The Distant Echo. Val McDermid

       Copyright

      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

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      Find out more about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Praise for The Distant Echo:

      ‘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

Dedication

       For the ones who got away; and for the others, particularly the Thursday Club, who made the getaway possible

Epigraph

       I now describe my country as if to strangers

      From Deacon Blue’s ‘Orphans’, lyrics by Ricky Ross

       Contents

Copyright

Praise for The Distant Echo:

Dedication

Epigraph

Prologue

Part One

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

       Chapter 11

       Chapter 12

       Chapter 13

       Chapter 14

       Chapter 15

       Chapter 16

       Chapter 17

       Chapter 18

      Part Two

       Chapter 19

       Chapter 20

       Chapter 21

       Chapter 22