging to ideals for want of sustenance and a wealthy man whose fatal mistake costs him the life of a beloved child. As passionate about her work as she is thorough, McDermid's determined protagonist sorts through the years, the resentments and the recrimination, resisting Brodie's strong-arm tactics and Richmond's behind-the-scenes machinations on his behalf. The result is a story shrouded in secrets, the characters revealed in all their flaws and misplaced hopes. As dark and moldy as the deeds gone awry in 1984-85, Pirie's investigation yields the long-sought answers and many surprises along the way. Luan Gaines/2009.

My only complaint about this novel is that the pace could have been better. I found my interest sagging at a number of points because there was no oomph to this story. I had the same problem with her GRAVE TATTOO. Her Tony Hill-Carol Jordan books have no such pacing problem. They rocket right along.

The plot line has been well summarized here already by over 50 reviewers so I will be brief about that. The book gets off to a banging start by having a young mother set everything in motion because she needs to find her father because her son is dying and needs a blood relative for a transplant. Her father supposedly walked out on her when she was a child because he scabbed against the miner's union. But for this dying boy, a whole slew of secrets would have continued to remain buried for a whole host of people. Central to this is another boy who was kidnapped back when her father disappeared.

Elizabeth George also writes extremely intricate mysteries. Hers are also much longer. However, I never feel my interest flagging in those as I make my way through them. I have never been able to put one of hers down.

I usually like stand alone novels better than series novels but in McDermid's case I am going to reverse myself--her Tony Hill-Carol Jordan novels are the ones that I can't put down. I wish she would go back to writing them.

Visit my blog with link given on my profile page here or use this phonetically given URL (livingasseniors dot blogspot dot com). Friday's entry will always be weekend entertainment recs from my 5 star the store reviews in film, tv, books and music. These are very heavy on buried treasures and hidden gems. My blogspot is published on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

McDermid is a terrific writer of mysteries, adroitly mixing detection and police procedure with laser-like analyses of human motivations. Since she's a Scot, her plots are always set in Scotland, and this time the venue is Fife, scene of one of the most crushing miners' strikes in British history -- Margaret Thatcher's attempt in 1984 to give the capitalist bosses what they most wanted by nearly destroying trade unionism altogether. Mick Prentice was part of that era, and when he disappeared one night everyone assumed he'd joined up with some other miners headed south as a blackleg scab. Now his daughter needs to find him, to persuade him to provide a bone marrow transplant for her son. And DI Karen Pirie, head of Fife's cold case squad, looking into the matter on the daughter's behalf, discovers the old assumptions were completely wrong. So what really happened to Mick? Where did he disappear to, and why? At the some time, Karen has another hot case drop into her lap: The twenty-two-year-old kidnap/murder of the daughter and grandson of one of Scotland's wealthiest (and most manipulative) tycoons. Some evidence has turned up in a semi-ruined villa in Tuscany, found by Bel Richmond, a first-rate investigative journalist from London on a holiday. Karen makes no distinctions between the dead, regardless of the preferences of her superior, who would rather fawn on the tycoon, and soon she and her partner are deep into both cases. McDermid is expert at weaving multiple plots about one another, and also at skipping back and forth between the 1980s and the present without ever confusing the reader. An excellent piece of work -- but I give fair warning: McDermid is a realist who doesn't really believe in happy endings.

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid is a well written and exciting mystery. Being that this is the first book of hers I've read I can honestly say that I enjoyed it enough to take a look at some of her earlier works. The main plot takes place in 2007 but has many flashbacks to events in 1984. Early on in the book the flashbacks were just a bit confusing but once I got use to going back-&-forth between the years it added a great dimension to the multiple mysteries within the story.

What makes this book enjoyable is the solid character development of all the participants. Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, in charge of the cold-case department, is a very strong-willed person who refuses to be intimidated. Throughout the story she butts heads with just about everyone from the wealthy businessman Sir Broderick Grant, whose daughter was murdered and grandson kidnapped 22 years ago, to her boss Assistant Chief Constable Simon Lees to an aggressive reporter to pretty much any of the witnesses she interviews. As we follow her investigation we find that all the characters she encounters has their own demons to overcome. It's up to her and her partner to try and sort out who is being honest and who isn't.

