Customer Reviews

A Darker Domain: A Novel

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Two families torn apart by violence; one that received major headlines and another that only became apparent many years later. They cannot be linked in any way....right?

Author Val McDermid utilizes a dual narrative with a backdrop of the British miner's strike in the 1980s for this psychological thriller that opens old and new wounds in the halls of influence and the rooms of those struggling each day just to make ends meet. Detective Inspector Karen Pirie is the central figure in the search for answers in a missing person's case that only came to many years after the "disappearance" nearly a quarter-century old and the mystery surrounding a kidnapping and murder that could easily carry the moniker of "the crime of the century."

The first involves mineworker Mick Prentice and his decision to travel to Nottingham in search of work; essentially betraying his friends and neighbors in a Scottish town as a "scab" laborer. It is winter - about six months into the strike - and there is little food on most tables and even less fuel for the homes. Prentice does "send" money to his family that stayed behind, but never encloses a note. Fast forward to the present to Prentice's daughter, Michelle Gibson, who desperately needs money - and other vital assistance - for the medical care of her severely ill son. Her quest to find her father yields no trace of him ever arriving in Nottingham.

Journalist Bel Richmond is on the trail of the high-profile case of the heinous kidnapping of the daughter and grandson of multi-millionaire Sir Broderick Grant, which ends in a ransom payment going terribly wrong and culminates in the murder of the woman and the disappearance of the young child. Richmond has taped together loose ends and found miniscule pieces on the fringes of the "official" story to have solid leads on the kidnappers and the answers to many questions that remained over the years. But the justice that cannot be served in the media could come from Pirie taking up this controversial quest to definitively find the "smoking gun."

Through the use of solid character development, flashbacks and social history, McDermid delves into crime and punishment that is caused by jealousies and hatred, while showing that old grudges will remain when the match is ignited by the high-octane fuel of betrayal. McDermid meticulously moves the plot down parallel trails and then brings things together for a dynamic conclusion.

The ambitious work shows there are times when the shadows of the past can yield a harsh reality and there are new victims from old stories that are being told with different endings.

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.

With A Darker Domain, Scottish author Val McDermid boldly steps away from her famous Tony Hill series to deliver a brand new stand alone psychological thriller/mystery filled with mystery, betrayal and darkness.

When Michelle Gibson reports that her father, Mick Prentice, is missing, it captures the attention of cold case P.I. Karen Pirie -especially when Michelle (aska Misha) explains that he father disappeared 22 years ago during the now-infamous 1984 miners' strike. Even though the rest of the police force isn't too interested in a 22-year-old cold case with no new evidence, Karen decides to investigate Prentice's disappearance without the department's approval.

Meanwhile, as part of an official investigation Karen meets with the wealthy and influential Sir Broderick Maclennan Grant, whose daughter, Catriona, and baby grandson, Adam, were abducted in 1985 by an anarchist group. A botched ransom hand-off left Catriona dead and Adam nowhere to be found. However, new evidence has surfaced in the case and Karen, the cold case guru, is asked to find yet another missing person.

McDermid's writing skills shine through in every sentence -every word of this beautifully written novel. Readers will feel like they are experiencing the turmoil and confusing of these two stories firsthand. Written against a fascinating backdrop and spanning over two decades, McDermid paints a perfect, realistic picture of the characters' lives and makes the miners' strike accessible to readers who are both familiar and unfamiliar with the event.

As the mystery unfolds, a link is forged between the two stories. However, this link feels forced and just a little too perfect. While the story is full of complex sleuthing and intelligent storytelling, the end came together just a little too well and, seemingly, in a way that was far too easy. After reading such a thoroughly thought out story, the ending hits the reader with an unexpected thud -just after they hit their stride.

Readers should also be aware that A Darker Domain is set up differently than the traditional novel. Instead of being separated into chapters, McDermid separates the novel by dates and locations -constantly jumping between current events, past events, the UK and Italy. This method can be a little confusing at first, but it definitely keeps readers on their toes. This just proves that to get the most of this book, you absolutely must pay attention.

I've never had the opportunity to read any of McDermid's other novels before, and I wouldn't say that this one has gotten me hooked. It was an enjoyable, wonderfully written read that started out with so much promise -but failed to adequately deliver on that promise at the end.

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

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!

I have enjoyed Val McDermid's work very much over the years. Her fantastic "A Place of Execution" is one of my all time favorite books. This book started out a a close second to Execution.

I loved the history, characters and intrigue of this book. Val has a wonderful writing style and grasp of the perfect amount of local color to interest all of us. I knew from the start that these two separate mysteries would intertwine by the end of the book.

The story was progressing fine and I was enjoying it very much until about the last dozen pages. The intricate and precise storytelling of the novel just seemed to stop. It was like the publisher said this book must be finished within the next 24 hours and Val McDermid quickly threw in a couple of unnecessary murders then zipped through to a very unsatisfactory conclusion of the novel.

I think what was the most disappointing was that I was enjoying this book so much and was anticipating an ending that was as interesting as the story leading up to it. It is hard to describe my feelings as I closed the book. I was so let down by the ending and the poor finale really left a bad taste in my mouth. If the novel had not been so good up until the end, it wouldn't have mattered that much. But I was expecting so much more. I was surprised how the poor ending affected my overall feeling about the entire book. I can't remember when an ending was such a let down that it changed my feelings about the entire story.

Please try again, Val. And keep up the good storytelling for the entire book...

