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A Place Of Execution

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 3,236 ratings · 316 reviews

Winter 1963: two children have disappeared off the streets of Manchester; the murderous careers of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady have begun. On a freezlng day in December, another child goes missing: thirteen-year-old Alison Carter vanishes from her town, an insular community that distrusts the outside world. For the young George Bennett, a newly promoted inspector, it is the...more

Paperback, 480 pages

Published September 17th 2001 by St. Martin's Paperbacks (first published 1999)

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Dec 12, 2011 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Hannah by: Kim

Shelves: 2011-reads, mysteries

Rating Clarification: 4.5 Stars

A truely outstanding murder mystery, and one I would recommend to any fan of the genre. More then just a straightforward whodunnit, McDermid intricately explored the bonds that held an insular agricultural community together in early 1960's northern England. She fully captured the sense of time (almost too much so with her never-ending references to tea and cigarette usage), and the sense of desperation, anguish and helplessness that would come to any parent of a m...more

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Sep 04, 2008 Jody rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Crime fiction lovers

Shelves: crimefiction

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...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller, read-in-2012

I wanted to like this more than I did.

A girl goes missing in a small, close-knit, inter-related village in 1960s England. The police are hindered by the villager’s wariness of outsiders, but when the breakthrough comes, the case reaches an incomplete conclusion. Three decades later, a journalist is writing a book about the disappearance and the policeman in charge. New evidence is stumbled across, and the story is finally told in its entirety. The initial twist is expected, although the full twi...more

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Oct 05, 2010 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

I read a lot of mystery series, and I had forgotten how refreshing it can be to read a stand-alone crime novel --especially a well-crafted one.

When an author doesn't have to worry about introducing a main character as someone the readers will want to love and follow, she's free to do some extraordinary things with the plot.

As a result, we also see Detective Inspector George Bennett in a different light than series detectives.

We may not know what he buys when he goes shopping or what record he pl...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 02, 2009 Jon rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book got rave reviews (judging from the newspaper blurbs on the cover), was given five stars by a lot of goodreads readers, and was highly recommended by a friend of mine. I found it mostly irritating on almost every level. It was very long (in the neighborhood of Moby Dick). It was written with no particular style, with characters who all sounded alike. It was repetitive. The author had an uncanny ability to describe non-dramatic scenes at length while skipping the ones that would have had...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Hazel McHaffie rated it 4 of 5 stars

A beautifully crafted book combining suspense and intrigue, mystery and the unexpected.
Angela Carter is only thirteen when she goes missing. At a time when the Moors murderers are just beginning their murderous rampage in the nearby Manchester area. She is the stepdaughter of the squire who owns the hamlet of Scardale. But the local in-bred community are in no hurry to help the police with their enquiries; they have no truck with 'outsiders'. Inspector George Bennett however is determined to fi...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Bookguide rated it 4 of 5 stars

Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of crime fiction, and prefer to get an occasional crime fix on the television. Although my enjoyment is somewhat tempered by the fact that my husband tends to work out “who dunnit” before the end, keeps threatening to tell me, and gives me extraneous misleading clues throughout. One of the things which I often find off-putting about crime novels, especially in the wake of shows such as CSI and Silent Witness, is the gruesome detail with which the unfortunate vic...more Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of crime fiction, and prefer to get an occasional crime fix on the television. Although my enjoyment is somewhat tempered by the fact that my husband tends to work out “who dunnit” before the end, keeps threatening to tell me, and gives me extraneous misleading clues throughout. One of the things which I often find off-putting about crime novels, especially in the wake of shows such as CSI and Silent Witness, is the gruesome detail with which the unfortunate victim’s injuries are described, not to mention the violent descriptions of how the murder was accomplished. So ‘A Place of Execution’ has the advantage for me that the body is never discovered, and the relatively primitive forensic science of 1963 does not permit too many mind-boggling reconstructions of what happened.

Instead of this, the book focuses on the interviews with the missing girl’s relatives, who make up the whole village of interrelated families, and the thoughts of the young Detective Inspector who becomes obsessed with the case. The villagers appear to be withholding information, but gradually a case is built. The back cover of the book describes it as “a taut psychological suspense thriller”, and I would say that this promise is not fulfilled. It is psychological in the sense that much of the action is concerned with trying to work out what is going on in people’s heads, and this includes the arguments in the court case in the middle of the book (my least favourite part). Light relief is provided by the witch-like grumbling and shrewd comments of the matriarch of the family, Ma Lomas, and of course there are various side-tracks and red herrings.

