Blinde obsessie

by Val McDermid, Annemieke Oltheten (Translator)

Wanneer de psychiater Charlie Flint een mysterieus pakketje krantenknipsels over een gruwelijke moord ontvangt, is haar interesse meteen gewekt. Het betreft een bruidegom in Oxford, die slechts een paar uur na de plechtigheid is vermoord. Charlie heeft genoeg tijd om op onderzoek uit te gaan: haar professionele leven is immers op een laag pitje gezet. Als getuige-deskundige heeft ze in de rechtszaal een psychopaat vrijgepleit die daarna vier vrouwen vermoordde. Sindsdien nagelt de pers haar aan de schandpaal en heeft de beroepsvereniging haar verboden haar vak uit te oefenen.



Charlie gaat terug naar de gesloten wereld van de universiteit van Oxford. Hoe dieper ze graaft, hoe meer ze overhoop haalt. En dat is gevaarlijk…

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, LGBT, Mystery Thriller

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Val McDermid is a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies.

She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award.

She writes full time and divides her time between Cheshire and Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlie Flint ist Psychologin. Ihr Urteil hat maßgebend dazu beigetragen, dass ein Psychopath auf freien Fuß gesetzt wurde und vier Frauen ermorden konnte. Nun ist Charlie vom Dienst suspendiert. So kommt das Päckchen, das ihr anonym zugeschickt wurde, eigentlich gerade recht. Es beinhaltet Zeitungsausschnitte über einen Mord in Oxford, ihrem alten College. Der Mann wurde am Tag seiner Hochzeit ermordet; die Täter sind schnell gefasst. Charlie findet heraus, wer ihr das Päckchen geschickt hat und wird vom Absender gebeten, dem Fall noch einmal nachzugehen. Denn die beiden verurteilten Täter sind unschuldig!

* Meine Meinung *
Ich lese sehr gerne Krimis und Thriller, und auch der Name Val McDermid ist mir natürlich bekannt. Doch dieses Buch von ihr gehört meiner Meinung nach nicht zu ihren besten. Obwohl sich das Buch sehr flüssig lesen lässt, hatte ich beim Lesen manchmal das Gefühl, nicht wirklich von der Stelle zu kommen.
Die Spannung wird nur sehr langsam aufgebaut, was mich eigentlich gar nicht mal so stört. Aber stellenweise ist das Buch doch etwas langatmig, und die vielen Anspielungen auf Charlies sexuelle Gesinnung haben mich irgendwann auch genervt.
Auch fand ich die Hauptprotagonistin nicht unbedingt sympathisch bzw. ich konnte mich nicht immer gut mit ihr identifizieren, was es mir schwermachte, mich in sie hineinzuversetzen und ihre Beweggründe für ihre Handlungen nachzuvollziehen.
ABER: Trotz der Kritikpunkte habe ich das Buch letztendlich doch sehr gerne gelesen, denn die Handlung war durchaus interessant und auch spannend. Die Figuren sind gut beschrieben, so dass sie nicht blass wirken. Der Schreibstil ist angenehm, die Handlung durchdacht, und den Handlungsort fand ich hier besonders gut gewählt.
Alles in allem ein durchaus gutes Buch. Nicht überragend, aber doch lesenswert!

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clinical psychiatrist Charlie Flint, struggling with the aftermath of a recent case which saw an innocent but dangerous man whom she got acquitted go on a murder spree; is anonymously sent press cuttings about a brutal murder that took place years ago after a wedding involving her own Oxford University alumni. Charlie's dilemma is that the prime suspect might be a famous lesbian entrepreneur who has been a huge role model for her, and many others in the lesbian community for years.
?
This is a clever conspiracy and suspense thriller that takes place then and now; and also paints how different the world was then and now for the lesbian community and especially for those wishing to come out. With truly engaging multi-faceted non-stereotypical characters this book grabbed my attention from the oft and and was kept there by the intricate ever changing but tight plotting. An 8 out of 12 Four Star jam :)

2024 read

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now I could be extra harsh and just give you the review of this that I gave to my girlfriend - "Too many lesbians, not enough murder," but that would sell it short somewhat and make me sound a little bigoted. Nevertheless I was disappointed by Trick of the Dark primarily because the story seemed so tame and rather slow, not up to the standards I would expect from McDermid.