The only complaint I really have is that after this great 348 page build-up to what should be a great resolution, everything gets semi-resolved in a rush over the last eight pages. I say semi-resolved because this book never quite ends. There are unanswered questions left to be resolved. There are some great surprises but overall I was left at the end wanting more, wanting to know how everything ends up, who Grant's Executive Assistant really is, and how will justice be served. At the end I felt a little disappointed.

Overall a very good mystery that I enjoyed and would recommend to mystery fans. I look forward to reading more of McDermid's books.

Just like when I read "Place of Execution", about one hundred pages from the end, I thought I had the whole thing worked out, yeah right! I hate this woman! McDermid never gives you a redherring, what she does is give you so much information that you lose you train of thought and follow her down the blind alleys that she has led you to.

Two 'missing person' reports lead DI Karen Pirie of the Cold Case Review Team to follow up on two disappearances from the 1980s. It was a very unhappy time in Scotland when Thatcher (that Bitch) was busy trying to break the backs of the Unions. In Scotland, the coal miners had been on strike for close to a year and people were beginning to starve. So men decided to go south and scab (blackleg it); and it was assumed that Mick Prentice had done just that and never returned. Five other men left for the South the same night he disappeared, so what was everyone to think.

Brodie Maclennan Grant had pulled himself up by his bootstraps (with a wee help from his wife's father) and made himself one of the riches men in Scotland. His unmarried daughter was kidnapped (with her six month old son) by an anarchist group. When Grant went to deliver the ransom, his daughter was shot dead and the kidnappers escaped with his grandson. Twenty-two years later, a freelance journalist finds a clue that's going to turn the lives of everyone involved upside down.

These two cold cases, which seem to be as separate as apples and oranges will converge to an ending that no one (that's right neither me nor anyone else) could guess. Great work Val, damn you!

Zeb Kantrowitz

A complex story centered on two cold cases dating to a similar time period, this is a winner sure to bring McDermid new fans.

A young woman arrives at a police station in Scotland to report her father missing--twenty-three years after the fact. Technically, Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, head of the Cold Case Review Team, knows she should refer the case to CID. But she's intrigued. Why has it taken so long for anyone to take action on Mick Prentice's disappearance?

It soon develops Prentice went missing at the height of the politically charged national miners strike in 1984 and everyone believes he abandoned his family to join strikebreakers down south. Still, there are elements that arouse Pirie's curiosity and she is sympathetic to his daughter's reason for seeking her father.

At abut the same time Pirie is looking into this old case an investigative journalist on holiday in Tuscany discovers new evidence that will require Pirie to reopen investigation into the bungled kidnap ransom of heiress Catriona Maclennan Grant and her baby son, which dates back to the same time period as the Prentice case.

Having grown up in a mining community, I could relate to McDermid's characters and their environment. Were that not the case, I would still have found her characters believable, the dialogue sure and the plot absorbing. Though I figured out the connection between the cases before long, there were enough red herrings and surprises to keep me going. From the first page I was hooked and had to keep reading to see what would happen next.

Detective Inspector Karen Pirie runs the Cold Case Review Team in Fife, in the east of Scotland. When a young woman walks in to report that her father went missing twenty-three years ago in 1984, Pirie begins to investigate. Mick Prentice, a miner, was last seen during a bitter miners' strike and it was commonly thought that he'd gone scabbing--but now it's clear that he did not.

The Prentice investigation develops at a good pace for a case so cold. Then another case lands on Karen's desk from the same era: in 1985 a young woman and her infant son were kidnapped for ransom, and in the muddle of the ransom handover the woman was killed and the baby disappeared completely. Now a reporter vacationing in Tuscany has found something that brings the case back to life.

This book works beautifully on many levels. The plot and characters are complex and gratifying. Author Val McDermid's return to the Scotland of her roots feels like a labor of love, and the landscape and history of Fife come to life in her words. Who wants the past revealed, and who wants to cover it up? What will a wealthy but bereft man do to find the grandson who, if he survived, is now a young man? What guilty secrets were played out at the intersection of these two cases, and what was the heavy cost? Will DI Pirie's methods yield the truth, and will it set anyone free? You may guess some of the answers but the moody story is guaranteed to satisfy.

McDermid's leading women are always well-defined, a little gritty, a little tormented. In A Darker Domain: A Novel we find some fascinating men too, many with their own dark secrets and agendas. So many characters, some lightly sketched but still fascinating; in other words, a full backdrop to the story. The book moves back and forth in time and place, with stories from the past written in "real time" from the characters' point of view. While the constant switches can be distracting, they also give a much greater immediacy than if the story had been purely narrative from an omniscient author. McDermid takes firm control of the story and the tension is superb. In her hands the lessons of the past cast long shadows into the present.

