This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Harper An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers in 2003
Copyright © Val McDermid 2003
Cover design by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018 Cover photograph © Roy Bishop/Arcangel Images
Val McDermid asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Source ISBN: 9780007344659
Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2014 ISBN: 9780007327652
Version: 2018-06-26
Set in Meridien by Palimpsest Book Production Ltd, Grangemouth, Stirlingshire
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‘She has created some of the most appealing figures in current crime fiction. Val McDermid has used the crime genre to write a novel that, above everything else, celebrates life and loyalty’
TLS
‘A real page-turner and another McDermid triumph’
Observer
‘McDermid’s plot is a classic, and she pulls out all the stops to achieve a sense of mounting anguish, as her hero juggles multiple red herrings, mixed loyalties, differing police agendas and complicated family ties. Impeccable’
Guardian
‘Reminiscent of one of Ruth Rendell’s Barbara Vine thrillers – a few more sly, old-fashioned whodunits like this and she’ll join the sturdy ranks of the queens of crime, on course to become Dame Val or Baroness McDermid’
Sunday Times
‘The real mistress of psychological gripping thrillers’
JENNI MURRAY, Daily Express
‘A powerful story of murder and revenge … an exciting page-turner’
Sunday Telegraph
‘McDermid’s capacity to enter the warped mind of a deviant criminal is shiveringly convincing’
MARCEL BERLINS, The Times
For the ones who got away; and for the others, particularly the Thursday Club, who made the getaway possible
I now describe my country as if to strangers
From Deacon Blue’s ‘Orphans’, lyrics by Ricky Ross
Contents
Copyright
Prologue
Part One