A man is killed on his wedding day, seemingly bludgeoned and drowned by his two business partners. Later the victims prospective mother-in-law calls in a former pupil of hers, Charlie Flint, to investigate the brides new lover, successful businesswoman Jay Stewart, who she is convinced is responsible for the murder and other killings in the past. Charlie has problems of her own, with her career in tatters and another woman tempting her from her own wife, but decides the investigation would be the perfect distraction from her troubles.

The book is well written and the way the story flows does draw you along with it but the plot feels like an ITV drama with extra lesbians thrown in. Charlie Flint is a likeable lead even though she is prone to adolescent behavior towards her love life - debating on wether she will cheat on on even leave her wife of 7 years does grate on you. The story is also interspersed with extracts from Jay's memoir as she's writing it giving her version of the backstory, which works well. As with other of Val's books the dialogue sometimes feels a little contrived with elements of poetry. This is also a primarily female lead story with virtually all of the protagonists being female , (and most of them being gay also), which is fine but make it hard for me to relate to any of the characters.

On balance I think I'm rating this book so low purely because of my disappointment. The Val McDermid books I love are the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan novels and most of her other standalone stories, which are filled will tension, suspense and most importantly threat which this book sorely lacks. It reminds me of the disappointment I felt on reading The Grave Tattoo another of McDermid's books which I felt was a misfire. Val McDermid is an excellent writer and the quality of her prose is alway eminently readable but in Trick Of The Dark as with The Grave Tattoo the story is not on par with most of her other work, (especially to fans of hard crime fiction like me).

[BrokenTune · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My mother disappeared when I was sixteen. It was the best thing that could have happened to me.
When I say that out loud, people look at me out if the corners of their eyes, as if I've transgressed some fundamental taboo. But it's the truth. I'm not hiding some complicated grief reaction.
My mother disappeared when I was sixteen. The guards had walked away from the prison leaving the door unlocked. And I emerged blinking into the sunlight."

I wanted to keep this book for a while and read it when I needed a solid mystery to delve in and occupy my mind for a spell - when I needed something dependable.
But just looking at the fabulous cover of the paperback edition made me twitch.

This is only my fourth McDermid - I am quickly becoming a fan - and a short way into the story of disgraced psychiatrist Charlie Flint I got the impression that this book is different. Just a short way into this book I began to wonder if McDermid had an agenda which she wanted the characters in the book to play out.

Trick of the Dark is centred on a mothers suspicion that her daughter is being seduced by a woman of dubious character - or rather one with a dubious past. There is no police work, no obvious crime, but one "obvious" suspect.

Strangely enough, the story and the character had soon drawn me in and it took no time at all to want to figure out the mystery surrounding the main suspect. As mentioned, there is little in the way of procedural policing. Most of the book is based on good old sleuthing and psychology, or as I would call it "following a hunch" but I really liked it.
There is also some humor in this, and I hope some of the giggles I got reflect some of McDermott's own sense of fun.

The only criticism - and, having read some of the scathing reviews this book received, this is only a slight criticism - is that the dialogues were too stilted to be believable. Yes, the conversations between the characters carried most of the story, but some of the conversations, even hard ones to have, were way too polished.

[Harper Bliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many lesbians. Such fun.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read any of McDermid's Tony Hill series, though I did like the BBC Wire in the Blood production based on them, but I've read and enjoyed several of her standalones. Trick of the Dark is no exception. Initially I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it or not as I had difficulty finding a character to feel sympathy with or for but as the action/investigation ratcheted up I did get hooked.