Linda Bulger, 2009

I've read several Val McDermid thrillers, and A Darker Domain is the best of those I've read. The Mermaids Singing was a wonderful book, but a little gruesome for my tastes. I've also read some of the Lindsay Gordon and Kate Brannigan mysteries, and while they are good, they simply do not come close to A Darker Domain--this is a fantastic mystery.

In A Darker Domain, Detective Karen Prie begins working two cold case files. One case concerns a miner, Mike Prentice, who supposedly broke from the Miners' Strike in 1984 to go scabbing in Nottingham. Now, his daughter, desperate to find her long-lost father has reported him missing after 23 years.

The other case concerns a botched kidnapping in which a multimillionaire's daughter was killed, and her infant son, also kidnapped was never found. Prie begins working on these cases, and the cold trail of clues leads to some shocking truths. As Prie digs through the old evidence and a startling new discovery, she uncovers many still unhealed wounds from the legacy of the strike and its bitter fallout.

Full of strong, well-developed characters, A Darker Domain was an incredible, riveting read. I couldn't put this book down. The narrative goes back and forth in time giving glimpses of crucial periods in both cases, and this structure worked well and kept me turning pages. If you are a fan of Ruth Rendell's novels, then there's a good chance you'll enjoy this. It's a terrific read for mystery lovers.

McDermid's Scotland is a dark, chilly, broody place, grim with poverty and stone and old feuds.

This stand-alone novel harkens back to an even grimmer setting - the disastrous 1984 Scottish coal mine strike and Margaret Thatcher's gimlet-eyed ruthlessness. Now, 23 years later, one miner who was assumed to have deserted his family to become a scab is officially dubbed missing. Fife cold case detective Karen Pirie agrees to take the case for his daughter.

Meanwhile ambitious journalist Bel Richmond, vacationing in Tuscany, discovers some new evidence in a sensational 1984 kidnapping case which was botched at the ransom delivery - the kidnapped heiress killed and her son never seen again. Bel goes to the heiress' father, a fabulously wealthy magnate who summons Karen to his home.

Connected by time, the two cases highlight contrasts - in the present day as well as the past, as Karen is ordered to pursue one and drop the other. The action segues between past and present seamlessly as the flashbacks arise in answer to questions, illuminating the setting as well as the story.

The plot, however, is rather tired and the clunky ending defies belief. Still, nobody, not even Ian Rankin, surpasses McDermid's chilly, ground-down Scotland, and McDermid's exploration of social clash and character rings true.

A botched kidnapping, and a missing person are the two latest cases brought to the newly formed Cold Case Review Team, headed by newly promoted DI Karen Pirie. These cases are more than 20 years old, one brought back to the surface by a mother desperate to locate a donor for her medically fragile son, and the other by a well known investigative reporter who stumbled upon a crucial piece of evidence while vacationing in Italy. Unfortunately, DI Pirie's boss is more interested in public relations and budgetary issues than he is in stirring things up. Not one to become too concerned with riling up the boss, ignoring the rule book, or stepping on important toes, however, she is determined to get to the bottom of things.

Val McDermid has crafted a genuine page turner here, expertly revealing bits of evidence via the technique of interspersing chapters about then amongst the chapters about now. The reader gets the evidence as soon as the tecs do, and puzzling yet intriguing bits they are. The Italian bureaucracy, the ethics of journalism, the corrupting power of money, and the refusal to cave under any of these pressures, drive this plot to a truly surprising conclusion. A Darker Domain is crime fiction at its best, and McDermid is at the top of her game.

This story begins in a mining town in Scotland. Mick Prentice leaves his family to join strikebreakers. Twenty-two years later, his daughter's son is in the hospital and needs a transplant. So she reports him to the police. Since it has been so long, it seems near impossible to find Mick.

Around the same time, heiress Catriona Maclennan Grant and her son are kidnapped. She is killed and her son, Adam, disappears without a trace. Now a journalist in Tuscany has found evidence that may reopen the case. There is a possibility that the cases are linked.

The story is pretty straight forward. The mining aspect seems more heartfelt since the author grew up in a mining town. The unfortunate thing is there is some slang terms that I had no idea what they ment. There were also changes in time that are not marked so I was a little lost for a few moments a couple times.

