Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    A Place of Execution
    Unavailable
    A Place of Execution
    Unavailable
    A Place of Execution
    Audiobook14 hours

    A Place of Execution

    Written by Val McDermid

    Narrated by Paddy Glynn

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    In the Peak District village of Scarsdale, thirteen-year-old girls didn't just run away. So when Alison Carter vanished in the winter of '63, everyone knew it was a murder. Catherine Heathcote remembers the case well - a child herself when Alison vanished. Now a journalist, she persuades DI George Bennett to speak of the hunt for Alison. But when a fresh lead emerges, Bennett tries to stop the story – plunging Catherine into a world of buried secrets and revelations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateAug 6, 2015
    ISBN9781510006461
    Unavailable
    A Place of Execution
    Author

    Val McDermid

    Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages, and have sold over nineteen million copies. She has won many awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger the LA Times Book of the Year Award and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

    Related to A Place of Execution

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Caro Ramsay

      Sep 3, 2020

      Caro Ramsay
      3 min read

    • Article

      LeTteR Bocks

      Aug 4, 2022

      ◻PLEASE find attached this trademark from a box of eggs, which appears to show a chicken lifting its leg to crack off an eggy one. Susan Butcher, Australia ◻FORMER Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for meeting an ex-KGB agent without h

      13 min read

    • Article

      Echos

      Jan 10, 2019

      Before Corrine’s husband abandoned her in Berlin, he liked to say that her name reminded him of the word “corrupt.” But ending in a twist rather than a split. Her last name was the French word for “swimsuit” but he never mentioned that. This seemed s

      17 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Guide

      Jan 2, 2022

      Summer Reading Guide
      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 20, 2021

      ‘Brood’ is such a multi-layered word: thinking deeply about something, a group of young animals, something to do with longed-for motherhood… and this beautiful, spare book is about all of those, and more. The protagonist (she’s never named) and her h

      4 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      Nugrybauti

      Apr 24, 2019

      Nugrybauti
      8 min read

    • Article

      Billy Connolly: ‘It Might Be Lovely On The Other Side’

      Oct 17, 2021

      A fostered-off schoolboy going nowhere fast, turned apprentice welder on the Clyde. A welder turned regionally popular musician. A musician turned nationally popular comic. A comic turned Hollywood actor and an actor turned New York artist, then a re

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Gift of Gold

      Nov 10, 2021

      The Gift of Gold
      8 min read

    • Article

      Take a Writer Like Him: My Complicated Love Affair with Kingsley Amis

      Aug 24, 2018

      1. As much as I may rack my brain, there are 15 minutes or so in the dark that I can’t account for and that I’ll never get back—15 minutes during which, I have to think, that creep’s hands were touching my body. It’s a weird thing to think about all

      12 min read

    • Article

      Great Scot

      Oct 22, 2021

      Great Scot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Murder Most Fowl

      Mar 12, 2023

      Murder Most Fowl
      2 min read

    • Article

      Echo

      Jan 10, 2024

      Once, during a depressive episode, Stanley cut out thirteen small paper stars and taped them to the ceiling of his cluttered bedroom. They were made from the construction paper left over from his youth, stored away in a basket on a shelf in the basem

      14 min read

    • Article

      Hotel ROMEO

      Oct 13, 2021

      Hotel ROMEO
      8 min read

    • Article

      THE DUKE OF Edinbrough Hotel

      Nov 13, 2019

      THE DUKE OF Edinbrough Hotel
      6 min read

    • Article

      Green Ticket To Ride

      Feb 19, 2024

      Green Ticket To Ride
      8 min read

    • Article

      Life After Death

      May 27, 2022

      Life After Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 16, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Only Rule

      Jul 13, 2020

      There is only one rule in polite English society, but it is iron clad. Of course, polite English society is a fiction. For one thing, its members are rarely polite. Politeness is for the middle classes rather than those who live off ancestral acres o

      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 16, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      His Brilliant Career

      Mar 19, 2023

      His Brilliant Career
      9 min read

    • Article

      ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel

      Mar 25, 2019

      If she was home at night in her husband’s bed, did he care what she did with her days? The post ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Make A Stand

      Jan 17, 2024

      Make A Stand
      6 min read

    • Article

      Slanted & enchanted

      May 30, 2021

      MIRRORLAND, by Carole Johnstone (HarperCollins, $32.99), is the imaginary place identical twins Cat and El have created in the basement of the strange house near Edinburgh they share with their neurotic mother and frightening grandfather. They have m