This story depends on coincidences which I found myself willing to accept. I love McDermid's plotting skills and enjoyed the chase as I wondered how she was going to get her characters out of this one. The plot begins with ..... oh you can read the blurb at the book's listing! It's set in various places in Britain, has an Oxford background, a gorgeous young widow whose husband was murdered at the wedding reception and who later comes out of the closet, a forensic psychiatrist asked by an unknown party to look into the above murder, etc. An updated and far more detailed Agatha Christie situation. Except Agatha never had plots quite like this that I recall.

Enjoyable read.

[Yellowoasis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tried one of Val McDermid’s books a couple of years ago, and could not get on with it. Then this book got good reviews so I tried again. I just don’t know why she is so highly rated as a crime novelist. This is simply crime-writing-by-numbers. If it were better written, I wouldn’t have minded so much, but the dialogue is hackneyed, the plot is so well sign-posted you could drive a bus through it – what’s the big appeal here? Anyway, I plodded through the first half, increasingly irritated. About half way through though, the action picked up and I decided to keep going until the end. I just kept expecting it to be much better; I hoped there would be some clever plot twists but alas, no. It does what it says on the packet, but there’s no depth or subtlety.

[Margaret · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I got to page 64 and decided to quit - it's not that this was that bad it's just that I could not get into the characters at all. I just wasn't drawn in enough to want to know what happens. I think there was too much emphasis on everyone's relationships - the mystery element just sort of faded away to me and I didn't like the characters well enough without more plot.

I feel bad I didn't finish this but there are just too many books out there to waste time with one that is just not quite my thing. I'm not sure how to rate this but I'll guess it's a one and a half (this 5 star system does not really work for me) since I didn't like it. I would try this author again though - the writing was not too bad even if the plot/characters didn't grab me.

[Stephen Clynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follow psychiatrist Charlie Flint as she solves the mystery surrounding the death of a groom on his wedding day plus other deaths that maybe linked.

Although this novel involves Val McDermid’s trademark storytelling about profiling offenders, Trick of the Dark is a standalone.

I found Trick of the Dark to be a good mix of offender profiling, psychology, mystery, authoring skills, characterisation, attraction between people, love and lesbianism.

I loved how Val explored the psychology of offenders and the challenges they pose to profilers. So many things can go wrong and although Charlie Flint acted in good faith, she got the blame from the media. I quickly developed an empathy for Charlie as she does her level best, believes strongly in justice and is willing to get to the bottom of this mystery.

I liked how Val told her story. One of the central characters is called Jay and to tell her backstory, is writing her memoir. This is a nice move for 2 reasons - it threads background into the mystery AND explores the authoring skills used to produce a memoir that may have some tweaking of the truth to make it a better read.

I loved the range of characters in Trick of the Dark. Don’t get hung up on gender as there is only one man in this story, a friend of Charlie’s. So apart from Nick, Trick of the Dark is ALL about women. But don’t let that put male readers off, women are not from a different planet, they just like shops. All the women’s characters are fully developed and there are more lesbians than you can shake a stick at. Val fully explores how lesbians get psychically attracted to each other, how their love grows and the many problems that can occur within lesbian relationships. Lesbianism plays a big part in Trick of the Dark and I liked its openness to a lifestyle that can be misunderstood by the ignorant.

As a hetrosexual male, I was not discouraged by all the lesbianism in Trick of the Dark because I understand how two people are attracted to each other and can fall in love. There was nothing uncomfortable or vulgar about the lesbian scenes within this story. The Prusik loop was NOT used in the bedroom but whilst climbing on the Isle of Skye. There are no cheap sexy thrills in Trick of the Dark but a mature understanding of what makes people tick.

There are some nice snips of humour along the way, for example…

She gestured with her knife towards a large padded envelope by the bowl where Charlie’s two Weetabix sat. ‘Postman’s been. Still don’t know why you gave up cornflakes for those,’ she added, pointing at the cereal bars with her knife. ‘They look like panty shields for masochists.’

...Sorry folks but once you have read that, you can’t get the image out of your mind!