Although it seems like there is two stories for a while, they are related and a great concept. I liked how everything comes together and how the two women researching each case have more in common. This is a well written story with twists throughout. I would recommend this to those that like mysteries. Great story!!

Shawn Kovacich
Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.

My only prior experience with Val McDermid's work was a short story for a Tart Noir anthology. Her latest book, "A Darker Domain" is 180 degrees from that.

It begins in June 2007 with a young woman reporting a missing person--her father, Mick Prentice, who abandoned her and her mother more than 20 years ago at the height of the miners' strike in 1984. His disappearance had been dismissed as scabbing, so nobody had thought to seek him.

Around the same time, a journalist on holiday in Tuscany poking through an abadoned house discovers a poster linked to the kidnapping of heiress Catriona Maclennan Grant and her infant son in January 1985. When the handover went awry, Grant was killed, and her son vanished. She also finds evidence of a more recent crime in the villa.

The young woman's missing persons report and the journalist's discovery set in motion of a chain of events that lead up to their inevitable link beyond the woman tasked with both cases -- DI Karen Pirie.

The book is not fast-paced at first, moving along at a gentle clip, but then it picks up the pace and draws you further in to the lives of the characters, bouncing in time from 1985 to 2007 and Fife, Scotland, to Tuscany, Italy. If you enjoy crime fiction, you will enjoy "A Darker Domain."

A young mother with a dying child, a grieving man who lost his family, a family who lost their husband and father all these and more are tangled together into a mass of crimes, long ago tragedies and lies. PI Karen Pirie, who has been relegated to the cold case desk of the Fife, Scotland police department is given one strand of this tangled mess when a young woman reports her father as a missing person - more than twenty years after he was last seen. Intrigued by the long delay in reporting the disappearance PI Pirie finds herself drawn back to a pivot time in local history. As she begins to ferret out information on the first case she discovers that other events, both from the past and present, intrude into the investigation.

This is an exciting mystery thriller. The characters are well written and engaging, the situations are plausible and plot is full of surprising twists and turns. The reader might be able to keep up with PI Pirie in some aspects but will probably be caught by surprise in at least a few of the plot twists. Although this was a bit slow starting the pace of the story builds to an exciting climax.

This is the first McDermid novel I have read but it will not be the last.

This novel centres around two cold cases, dating back to 1984/1985. One involves a missing miner, who it is assumed, went south from a small village in Scotland to Nottingham to work as a 'scab' during the miners strike. The other case involves a botched kidnap attempt on a rich industialist's daughter and grandson.

I found this book a fascinating read! In the parts of the book set in late 1984, the author really brings to life the growing desperation of the mining community in this small village, as the strike wore on. Events that would be mirrored all across many areas of Britain, at that time. It is this part of the book that has stuck with me the most.

However, the parts of the novel set in the present day, are also interesting, as Detective Inspector Karen Pirie slowly weaves the strands together that link these two old cases. In Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, the author has created a very believable and likeable charcacter, and I look forward to reading more books with her in it.

The only drawback I found with this book (and its only a slight one) was that the ending seemed a bit rushed. Otherwise, a great read, possibly Val's best!

22 previous books?! How has Val McDermid escaped my attention over all these years? The answer, of course, is that she wrote the books that the great TV series "Wire in the Blood" was based on. But unlike many other authors in this genre, McDermid doesn't seem willing to get "stuck" with a single protagonist, and in "A Darker Domain" she seems to be striking off in a new direction.

I loved this book. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read; a completely unputdownable page turner. Great characters, and a fabulous narrative with just the right number of twists and surprises. The events of two decades earlier are brought to life with flashbacks that avoided anachronism and captured the attitudes and social events of the time. (We're talking about some of the most gut-wrenching events in recent British history: the miners strike, Thatcher's response , and the deep divisions that followed.) And the contemporary events also capture the gestalt of the times: while the traditional British novel of detection was a purely local affair, this reaches out across Europe.

Thoroughly recommended.