The case cannot be laid completely to rest in the mind of D.I. Bennett, however, as Alison’s body is never found, and anybody who has read the back cover will know that such a case, which over the years becomes a cause celebre, still holds interest for the wider public. So it is no surprise that a journalist decides to write a book about the case, and that this turns up all sorts of surprises. As in all the best fiction, there is a sting in the tail, and although by the end, I had predicted what it would be, I was by no means certain of what the truth would turn out to be. So I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good detective book, but who is more interested in the people involved and the process of detection, rather than the voyeuristic side of hearing about the way it happened and the injuries sustained.

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Sep 03, 2012 Booknblues rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, england

Val McDermid brings us face to face with some disturbing issues in her book A Place of Execution. A child's disappearance is always unsettling and McDermid's novel about young Allison Carter vanishing from the closed community of Scardale is most disturbing. McDermid's tale is one which brings to light questions of justice and vengeance as well as providing the reader with a quality mystery story

Chief Inspector George Bennett and Detective Sergeant Tommy Clough join forces in their search for th...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: crimepieces

Review: Val McDermid – A Place of Execution
December 22, 2011 by Sarah | Edit

When I gave Val McDermid’s The Retribution a somewhat lukewarm review recently, two fellow reviewers urged me to try instead A Place of Execution a standalone novel set in Derbyshire. I think two recommendations from people whose opinions I trust is enough to convince me, so I bought the book on Amazon and started reading it as soon as it arrived. What appealed to me was the background to the book. I grew up in south Ma...more Review: Val McDermid – A Place of Execution
December 22, 2011 by Sarah | Edit

When I gave Val McDermid’s The Retribution a somewhat lukewarm review recently, two fellow reviewers urged me to try instead A Place of Execution a standalone novel set in Derbyshire. I think two recommendations from people whose opinions I trust is enough to convince me, so I bought the book on Amazon and started reading it as soon as it arrived. What appealed to me was the background to the book. I grew up in south Manchester in the 1980s and the Moors murders were in the not so distant past. I remember a policeman coming to my school and, as teenagers do, we were egging him on to reveal gory details about past cases. However, when it came to the terrible killings by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley this policeman, who had been involved in the original murder investigation, said it had cast a shadow over his life. And in some ways I had been affected too, as when we would drive over the bleak Saddleworth Moor you couldn’t help think about the children still buried there.

A Place of Execution has as one it’s protagonists a similar policeman who is investigating the disappearance of thirteen year old Alison Carter in 1963, only about twenty miles from the Manchester investigations. References to the Moors murders are kept to the minimum and when they do appear they are subtly made. This shows how strong a writer McDermid is, that she can create a context without labouring a point. The policeman is shown as an intelligent and conscientious man determined to bring the murderer to justice, whether or not the body of the missing girl is found. I found the blurb of the book slightly misleading, as it tells us that a modern-day journalist, Catherine Heathcote who is writing a book on the case, discovers a fresh lead. In fact this doesn’t occur until the final quarter of the book, with most of the novel concentrating on the original investigation. This isn’t a criticism, I enjoyed the main body of the book immensely, I just kept expecting the journalist to appear far earlier than she actually did.

The conclusion of the novel is both interesting and entirely believable. The writer doesn’t shirk from difficult subjects, in this case child abuse, but I think these passages were written in a straightforward and non-sensational way. The sense of place is amazing, I could recognise many of the landmarks and was truly transported to the Derbyshire of the 1960s. (less)

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Oct 21, 2011 Jay rated it 5 of 5 stars

A Place Of Execution
by Val McDermid

My dad (who reads two, maybe three books a week) told me that this was the best mystery he’d read in a long time. With an endorsement like that, who was I to argue? He tossed the book my way and in no time, I was hooked.

The time is 1963 and the setting is one of the many things about this long, tangled thriller that enthralled me. Welcome to the fictitious English village of Scardale; a remote farming community with families so inter-related that by the time...more A Place Of Execution
by Val McDermid

My dad (who reads two, maybe three books a week) told me that this was the best mystery he’d read in a long time. With an endorsement like that, who was I to argue? He tossed the book my way and in no time, I was hooked.

The time is 1963 and the setting is one of the many things about this long, tangled thriller that enthralled me. Welcome to the fictitious English village of Scardale; a remote farming community with families so inter-related that by the time Alison Carter went missing, the very second she disappeared, every single man, woman and child of that tiny village knew exactly what had happened. Therein lies the conundrum that Detective Inspector George Bennett was enlisted to unravel. It nearly killed him.

“Like any teenager, she’d always found plenty to complain about. But now that she was about to lose it, this life suddenly seemed very desirable. Now at last she began to understand why her elderly relatives clung so tenaciously to every precious moment, even if it was riven with pain. However bad this life was, the alternative was infinitely worse…”

With daily visits to the pub for a pint (or three) and the endless smoking; everyone in this complexly layered tale smokes and drinks with a vengeance adding an eerie tension to this fast-paced tale. In real life between July 1963 and October 1965 five children went missing and later four of them were discovered in shallow graves in Saddleworth Moor. These unfortunate murders were dubbed the Moors Murders and the world, for a brief time, became enthralled and at the same time horrified. Author McDermid takes this true life case and weaves her story into such a compelling tale of unanswered questions, piles of red herrings and an ending that will honestly knock the air out of even a seasoned mystery-lover. I couldn’t put it down.