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Place of Execution

    4/5

    459 ratings23 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Really unusual novel which kept surprising me as it continued. Very well read.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book- cover to cover. Highly recommended. The plot and characters, as well as the ending - very well crafted
    • 5/5
      Great story and the final twist is excellent and unexpected!
    • 5/5
      A beautifully crafted police procedural within a highly entertaining cast of characters. Val McDermid can not only hold the reader's attention with an edge of the seat thriller but expertly disguises the real human story behind the killing of Alison Carter until the closing chapters. Her writing style is nothing short of brilliant showing once again why she has few equal to her as a crime writer.
    • 3/5
      Well enough written and paced, with the awkward sentence or so, the entire story depends on the unlikely setup and is so full of detail that the characters, which seem to offer promise, really aren't given room to be more than ciphers with a stereotype as a label - upright police officer with supportive new wife, smarmy news reporter, old knowing village woman, nasty piece of work villain, self promoting police superior. The police sergeant Thomas almost comes through, but it's not enough.This meta mystery is so clever it cuts itself. Lest you not notice, Book II, Part II is located before Book II Part I and that placement is all that gives Book II Part I its tension. Also a reference is made to The Wicker Man to rub in the rubes using the police to their own ends aspect.
    • 4/5
      Excellent murder mystery set in the English countryside with the village in question having a dark secret. Really well done.
    • 4/5
      READ IN DUTCH

      My first book from Val McDermid and it didn't disappoint me. I had seen the series with Tony Hill, but this isn't one of them.
      I liked to see into one village so closed to strangers, I couldn't even believe there are actually places where people still live like that. I liked the plot, but sometimes it was a little bit slow and taking the speed out of it, which didn't make it easy to continue reading. It also had the doom to be my Holidaybook, and as I don't seem to be able to read whenever I'm on holiday, this might not have helped either.
    • 4/5
      very riveting. there's always a sense that something is not as it seems but i never guessed what it was. the plot around the policeman is convincing and makes the book a bit more than just a whodunnit
    • 5/5
      An incredible stand-alone volume from Val McDermid. I found this novel almost impossible to put down (but one has to make tea and sleep, you know). A very cleverly-framed text, you don't quite know where you're at with this murder mystery. What at first looks like a rather neat and tidy investigation with no (or minimal) loose ends, turns out to be something else entirely.

      Murder in a small, traditional English country town set in both the 1960s and modern day. And there's always a cup of tea to be had. I appreciate a writer who understands the importance of tea! ;)

      It's also nothing like the Kate Brannigan series, which I started reading after this, my first McDermid book.
    • 4/5
      There are often novels that are about old convictions that are bought into question because of new information and the story is about unraveling the truth. This is that sort of story but in reverse. We start with a crime, the disappearance of 13 year old Alison Carter, and follow it through to the end of the investigation and subsequent court case. We then jump 35 years where the truth about what really happened is revealed.The only thing I can say against this novel is that is long and perhaps a bit too wordy. Otherwise, it's a good read.
    • 4/5
      This is a great mystery. I thought I figured it out but there were still some details that I missed. McDermit is a great writer. You get engrossed in the books right away. I recommend this one very highly. Then you will be a fan like me.
    • 5/5
      Oh, if only Val McDermid would write more books like this: stand-alone crime novels which are gripping and believable and that leave resonances after you've read the last page. Here, she is so good at conjuring up the 1960s and takes us to the histrionic setting where children go missing and are murdered. Told in flashback, both the contemporary and historical scenes are brilliantly realised. I didn't want this book to end. So much better than those predictable and formulaic forensic-psychologist-serial-killer books that she's better known for. More like this please Val.