DARKER DORMAIN centers on two crimes that occurred during the 1984 coal miner's strike in Scotland that are finally solved twenty plus years later. The first mystery is the whereabouts of Mick, a young married coalminer who people assumed disappeared to become a "scab" but whose story turns out to be much more complicated when his adult daughter finally reports him missing twenty-two years after he was last seen. The second mystery has its roots in the same time period and concerns the kidnapping of the daughter and grandson of one of Scotland's wealthiest men. The reader will likely see at least partly how these two plotlines converge long before McDermid reveals that to her audience. However the book is so well written, the characters so fully developed and the setting so genuinely realized that readers will want to continue reading until the final page to find out how everything is finally resolved. Val McDermid is an excellent mystery/suspense writer and I hope to read more of her works and can highly recommend her novel A PLACE OF EXECUTION another stand alone thriller she authored.

Both manor and mine hold dark secrets about the disappearance of people over twenty years before. One case was highly publicized, and the other not even suspected to involve foul play. But both mysteries have cast a gloomy pall over a town already down on its luck. Now as only fate would have it, both investigations come to life, and Detective Superintendent Karen Pirie of Fife's Cold Case Review Team seek out what others have missed.

I first heard of Val McDermid in an almost reverent reference to her in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Such reverence is now understood. McDermid easily moves the plot back and forth across decades building the dark and foreboding atmosphere of impending doom or perhaps loss. Next to Ian Rankin she is probably the most accomplished Scottish author of police procedurals of our time. Like Rankin you quickly lose yourself in a gritty world of crime and consequence.

It's not summer fare but a book for the last days of winter to have you dreaming of coming spring.

This is the most brilliant book by McDermid I’ve read so far. The structure is set up to go back and forth in time, to switch from writing about something to showing it happening, to end each segment with almost a cliff hanger, and the book has zero chapters. There are two cold cases being investigated, there are two investigators: Karen the DCI, and Bel an investigative journalist. I would read this book again.

Val McDermid delivers consistently good mystery fiction. Her series with Tony Hill is excellent throughout & I have yet to read a standalone of hers that wasn't also wonderful.

McDermid writes wonderfully complex & twisty characters & plots. I also really enjoy her settings - typically the North of England or Scotland - places we all tend to read less about.

Born into a coal mining family in Scotland, this novel (which covers the disappearances of 3 people during the time of the miner's strike in 1984) is obviously in a setting & subject matter that she cares about. It is this passion & her ability to teach her reader something about what is for many an obscure piece of history while never ever sacrificing her narrative thread is truly admirable.

The mystery here is deep with enough twists & turns to keep you wondering & reading. Wonderful book - highly recommended.

This is my first Val McDermid novel and is impressive enough to place her with others such as Peter Robinson and Charles Todd as a potentially favorite author.There's a lot of story, a number of threads, which often proves to be more than an author can handle. Not so here. McDermid weaves the two major plots along with several strong characters into an irresistable tapestry. I've been running into novels in which current cases are found to be conncected to cold cases, but this one deals with two cold cases which of course you know will prove to be interconnected. One deals with striking coal miners while the other deals with a kidnapping gone horribly wrong involving the rich and powerful. Both play with the emotions and with familial relationships. As I have already stated, this is me first McDermid novel but, of course, won't be my last as I reach back to see what I've been missing.

First of all, just as one character recounts to a younger character in this novel, if you don't already know about the miner strikes in mid-1980's Britain, you won't fully understand some of the driving forces - so go watch 'Billy Elliot.' Yes, that is the exact advice given to the younger character who never apparently tries that route.

Overall, I was intrigued by the investigation of two seemingly vastly different cold cases, one of them involving a high profile kidnapping gone wrong and the other an only-just-reported missing person's case of a miner who vanished 23-years-ago. You know even without being forewarned that the two cases will end up being interconnected. What you aren't sure is how, and it tries to keep you guessing. It's a bit hard for me to say how well it does as I am notorious in my family for figuring out the 'didn't see that coming' plot points of books and movies five minutes in. A hard and fast rule of family moviegoing is entering the second generation as where my mother used to hiss at me as the lights go down, "Don't you dare casually mention anything to me about how obvious something is," to where my spouse and son now berate me.

That said, I was not willing to put down the book even though quite a few things seemed obvious to me. McDermid writes in such a manner that even if you see a large chunk of the answers, you want the little details and the end resolution. What's more is that she writes strong women characters who are far from perfect and whose actions sometimes are over-rewarded or over-punished regardless of intent. Her male characters, with the exception of the rich patriarch of a Scottish family still trying to both understand a twenty-three year old tragedy by fixing it regardless of all potential costs throughout those 23 years, are also surprisingly and refreshingly strong willed, albeit most of them in more tragic ways.