The plot of Trick of the Dark is a good one and I enjoyed it far, far more than The Last Temptation. I found Trick of the Dark to be a GOOD read and it gets 4 stars from me.

Trick of the Dark was written in 2010 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trick of the Dark reminded me more of McDermid's early Lindsay Gordan series than her recent, gritty standalones. Although a crime novel, the spine of the book is really its many lesbian characters and their myriad love lives. It's something that would irk me just as much if they were all straight and frequently backburner-ing a serial killer to contemplate their hetero romances and affairs. I want to read crime fiction, not romance with crime draped loosely around its shoulders. Added to that, the book kicks off with Charlie Flint, the central character, contemplating having an affair, which made her barely palatable for me throughout the entire novel. If there's one thing I hate reading about in a supposedly sympathetic protagonist, it's infidelity. I tore through the chapters where she actually deigned to get on with crime-solving without contemplating her fantasies and desires.

The mystery everything is founded on is far from stellar. There are two big twists towards the end, one of which I didn't outright guess but had a vague inkling might be coming from about the halfway point, and the other... was obvious from the beginning of the novel. Painfully obvious.

I can't say I disliked this book. I read it within a couple of days, and several times while I was out I found myself itching to get back to it. I just don't think it lived up to its potential, and am now even more desperate to get my hands on the latest Tony Hill & Carol Jordan book, to be back on familiar, dark ground.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is about a gay woman called Jay who is a possible psychopath. The mother of her partner doesn’t want her daughter in a relationship with her as she suspects Jay is a murderer. So she asks Charlie a previous student and now a disgraced psychiatrist to investigate Jay’s background.

All bar a few of the minor characters are lesbians. The story kept my attention and is well plotted with a marvelous twist at the end. Although Charlie and her infatuation with Lisa seems bizarre given her relationship with her partner Maria.

Magda the daughter seems very naive for a doctor but I did like the manipulative Jay and how she was so ruthless. Well written with good descriptions of Skye and climbing as well as the flashbacks of Jay’s memoir Unrepentant.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Charlie as s psychiatrist is a lousy judge of character. It turns out Lisa was Jay’s first lover at Oxford. Lisa is infatuated with Jay and over the years murdered anyone who she perceives is in the way of Jay’s success. Charlie works out that Jay’s mother who disappeared was murdered. She discovers the body and is confronted by Lisa who says how Jay’s stepfather killed her mother and the other murders were her. Jay appears too and Lisa is caught. Jay knew what was happening but gets off because she is rich. Lisa gets put in an asylum.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This Val McDermid book has just recently become available in the US after being out in Britain for a year. Despite its so-so reviews, I gave it a try. McDermid can reliably write a page turner that makes you want to read "just one more chapter" every time you come to the end of the current chapter, even if there is a part of your mind that knows you aren't really enjoying the story at all. McDermid also usually can be counted on for a flawlessly structured plot where everything makes sense when you get to the end of the book, but not here. The whole plot relies on a series of coincidental meetings and reencounters some of which remain nothing more than coincidences by the end of the story.

The main character is Charlie, a psychologist/profiler with some unfortunate professional complications that have caused her to be temporarily suspended from work. At the same time, Charlie's long term relationship with her partner is threatened by Charlie's intense infatuation with another woman which we get to hear about in detail, complete with reading their back and forth email exchanges. Luckily Charlie's boredom and contemplation of an affair are interrupted when she receives a mysterious package of news clippings about a recent murder. I mean, of course she did - no one can just pick up a phone and call you if they want you to look into something, they have to send you an envelope full of mysterious clippings to test your investigative initiative. Already the story starts to be annoying and this continues as Charlie makes a rapid leap to a basically unsupported guess about who sent them. I can't tell if McDermid was flirting with the idea of this book having more the light tone of a "caper" rather than her recent work. The overly complicated and coincidental events might have been more consistent with a lighter tone but I'm used to the dark, serious tone of her Hill/Jordan series and her recent stand alone books and this one ends up too much in the middle to be sure what she meant to achieve.