      © Koplowitz 2011

    • 5/5
      In 1963 as the story begins, it's the time in England when the Beatles released their first album and the time of The Great Train Robbery.The setting is the Derbyshire area, known for the Peak District National Park.A constable gets a call from a woman asking for help. Her fifteen-year-old daughter is missing.Since two other children have been missing recently, police set up an immediate search. Alison Carter lived with her mother and step-father in a small hamlet of Scardale which is made op of only a few houses and about three families who were closely connected.The investigation, led by Det. Inspector George Bennett is very thorough but stalls. Then one resident remembers an old mine. At that scene, evidence is found that points to one person. Further investigation makes police certain but there's not a body. Officials must decide if there is sufficient evidence to try this person for murder.The setting of the small hamlet is well described as is the confidence of the residents that Alison will be found. Then we experience their realization that she won't.Then the story moves to 1998 when George Bennett is retired. A woman meets George's son and tells him she's writing a book about the events in Scardale. She wants to return there for research. New events come to life that will shock the reader.A well plotted, well written story which is vastly entertaining.
    • 4/5
      One of the best mystery books I have ever read..You are kept on the edge and it is difficult to put the book down with out knowing the resolution..
    • 5/5
      A young girl goes missing from her home in a small close-knit Derbyshire community and a major police investigation into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance begins. Utterly believable and completely gripping it captures the emotional journey of the characters in a story which spans over 35 years.
    • 5/5
      Surprising "Jack-in-the Box" resolution brings great pleasure to reading this village mystery by Val McDermidThis novel wasn't available at my usual source, The Library, so I found it on-line, used, and immediately bought it, thinking I would read it sometime soon. Little did I know that once I had begun it was so interesting that I would polish it off in no time flat. I have to say, while the writing is excellent and the characters are believable and well drawn, it is the twist at the end that made this book for me. No spoilers should ever happen in reviews of this delightful book, so that it impacts each reader in it's own way. It is set in a very small village in Derbyshire. A young girl, aged thirteen, goes missing one day after she had taken her dog out for a walk before evening tea. A recent hire at a nearby police force is assigned to find the missing girl and bring relief to her anxious mother. He is quickly obsessed with the case and with determining what has happened to this young girl. He has a good partner and following procedures, the partners put their very best efforts into the mystery of what has happened. Neither the living child, nor her body are ever found. There is an arrest after quite some time has passed and new evidence comes to the detective that point in the direction of the girl's step-father. The investigation heats up.Let me pause here to let you decide for yourself if there is an empty nook or cranny anywhere in your home library or in your "reader's brain". If there is, jump on this title. It is a terrific and satisfying read.I highly recommend this book. It is one that will stay in my memory for many, many years because the author is clever and compelling as a story teller.
    • 3/5
      This is the first book by this author that I have read and really enjoyed it.Back Cover Blurb:Winter 1963: two children have disappeared in Manchester; the murderous careers of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady have begun. On a freezing day in December, another child goes missing: thirteen year old Alison Carter vanishes from an isolated Derbyshire hamlet. For the young George Bennett, a newly promoted inspector, it is the beginning of his most harrowing case: a murder with no body, an investigation filled with dead ends and closed faces, an outcome that reverberates down the years.Decades later he finally tells his story to Catherine Heathcote, but just when her book is to be published, Bennet unaccountably tries to pull the plug. He has new information which he refuses to divulge, information that threatens the foundations of his existence.Catherine is forced to reinvestigate the past, with results that turn the world upside down.
    • 4/5
      DI Bennett investigates the disappearance and apparent murder of a 14 year old girl from a rural ingrown community. Step-father is executed without a body being discovered. 35 years later the truth is revealed.
    • 5/5
      This is one of most well-written mystery novels I have ever read. If you like suspense and mystery stories, it is a must read.
    • 5/5
      Powerful British novel of a writer relating the story of a twenty-year-old crime, only to have the cop who reported the story back out. The story was about the disappearance of a young girl from a small isolated village.
    • 5/5
      On a feezing day in December 1963. 13 years old Alison Carter vanishes from her village. Nothing will ever be the same for the inhabitant of the isolated hamlet in the english countryside. Newly promoted Inspector George Bennett is determined to solve the case - even if it is just to bring home a daughter's dead body to her mother. As days progressed, the likelyhood that Alison has been murdered increases when a gruesome discovery is made in a cave. But with no corpse, the barest of the clues and an investigation that turns up more questions than answers, Bennett finds himself up against a stone wall... until he learns the shocking truth - a truth that will have far-reaching consequences. Decades later, Bennett finally tells his story to journalist Catherine Heathcote. But, just when the book is ready for publication,he pulls the plug on it without explanation. He has new information taht he will not divulge. Refusing to let the past remain a mystery, Catherine sets out to uncover what really happen to Alison Carter. But the secret is one she may wish she'd left buried on that dark day 35 years ago.
    • 5/5
      Protagonist(s): Detective Inspector George Bennett, journalist Catherine HeathcoteSetting: Derbyshire, England in 1963 and 1998I've read a couple of McDermid's Kate Brannigan mystery series and enjoyed them so much that I thought I would try one of her standalones. I was not disappointed. McDermid is becoming one of my favorite authors.It is a freezing cold December in 1963. 13-year-old Alison Carter lives in a tiny isolated community in Derbyshire called Scardale. She is envied by her friends because her stepfather buys her all the latest records. (And if you're an English teenager in 1963, Beatles records are a *must*.) One evening she steps out with her dog to take a walk and disappears. Newly promoted Detective Inspector George Bennett takes over the investigation. He doesn't have the experience, but everyone else is on leave. He takes Alison's disappearance to heart and in due course finds that the biggest obstacle to finding her is the distrust of the villagers. Thirty-five years later, Catherine Heathcote decides to write a book on the case that made Bennett's career. No one is prepared for what happens next.Usually when I read a mystery, one thing stands above all the rest, whether it's the characterization or the setting or the plot. In A Place of Execution, all three are brilliantly done and each has an integral part in the book. One scene in particular will always stand out in my mind. In that scene, McDermid's language is simple and direct without being overly graphic--but I was left stunned, sickened, and with tears swimming in my eyes. Very powerful and moving! I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is one of my Top Ten reads of the year.
    • 5/5
      This is just brilliant ! By far Mcdermid's finest book. It leads on from the Moors Murders of 1963 and interweaves this with her novel.I've rarely been so surprised by a denouncement before.