Overall I would give this a 4 1/2 stars because there simply are not allowances made for a few things. To say exactly what things would be to potentially give away too much. There's no resolution on several character fronts, including one person who really is made to be a villain when he is in fact a victim. More annoying to me was my own personal wonderings about a minor character who is nonetheless at the center of the circle of power, so much so that my brain started a warning beacon fairly early on and was apparently on the verge of being rewarded when she lets a simple but significant word slip loose and then... nothing. I have no idea if this was an idea of the author's that she decided to abandon and her editor simply hadn't caught it yet as this was a proof edition. Most of the ending as a whole wherein the author herself simply says, 'And this is where this story ends,' (making me wonder when we suddenly went from a good mystery to some sort of fairy tale) is just too sudden. The reader has been taken on a meandering journey of 23-years' twists, turns, and as it comes together is left feeling a little out of the loop. I don't want a sequel, but I don't like the idea of having just so much left up for you to imagine, particularly since there are a lot of characters ranging from innocent to the aforementioned turned villain who are left dangling in the breeze of, once again, a bit of a 'they lived happily ever after...' ending of the main protagonist (which was handled deftly and fairly realistically).

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid

At last, a worthy successor to Ms McDermid's classic A Place of Execution. Not that this is part two of that story; it isn't! And it's not as though she hasn't written many other clever and wonderful books. Rather this hasn't fallen into a mire of gore as so many of her mysteries have done but it's intelligent and intriguing as we go back and forth in time with the focus on a kidnapping and loss of a daughter and grandchild as the scheme fails in spectacular and disastrous manner.

Twenty two years after that kidnapping gone wrong, new evidence is discovered and a detective picks up where she left off so long ago. Putting yourself to sleep with this thrilling and inventive story will be tough; it had me gill-hooked right from the start and I read far too late into the night because it was so hard to put down!

--C & B Blanchard

Val McDermid is best known for her Tony Hill novels and the television series created from them. In A DARKER DOMAIN, a stand-alone work, she takes a completely different storytelling tactic. She has devised a complicated collage consisting of a dual narrative and two seemingly unrelated cases dating back more than 20 years. At first, readers may find themselves stumbling through the labyrinth of the alternating time frames and multiple voices. But once they get the footwork down, things begin to fall into place. As the tension propels the plot forward, the trail of breadcrumbs and red herrings starts to coalesce, bringing the events, past and present, out of their maze.

A DARKER DOMAIN also takes on social issues not always present in other novels: the desperate cruelty of the coal strikes decades ago, the results that shattered lives and communities, the underlying class system that still exists in Britain and the role of the police when it comes to solving current and cold cases.

The time is 1984-1985 during the coal miners' strike in Britain. At that time Margaret Thatcher wanted to break the unions, and the coal industry was where she was going to do it. As a result, the destruction was catastrophic for an entire industry, and there was no return from the damage. People were worn down to the quick as they slowly starved or froze in their tiny cottages. Fife, Scotland, was where Thatcher centered her project. Other mines continued to operate in other parts of the country, but no miner wanted to desert his home and fellow union buddies to become a "blackleg" (better known as a "scab"). This was unthinkable.

Thus, when a small group of men fled with their families, all of their reputations were permanently damaged. One of the most surprising turncoats was Mick Prentice, a well-respected union man with a wife and daughter, both of whom he left behind. They suffered brutal shunning and were no longer considered part of the community. His family never heard from him again except for the occasional envelope stuffed with money, which his wife, Jenny, gave to charity. The night Mick disappeared his best friend, Andy Kerr, also vanished and was never heard from again. Everyone, including his wife, just assumed he ran off to Nottingham with the others to find work.

Misha Prentice is now a grown woman and mother. Her son is desperately ill and needs a transplant. His only hope is the possibility that his grandfather, Mick, is a match for him. Thus begins Misha's long, thorny and desperate journey to find him. Her first step is to go to the Fife police. Since the case is so old, it falls on the desk of Karen Pirie, the newly promoted Detective Inspector of the cold case unit. As she interviews the woman, she feels an affinity for Misha, finds the case intriguing and decides to investigate.

