Report for Murder

The first novel in the Lindsay Gordon series – a gripping and thrilling page-turner, starring a self-proclaimed ‘cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist’ – from the number one bestseller Val McDermid.

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?

‘The Queen of Crime reigns’ Independent

‘McDermid remains unrivalled . . . Brilliant’ Observer

Reviews

Praise for Val McDermid:

‘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

‘McDermid remains unrivalled . . . Brilliant’ Observer

‘With the deaths of PD James and Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid is the obvious successor as Britain's Queen of Crime. For me, she has already held that title for many years.’ The Times

‘McDermid still writes with the telltale verve that's won her the accolade queen of psychological thrillers’ Guardian

‘No one rivals Val McDermid's skill at writing truly terrifying thrillers’ Goodhousekeeping.co.uk

‘Move over V.I. Warshawski’ Options

‘McDermid has created a complex and prickly detective. The relationship intertwines a realistic romance with a solid detective story.' Washington Times

‘[She is] fresh and funny with a sparkling sense of time and place’ Literary Review

About the author

Val McDermid is a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award. She writes full time and divides her time between Cheshire and Edinburgh.