Customer Reviews

Common Murder: The Second Lindsay Gordon Mystery

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I read this as an english person with knowledge, via the media, of the Greenham Common events upon which it as based. I am male, which may be a disadvantage, given the radical lesbian feminist label it adopts, but I enjoyed the alternative perspective. Shall I be honest ? It is not her best. Lindsay and her pals are a bit irritating. the prose is overlong and tends to lose dramatic point as you meander around the, rather hackneyed, plot. But... hey, do not take that as criticism Val. I am enjoing what you are doing and place you in the Paretsky and Parker class when it comes to crime fiction. Maybe my scepticism derives from the fact that it is hard for us anglos to sound glib, hard-boiled etc. Apart that is, from Terry Venables, another once upon a time crime writer. Keep up the good work !

After reading 'A Place for Execution' I sought out McDermids earlier works. This along with the rest of the Lindsay Gordon series are light, easy and fun reads. I found the characters to be a little left of center, but that is what certainly made them interesting!

The whole Lindsay Gordon series is like a young lesbian version of Murder She Wrote. A little more racey than Jessica Fletcher and a lot more fun.

If you enjoy English humour (dry wit and loads of sarcasm) and want some fun who dunnit mystery reads, read the whole series but do yourself a favor... start with number one and move through the series in order. Will make a lot more sense. Common Murder is number 2 in the series and a fun read, but Lindsay makes a lot more sense if you start with the first book which is 'Report for Murder.'

A short 250ish pages, it would have been better to have cut 100 pages and make this a short story without all of the unnecessary and meaningless character-developing diversions. The book runs along in 3rd gear most of the time, never really reaching a dramatic climax, which is really not good for a mystery, and the pretense is a little hard to believe: intrepid reporter for London tabloid gets everyone's help in solving murder mystery, even help from those who shouldn't be helping her. Certainly not the best mystery out there.

Val McDermid grew up in Kirkcaldy, a small mining community on the east coast of Scotland and studied English at Oxford University. The books she has written featuring Tony Hill and Carol Jordan have provided the basis for the popular "Wire on the Blood" television series, while her novels have won a number of awards, including the Macavity award, the Anthony Award and Grand Prix des Romans d'Aventure. "Common Murder" is her second novel and - like her first - features journalist, Lindsay Gordon. The book was first published in 1989.

Lindsay is now living in London with her girlfriend Cordelia and working for the Daily Clarion. She's assigned a story centred around the women's peace camp at Brownlow Common - which was set up to protest about the of nuclear weapons sited at the American airbase. Lindsay, as it turns out, is a supporter of and a regular visitor to the camp. (Cordelia, a noted and successful playwright, also supports the camps aims. However, since Cordelia's more stereotypically middle-class than stereotypically lesbian, she prefers not to get her wellies muddy. Instead, she sends letters to the Guardian and makes cash available to buy lentils for the camp). The differences with regards to the camp are, indeed, a sign that things aren't going terribly well in the relationship.

The problem for the women's camp is a local action group called Ratepayers Against Brownlow's Destruction, headed up by a local solicitor called Rupert Crabtree. RABD wants the camp removed from the Common since, they believe, it's being destoyed by the women living there. (You'd be amazed how much damage candlelight vigils and singsongs can cause). Of course, the damage to the common isn't entirely down to the women : the camp is regularly attacked by a vicious gang of mad, bullying bikers. (Nasty stereotypical bikers). However, the story that brings Lindsay down has nothing to do with mad bikers and everything to do with Crabtree - he was, allegedly, assaulted by one of the women based at the camp. The woman in question turns out to be Deborah Patterson - who is, would you believe, an ex-girlfriend of Lindsay's. (It is such a small world, isn't it ? What a coincidence, that she turns up just as Lindsay's current relationship hits a sticky patch). Things, naturally, get even trickier when Crabtree is murdered close to the Common - not long after Deborah is released on bail.

On the whole, I'd describe "Common Murder" as a very quick and easy read - though McDermid's done much better than this. There's nothing special or memorable about the storyline and there's nothing particularly engaging about the characters. Lindsay 'solves' the whole thing far too easily - especially bearing in mind where the ending takes her - with the key people in the investigation giving her all the answers for no reason whatsoever. The promised "often comic prose" wasn't all that funny - I'd have been more inclined to laugh at the book, rather than with it at times. Very ordinary overall.

While this novel may not be 100% believable, I did enjoy reading it. In true McDermid style, it employs tons of good natured wit and sarcasm. As an American whose never left the homebase, I was unfamiliar with some of the British terminology, and thuse found myself saying "Don't be daft" an inappropriate times after finishing this novel...

Anyhow, I did like the character development in this book; without it, the book would have been purely mystery and sorely lacking!

This is one of the better books in the Linsay Gordon series. If you liked the first one, you should check this one out.

I just can't recommend this book because the writing style is very difficult to get into. I spent four months trying to slog through this novel, all the while putting it down and reading about six other books before finally finishing it. Maybe it's because the writer is British and I'm not, but I found it hard to keep track of what was going on, the political and social system where the story takes place, and the terminology or slang used. However, I can't help but think that a good writer would be able to spin a tale that would engross any reader, and this isn't the case here.