Phillip Hawkin, the newly arrived Squire of Scardale, having married into the web of that particular village, was a man destined for destruction. Not only will his revealed secrets disgust most readers, the way in which he eventually becomes his own worst enemy will leave you breathless. This is one of those rare reading events that linger in your mind and haunt you for days.

Being a beekeeper, I couldn’t help but notice the tangible as well as metaphoric relationships that each and every member of Scardale shared. They lived within their own self-created hive and once Squire Hawkin tried to destroy it; they retaliated in a way I found shocking. This novel is a story with-in a story, built around a terrible crime.

The only thing missing and never really found is Alison Carter…
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May 06, 2010 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

My brother lent this book to me - one he had been recommending for years. When I needed a book to take on a recent vacation, this is what I picked up to take along.

It takes no time at all to become engrossed in the story. Foul play takes place in a small community and the police begin their investigation.

Author McDermid takes painstakingly good care in the details and you can really feel like you are riding along with Detective George Bennett. You feel the ups and downs with him, and the gnawing...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Minty McBunny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, march-2013

I really enjoyed season one of the Wire In The Blood television series (plus I think that is one of the best names for a novel ever) so I've finally got 'round to giving Val McDermid a try. My library didn't have any of the early books in the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series, so I took out this one.

Really glad I did.

This is one of the most un-put-downable books I have read this year, I rank it right up there with Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. It took me a few pages to get into th...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 110-books-in-2012-and-do-it-again, abduction, award-winner-or-nominee, collectible, family-relationships, mystery, new-york-times-best-seller, own-it, police-procedural, read-in-2012, reviewed, signed-edition

In England in 1963, the Beatles just released their first album. The Great Train Robbery takes place and in the area of Deryshire, known for the Peak District National Park, a police constable gets a call. A frantic mother announces that her fifteen-year-old daughter is missing and the mother asks for help.

A search is conducted but without results.

Alison Carter lived with her mother and step-father in a small hamlet of Scardale where the population is made up of only about three families who wer...more

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Nov 18, 2010 Mrsgaskell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 9-star, bookclub, british, own

This was chosen as a selection for one of my book clubs. I enjoyed it, very good summer reading, but was doubtful whether a mystery of this type would generate much discussion for a book club. But the conclusion certainly removed any doubts about that, and we had a very good discussion about justice - with an interesting variety of opinions! The book also raised the topic of capital punishment. Val McDermid is an excellent writer of intelligent mysteries. Thirteen-year-old Alison Carter disappea...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2007-audio-books, 2007-mysteries

A Place of Execution, by Val McDermid. A-plus.
This one will definitely make my top ten this year. George Bennett, a young, up-and-coming inspector, was called to a small town, Scardale, because a young girl had disappeared. Allison had last been seen walking her dog. The dog was found unharmed, tied up with his mouth taped shut. Allison was not found. Her step-father was the immediate suspect. It was clear he had something to hide. He was arrogant and seemed to take little interest in Allison’s...more

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Jan 01, 2011 Lisa H. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

The most complex of McDermid's books I've read to date, I think. I was struck as I read it by a sense of familiarity - then realized that I had watched most of it when it was televised on PBS's Masterpiece Contemporary only a month or so before.

The story is told through two timelines - the early 1960s, when a young woman disappears and the investigating officer becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her, and nearly 40 years later when a journalist (who has ties of her own to the you...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Sharon Jacobsen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm 52, a fan of crime fiction and have never before read a Val McDermid. What on earth have I been thinking of? It's not that I haven't wanted to, I just haven't gotten around to her before now. My loss.

A Place of Execution absolutely blew me away. I was riveted from the very first page until the last word.

McDermid has captured the atmosphere of 1960s Scardale to such perfection that I feel as if I've visited the village and actually walked the hills surrounding it. And the characters... well,...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Barbra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first book by this author that I have read and I 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...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was my first Val McDermid book and, based on how much I enjoyed it, I will be reading more from her.

The disappearance of a child is always upsetting but even more so when we find out that the child was being abused. Chief Inspector George Bennett and Detective Sergeant Tommy Clough partner together to solve the case of the missing Alison Carter. The 13-year-old girl was last seen walking her dog in the strangely closed community of Scardale; a community that is determined to be as unhelpful...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Sandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. A Journalist's account of a murder investigation, it was pretty much a police procedural that turned into something else 2/3 of the way through. I was so caught up in the story I lost track of the fact that I was reading a novel. It's set in the Peak District of Northern England, and the terrain becomes part of the story after a 13 year old girl goes missing. I had seen images of the Peak (it's a national park) and it added to my enjoyment as they searched and searche...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Dagomir rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book and spent most of yesterday reading it. It was interesting to read something set up in a small, isolated community for a change. I liked the contrast between "then" and "now", but I rather disliked the narrator of the 2nd part and the way she looked at the world.
Also, the book asks a few interesting questions about such issues as validity of death penalty and whether the truth SHOULD always out.