At the risk of some mild spoilers, the package turns out to be sent by an old professor from Charlie's Oxford college, whose family Charlie used to babysit. The professor's now grown-up daughter is the widow of the murder victim but has also recently entered into a lesbian relationship with another old student of the same college and of that professor, who also used to babysit the children. The woman Charlie is infatuated with also went to Oxford at the same time but in a different college and the murder that kicks off the book occurs during the wedding of the daughter that also took place on the grounds of her old Oxford college. Maybe this would have seemed more plausible if the story were at least set in Oxford where I imagine the percentage of Oxford grads is rather high, or if it had been set during a reunion which brought them all together again, but instead all these connections are just left as coincidences, more or less.

The envelope sets Charlie off on a path of investigating a series of deaths and possible murders, all of which have taken place before the story starts and have to be explained, violating the classic "show, don't tell" rule. The mechanism McDermid chooses to tell them is to provide sections from two books ostensibly written by one of the characters - lengthy sections of uninspired first person biography of someone whose biography I would never choose to read. It's odd to find a book simultaneously dull and something you want to keep reading - McDermid's gift is to keep you reading no matter what - but in the end this leads to a fairly uninspired story.

When the killer is finally revealed it becomes clear that there was a much more interesting story going on that we haven't had access to, a story I would have much rather have read than the one we are actually given.

[miteypen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really having trouble convincing myself to finish this book. I'm afraid that there's going to turn out to be a perfectly logical explanation for all the deaths that have surrounded the main "suspect." I put that in quotes because it's not the police that are investigating this person; it's an out-of-work forensic psychiatrist who has been asked to do so by this person's lover's mother. Got that? Yeah, it's kind of convoluted and the whole mystery is so up in the air, it's hard to care about its resolution. Two of the deaths were judged to be accidents and the third already has been "solved" as far as the law is concerned. So for the most part, the main character's investigation just looks like meddling. And she's not particularly clever about it either.

I admit it: I want more of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan! Those mysteries are so dark and the main characters so interesting, I luxuriate in reading them. But this one (or the one Kate Brannigan novel I read) not so much.

If I finish this book, I'll come back and tell you what I think. But for now, it doesn't look good, folks.

[Jill H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have loved Val McDermid's police procedurals and have read several lately. This one I should have passed.....it was nothing like her other books which are clever with twists and turns in the complicated plots. In this book, the mystery, such as it is, is secondary to the plot and is full of coincidences and plot holes. Instead we have here a romance novel in which the characters, who are grown-up professionals (doctors, dentists, counselors), act like pre-teens in the throes of their first infatuation. How they reached their position in life is hard to understand as they are so immature in the affairs of the heart. I am no reader of romance novels of any kind, so I was disappointed that we were not dealing with a good murder mystery here. I think even those who do read romance novels would agree that this one is pretty weak. This book is not up to the author's talents as far as I am concerned.

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not every book is for every reader and, even though I've loved many of Val McDermid's other mysteries, this one wasn't for me. Many of the characters seemed flat and the lesbian sex issue seemed to overwhelm mystery and murder.

[T.J. Dallas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I could hardly put this one down. It was great to read events from both investigator and suspect POV (through Jay's book), and I genuinely didn't know whether she had done it or not until the last few pages. Great crime novel 👍

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I laboured through this tome, I found it very difficult to believe I was reading the great Val McDermid.

An uneven mishmash, this couldn't decide whether it was going to evolve into a ridiculously implausible romance, or a so-so crime novel. In the end, it did neither. I just felt like giving Charlie Flint, protagonist, and purportedly Oxford grad, a slap in the head for her crazy infatuation with the enigmatic Lisa.

Jay, around whom the novel really centres, is a far more intriguing character, but even she falls a little into cliche with her fantastic rise from an utterly chaotic then oppressive upbringing to the heights of millionaire businesswoman. Her partner, the unfortunately nicknamed 'Maggot' merely succeeded in getting on my nerves. For a doctor, she shows as much sense as Charlie -very little.