Broderick McClellan (Brodie) Grant is one of the richest men in the country. His one daughter and only grandson were kidnapped 22 years ago. A ransom transfer went terribly wrong, leading to the daughter's death and the boy never being seen again. Still, the old man is ready to open another investigation when Bel Richmond, an investigative journalist, finds a crumpled old flyer about the case when she is on vacation in Tuscany. With this piece of paper, if she can gain access to Brodie (who never grants interviews), she has written her own ticket to an explosive exclusive. He surprisingly ends up agreeing to her demands, and she slowly mines the story of the kidnap/murder. Her agenda aside, all of this opens a Pandora's box, one that will frustrate both DI Pirie and Bel Richmond.

Slowly and painfully, Brodie describes the kidnapping of his only daughter and grandson. As he and Bel go back over the few facts he knows, little tidbits of newly accessible information begin to seep out and could be new leads.

Geography, pathology, archaeology, anthropology mingled with common sense, intuition and the brains of the two women investigating two arms of the monster cases afford readers a fascinating history of what the powers that were did to an entire industry and the people they crushed. Murders are uncovered and disappearances put to rest. Fans of McDermid and newcomers alike should find A DARKER DOMAIN a masterful novel that will challenge their armchair detective skills.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

I started reading Val McDermid's novels featuring Dr. Tony Hill after watching the British T.V. drama "Wire in the Blood," which was initially based on that series of books. Even though those novels supplied more cruelty and gore than I would've normally liked, I enjoyed them overall because McDermid 1) presented interesting characters under unusual pressures and 2) kept the plot moving.

I like her latest, "A Darker Domain," but am not crazy about it, mainly due to the lack of her normal strengths -- interesting characters and narrative drive -- as the book progressed onward to a not-terribly-surprising ending.

This is not a Tony Hill novel but a D.I. Karen Pirie one. The present-day story revolves around two cold cases from the 1980s. The first: the disappearance of a striking (and strike-breaking?) miner; the second: a double kidnapping involving the family of a semi-titan of industry. It becomes evident as the novel progresses that the two cases are in fact tied together, and D.I. Pirie, with the help of reporter Bel Richmond, ultimately solves the puzzle.

I have read that McDermid grew up in a mining family and thus has some insight to share regarding the sufferings of the mining community in 1980s Britain. But it seems she might be too close to the topic as it sometimes gets her off course plot-wise and pulls her occasionally into political (and polemical) areas that don't suit the book.

Overall, I'd say if you like the author's previous works, you'll like this one. If you haven't yet read McDermid, I'd recommend starting with either the first Tony Hill novel, "The Mermaids Singing," or the non-Tony-Hill novel "A Place of Execution," which might just be her best so far.

If anybody else wrote this stand-alone novel, it would be considered excellent. Unfortunately Val McDermid wrote "Place of an execution" one of the best mysteries in last 20 years, and everything else pales in comparison. Still, this is a beautifully plotted and written book with sharply drawn characters. It unravels slowly, perhaps too slowly for the thriller lovers, but then I am not one of them. I'll faithfully go back to Val McDermid and enjoy her masterful talent

Val McDermid has woven another complex plot in which she moves smoothly and effortlessly from past to present and back. Inspector Karen Pirie and her partner are investigating two cold cases--one that the Chief Inspector has told her to drop and one that he is pushing her to work because it involves one of the wealthiest men in Scotland and his family. She won't drop the first one because a child's life may hinge on its solution.

Without giving away the plot, I can say that some of the twists and turns
in both cases are expected, but others are stunning revelations.
McDermid's prose is easy to read and intelligent. All in all a good read.

I have read several of Val McDermid's mysteries, and she never disappoints. A Darker Domain moved from present to past events very effectively and kept me turning the pages. My only negative comment is regarding a letter one of the characters writes near the end of the book. To me it was too well written by half for the character as portrayed. That being said, I look forward to more of Val's books. It looks like this one might be the beginning of a new series.

Before you read this one, read The Distant Echo. I wish McDermid would write more stories featuring Inspector Pirie. Distant Echo is kind of a prequel to A Darker Domain and if you read the latter first, it will spoil the first one. Loved both books. McDermid is a wonderful writer and the atmosphere really comes off the page. Highly recommended.

Two cold cases, believable characters and fascinating background...this woman can write! She draws you into the world she's created and makes you care!
For all those lamenting that this is not another Tony Hill - McDermid is so much more than just one series! She is a writer who can't be limited to just one character. Her other series and her stand alones are worth reading. I wish her a very, very long career!

When I read the preview of what "Darker Domain" was about, I jumped at the chance to read it. I'm a fan of the TV show "Cold Case" and felt "Domain" would cover similar ground.