Blend crime, historic social commentary, mysterious doings and place them in Scotland. That's a recipe for an intriguing story which is precisely what acclaimed writer Val McDermid serves up in A Darker Domain. Those familiar with McDermid's work know that her novels are multi-layered, carefully plotted and forcefully written.

A young woman, Misha, goes to report a missing person. When she is asked how long the person has been missing her reply is "Twenty-two and a half years. Since Friday the fourteenth of December 1984, to be precise. Is that long enough for you to take it seriously?"

Why now, why wait so long to try to find someone? McDermid's story begins with a mystery and more follow in quick succession, all leading inexorably to a startling conclusion. Ah, but the fun for a reader is in getting there as the past and the present are woven together and related from various viewpoints.

The missing person is Misha's father, Mike Prentice, who left his family and home in 1984 during the national miner's strike to join other strikebreakers in Nottingham. Or, so it is believed. DI Karen Pirie, head of the Cold Case Review Team, wants to know what really happened to Prentice.

In 1985 an heiress, Catriona Maclennan Grant and Adam, her small son, were kidnaped. In the worst of all possible scenarios she is killed and Adam disappears. Leap frog from Scotland and to a quarter century later - a journalist vacationing in Tuscany discovers what may be of import to that case. Pirie is summoned to Catriona's father's home. He is wealthy almost beyond measure and one of the most powerful men in Scotland.

Too many switches in time and narrative voices were disconcerting for this reader as well as a cloudy relationship between the cases Pirie faces. Nonetheless, few can match the setting recreated by McDermid and the authenticity she brings to a Scottish police mystery. In this, her 25th book, descriptions of the miners and their families are particularly moving as McDermid comes from a mining family, and spent time with her grandparents in East Wemyss where much of the book's action takes place. She has well described the plight of the miners in 1984 in passages ringing with intensity and passion.

- Gail Cooke

Twenty-four years ago in Scotland a union man turned blackleg, that means he went scabbing. But he wasn't just any union man and those weren't ordinary times. He was Mick Prentice and no stronger believer in the union ever existed. Mick was a pitman in the Lady Charlotte Mine, the miners were on strike and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was determined to break them. Miners have to depend on each other, they're close, so when Mick turned blackleg his family was ostracized.

Meanwhile, while Mick was supposedly betraying his friends, desperate kidnappers had taken the daughter and infant grandson of Sir Broderick Maclennan Grant, just about the wealthiest man in Scotland.

DI Karen Pirie works cold cases and they don't get any colder than the Maclennan kidnapping. Nobody's working it. Then one day a reporter on vacation in Italy finds some evidence that causes the police to reopen the investigation. Also, Mick Prentice's daughter comes to the coppers to report her father missing. Seems when he went scabbing in 1984 he dropped off the face of the earth and he's needed now, or at least his bone marrow is, because his grandson needs a transplant.

Speaking of grandsons, during that kidnapping that went wrong, Sir Broderick's daughter was killed, but the kidnappers made off with the baby. Sir Broderick wants to believe he's still alive and he hires that reporter to find him. The coppers in both Scotland and Italy are looking too.

As the investigation continues DI Pirie begins to see some connections, but will she put them together before it's too late. And as in all good thrillers, somebody's life is in danger, but the question is whose. Once you find out, you'll be on pins and needles. There are killers here, but you won't figure out who they are till the end. I went back and looked for the clues and they were there, I just didn't see them. This is a super mystery.

With the popularity of cold cases on TV, Val McDermid presents us with her own version in this stand alone novel.
Det. Inspector Karin Pirie and Det. Sgt. Phil Parhatka of the cold case squad are given the case of finding a man who has been missing for over 20 years.
Michelle "Misha" Gibson is searching for her dad, Mitch Prentice, who apparently became a strikebreaker in 1984 in a miner's strike and then disappeared. Now Misha and her husband, John, are looking for Mitch as a possible bone marrow donor to save their son, Luke, who has Faconi Anemia. The reason Misha and her mother didn't report Mitch as missing sooner is that by his apparent crossing over to be a strikebreaker, he was showing disloyalty to the other miners and they didn't want anything more to do with him.

As Karin is investigating this case, she's given another. She's ordered to the home of Sir Broderick Grant, one of the wealthiest men in Scotland. Grant's daughter, Cat, and his grandson were kidnapped in 1984. At the payoff, Grant insisted on being there, he also brought his gun, a weapon went off and Cat was killed. Grant's grandson hasn't been seen since.

Now, a tourist, Bel Richmond, who is also a reporter, has found some important evidence about Grant's grandson. She wants an exclusive before agreeing to tell Grant what she has discovered.
The story is in two parts and is told with flashbacks. This can usually be effective but with two stories and flashbacks on each, it became too hard to follow.
There was still good suspense. McDermid does her usual job of character development and Pirie is one of the more interesting, and self assured characters that I've read.

A DARKER DOMAIN by Val McDermid is a story that tells two separate stories. Inspector Pirie is trying to crack each of these "cold cases" that are over twenty-years old.

The first involves a coal minor who was presumed to have left his family but appears to be murdered. The second was a kidnapping/murder that transpired over twenty-years ago. The kidnapped victim is the grandson of one of the wealthiest men in the country.

The overall story was well written and had a good flow. Although many times in the book the transition between the two storylines were choppy. At one point there were so many minor characters introduced that it was necessary to go back to see where they fit into the grand scheme of things. The book also became predictable about half-way through when the intersection of the plots became pretty transparent.

My final rating would be 3.5 stars!