Mystery within a mystery

>> Val McDermid leaves nothing hanging in A Place of Execution

by JULIET WATERS

There are reviewers who, when asked to recommend summer reading, will choose a great local author who richly deserves a prop, or a tragically overlooked G.G. or Giller contender. Thank God for them. But as far as I'm concerned, fall and winter are the seasons for intelligent reading. Summer is the sacred time of paperback beach trash. If it's intelligent--bonus.

One of my favourite recommendations has always been Val McDermid's The Wire in the Blood. An ex-tabloid bureau chief, McDermid creates a storyline that is British tabloid heaven packed with intelligently crafted minor characters. As mysteries go it's a joy to review because most of the elements of the crime are revealed in the first chapters. The serial killer is a popular TV talk-show star, a sort of a British version of Matt Lauer, who's been picking off teenage runaways for years. In a marriage of convenience with a lesbian Katie Couric type, he uses his philanthropic hospital visits to dump bodies into an incinerator. Tension is entirely created by a brilliant profiler's process of investigation. It's kind of like a Silence of the Lambs meets American Psycho (except he's British).

I'd recommend McDermid's follow up, A Place of Execution, but suggest reading The Wire first. It's not a sequel, but the expectations created by the first book heighten the suspense of this mystery within a mystery, particularly that the murderer could be the most unlikely character.

The year is 1998 and we read an "introduction" written by a fictional author, Catherine Heathcote--a woman's magazine editor turned true-crime writer. She brings us back to 1963, to the village of Scardale, a place that time seems to have forgotten. Philip Hawkins is the town's ersatz squire. He owns every property. Each tenant in this relatively incestuous feudal hamlet has one of three surnames and is one of Hawkins' employees. His step-daughter Alison is missing and his wife Ruth is devastated. D.I. George Bennett, 29 and the youngest cop ever promoted to D.I. in the county, is put in the charge of the case. If you can't stand having even the most obvious elements of plot revealed, stop reading now. Unlike The Wire, A Place of Execution is a very traditional who-dunnit that unveils elements of the crime as it progresses.

Even without the references to the Beatles, J.F.K.'s death and the Sinatra kidnapping, this is unmistakably the '60s, if only because everybody smokes. Bennett smokes Gold Leaf. He's taking over for Superintendent Jack Martin who has a broken ankle and smokes Capstan Full Strengths. George is a good man who offers his smokes to anyone he interviews. A gesture much appreciated by Ruth Hawkins, whose nerves are raw. Her husband smokes Embassy. He is creepy, shockingly indifferent to Alison's disappearance and never offers cigarettes to anyone. Oh yeah, and he's an amateur photographer.

As the investigation proceeds it becomes increasingly clear that Alison is the victim of some kind of sexual predator. Her ripped clothes are discovered stained with blood and semen. But this is Britain in the '60s, everyone drinks tea, everyone smokes and nobody wants to even think about stepfathers molesting their own daughters. So the police do something they probably wouldn't waste much time with now, they continue to investigate. This despite what seems to be an impenetrable fortress of taciturn villagers.

Suffice it to say that the plot is nowhere as simple as it seems. While I wouldn't say A Place of Execution is as compelling as Wire, it's still an intriguing mystery and a richly detailed period piece which adds to McDermid's expanding gallery of beautifully drawn minor characters.

All in all, exceptionally executed.

A Place of Execution by Val McDermid, Penguin Canada, pb, 460pp, $9.99