One thing I had problem with when reading "Place of Execution" was the last senten...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 03, 2013 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. THIS SUMMARY/REVIEW WAS COPIED FROM OTHER SOURCES AND IS USED ONLY AS A REMINDER OF WHAT THE BOOK WAS ABOUT FOR MY PERSONAL INTEREST. ANY PERSONAL NOTATIONS ARE FOR MY RECOLLECTION ONLY

The mystery takes place in the early 1960s in the small
close-knit northern village of Scardale-- a community that appears to
be cut off from the modern world. A young 13 year old girl, Alison
Carter, has gone missing. The back drop to this is the disappearance
of two other children from other northern towns. Tensions...more

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May 29, 2013 JYT rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: really-goodreads

Happened to catch the third/last segment of Masterpiece Contemporary's version on television. At that point I had missed 2/3 of the story. Was sufficiently intrigued to find and read the book.

Given the ton of reviews already in place I haven't much to add except to say this story is remarkably tame in terms of the blood/guts/gore McDermid favors in some of her books (like the Wire in the Blood series). Here, the crimes involve children and therefore the subject matter does not readily lend itse...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Karen Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars

My husband didn't want me to read any of Val McDermid's books until I had read this one, and I'm looking forward to reading more by her. My iBook listed it as "Historical" rather than "Mystery", and it is set in the 1960's and in the 1990's, though it's a good solid mystery. Most of the story takes place in the hamlet of Scardale where a 13-year-old girl has disappeared. Detective Inspector George Bennett, at 29 young for his position, is in charge of his first major investigation, and he's taki...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Kerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, mystery

This is the first Val McDermid I've read, for some strange reason. I very much enjoyed the first section of the book - the "true crime novel" recounting the events surrounding the crime, its investigation, and its solution. The characters were nicely revealed, the pacing was great, and the writing taut. I didn't care as much for the second section - it felt looser, even a little sloppy compared to the beginning. I think that's because I didn't connect well with Catherine - it felt to me as thoug...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Rick Soper rated it 5 of 5 stars

I came to Val McDermid through the back door of the BBC. You see I was flipping through channels one night and came upon the BBC series Wire In The Blood with Robson Green and I was just fascinated. I became a huge fan of that show because the BBC just knows how to do crime dramas a whole lot better than their American counterparts, Robson Green is a great actor, and at the heart of the show there were great stories being told. Little did I know at the time, that was because the entire series wa...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Phil Deschler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Phil by: Self

The book starts out in 1963 as a typical investigation of the disappearance of a 13 your old girl. It quickly turns into a possible kidnapping and murder. The two police detectives become obsessed with the case and vow to find girl and or what happened to her. The village where she grew up is an isolated modern feudal system. The detectives have a difficult time getting any helpful information from the people who live in the village. But they will not give up and through hard work and finally he...more

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Apr 20, 2009 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sarah by: Linda Slamon

A Place of Execution is constructed well, the split time periods are incredibly effective in providing a punch to the ending of the story. Val McDermid's description of the town of Scardale is atmospheric to the point that you can feel a sort of heaviness as you read. The mystery is fascinating in it's simplicity, it follows the invesigation and unlike most mystery authors she does attempt to infuse the book with the menace of an undiscovered criminal. The sections concerning legal procedure wer...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Sandie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: monster-women-group, mystery

OOOH. A good escape read just when I needed one. Difficult to put down, and sad when finished. A neat twist at the end.
This story is set in the English countryside in the 1960s. A new young Inspector Bennett whose wife is pregnant is sent to find what happened to missing 13 year old Alison Carter from a very closed community. His impending parenthood motivates him to work especially hard on this case. Murder is suspected but there is no body, and he must make a very strong case against the alle...more

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About Val McDermid

Val McDermid was born and schooled on the east coast of Scotland and then Oxford Universtiy after which she became a journalist.

Her first book, Report for Murder was published in 1987 and since then she has gone on to have 25 more books published.

She lives in Manchester and Northumberland with 3 cats.

Series:
* Tony Hill & Carol Jordan
* Lindsay Gordon
* Kate Brannigan

More about Val McDermid...

Books by Val McDermid

The Mermaids Singing (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #1)

The Wire In The Blood (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #2)

The Torment Of Others (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #4)

Fever Of The Bone (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #6)

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