McDermid has the basics of a nifty thriller down pat, two cases over 20 years old suddenly rearing their head. One, a Scottish coal miner who crossed the picket lines in the 1980's is found to have disappeared. Now, finding him is an urgent matter as he is the only suitable donor for a medical procedure required by his grandson. The second case involves a kidnapping gone wrong. Evidence suddenly turns up in a run down house in Italy that may shed new light into the events of the kidnapping.

Detective Pirie is a good protagonist, and while the cases involved are interesting, there doesn't seem to be any urgency to McDermid's writing that makes you want to continue reading. The story itself just isn't that compelling. I had no trouble putting this novel down, and didn't feel the need to pick it back up to see how things would turn out. At times it was almost a chore to slog through the chapters.

While not an awful novel, there really isn't much to recommend about "Darker Domain".

This is a skillful weaving together of strands relating to two crimes. The beginning completely draws you in, and the characters are well drawn without being annoying. I love McDermid's series fiction, and was a bit skeptical if she could create such memorable characters again, but she definitely has. Love the plotting, love the plot, love the characters, and the settings are well-drawn as well. A real winner!

Val Mc Dermid has a great plot and convincing characters in this unusual story. However the alternance of flashbacks and narratives by a number of different protagonists is jarring. It is true that all the strands come together to make a solid enough rope, but the reader is brought up short every three or four pages by an abrupt change of pace and voice. It is an interesting technique but it tends to become wearisome even if the reader feels compelled to go on reading.

The location is Fife, Scotland. Back in the eighties, a man by the name of Mick Prentice left his family. He was a miner. He joined the strikebreakers and was never seen or heard from again. Now twenty-three years later, someone is reporting Mick missing.

The year was 1985. Something terrible happened then. Heiress Catriona Maclennan Grant and her baby boy get kidnapped. It was all suppose to be simple. The ransom was to be paid and everyone would be safe. For whatever reason, something went wrong and Catriona is killed. No one ever found out what happened to her son. He went missing. The funny thing is that it is also twenty-three years later, when someone comes across some new evidence that causes this cold case to be reopened again.

Karen Pirie is in the midst of all of this. She plans to get to the bottom of just what really happened in both cases.

When I read the summary for this book, I picked up a copy to read right away. This is the type if book that is right up my alley. Unfortunately the summary read better then the story itself. From the very beginning I hated this book. I did stick with it through hoping it would get better but it never did for me. It seemed like there was too much description and explaining about what was going on with the characters. I mean some explaining is ok but I don't need to know when Karen was going to the bathroom or needed to blow her nose. Ok, so maybe I am going over board a little but still you get my point. There was one time where I put the book down and ended up reading two more books before I picked Darker Domain up again. I have to say that I was disappointed and would not read another book by Val McDermid.

First for me, this author. I hate flashbacks or concurrent storylines- But I just couldn't put this book down until the end! All the characters shown brightly and true. Unpredictable twists. Satisfaction on each page.
Try McDermid, she won't disappoint.

What??? I hated the ending. It just ended with no preamble or explanation. Case solved I guess. I love the writing style of Val McDermid and this book was very complex with lots of plot lines. There is the search for the missing miner from 1984 requested by his daughter who is seeking a match to save the life of her young son. Her father might be a match if he can be found. Mick Prentice has been missing since 1984. Then there's the query by Sir Brody seeking information about his kidnapped grandson from 1984. After Bel, an investigative reporter looking for her big break, finds a puppet poster she recognizes as the same kind of poster used by kidnappers in the Brody kidnapping, Sir Brody asks her to help him research the location where she found this new evidence and determine if it is relevant. Each chapter jumps from 2007, the date of the current events, back to 1984 and the happenings of the two missing people. It is quite intriguing and has the reader captured BUT then Sir Brody withdraws his quest from the police and tells DI Pirie to cease and desist, and she goes ballistic. She tries to figure out how to continue without being in conflict with his request. There is much in this story to like and right up to the end I was hoping for a final resolution. But, it seems that the author got to the end and then decided she was just tired of writing. Another chapter would have been appropriate I think. the book ended with a big question mark. Maybe the next book will put the final touches on this mystery BUT leaving the reader hanging doesn't work for me. So 4 stars. The narrator was excellent and I'll keep reading McDermid. She is a terrific mystery writer.