Sure, Val gives us a twist, and a nice one. You will guess 'whodunnit' by the halfway mark, but you may not figure out why. It's as if the author began with the premise of the ending, and convoluted her plot to 'make it so'.

If you want to read what I would consider the REAL McDermid, grab A Place of Execution , one of the finest crime novels you will ever read, or perhaps the infinitely creepy Mermaids Singing, the first Tony Hill profiler novel. These will keep you up at night- not have you nodding off in your cocoa.

[Fiorella Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate leaving a book unfinished but I thought this was supposed to be a murder mystery? It takes until chapter 11 to get anywhere near the crime scene and I eventually got bored of the endless lesbian angst. The last straw was the pantomime Catholic bad guy - sorry but I grew up in a Catholic family and never encountered this vicious stereotype. Who killed a man on his wedding day? Don't know, don't care and not sure the author cared much either.

[Annette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lame plot and unconvincing characters.

[Lainy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time Taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 544

Publisher - Sphere

Source - Amazon

Blurb from Goodreads

"Val McDermid is one of the bright lights of the mystery field."--"The Washington Post"

"She's the best we've got."--"The New York Times Book Review"

Barred from practice, disgraced psychiatrist Charlie Flint receives a mysterious summons to Oxford from an old professor who wants her to look into the death of her daughter's husband. But as Charlie delves deeper into the case and steps back into the arcane world of Oxford colleges, she realizes that there is much more to this crime than meets the eye.

Val McDermid has published twenty-four novels. An internationally best-selling author, her books have been translated into thirty languages. She has won more than a dozen major awards, most recently the 2010 Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement in the field of mysteries.

My Review

Charlie Flint is having a bit of a tough time, normally called for her expertise with the police on court cases she is now "untouchable". Her last expert witness testimony lead to horrific consequences and now she is struggling to find things to do. When she gets an anonymous letter and a puzzle to solve Charlie heads back to her old university to investigate. In between that she is dealing with temptation and considering embarking on an affair and her supportive wife is none the wiser.

So we have a murder, Charlie's old mentor wants her to investigate as she suspects her daughters new girlfriend of killing her husband on his wedding night, gasp! Jay is rich, successful and currently penning her memoir which we get snippets of throughout the book.

It is tense at times, filled with questioning behaviour particularly the issue of infidelity (Charlie), relationships, love, investigation, murder, manipulation, lesbianism and loyalty. It is a busy book but I felt sometimes the relationship stuff overshadowed the investigation and crime aspects. It is a good read and I will read more of McDermid, I liked it I just didn't love it.

[Ishmael Seaward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last four sentences are worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.

This is a dense book, if I can use that term. Four hundred pages of a tightly written plot, even though at times it may not seem like it.

Charlie Flint is a clinical psychiatrist, specializing in psychological profiling, who has been suspended from practice pending an investigation of her testimony at a recent trial. She gets sucked into a murder investigation at the behest of a former college tutor. The question is whether or not a person (Jay) known but not close to Charlie is a serial killer, or whether it is simply bad luck to be associated with her. As Charlie follows the few clues and checks alibis, it is almost certain that a killer is on the loose, but the evidence is fragmentary and alibis are not faked, so exactly who is the killer and what the motivation is, remains cloudy for some time.

I figured out who the killer was about 2/3's of the way through, but the motivation eluded me, until the final chapter.

McDermid has won many awards. Based on this book, I would say they were warranted. And I would certainly read others by this author.
The book also makes me want to go visit the Isle of Skye. I spent some time searching on the web; if you travel for scenic reasons, this should be on your list.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this wasn't much of a mystery since I've read the entire book and am still trying to figure out who committed some of the crimes. Mostly this book was about lying, cheating and thinking about lying and cheating, and about who was the best liar and cheater. A number of characters seem to have changed their names - I should have made a chart of original names, maiden names, new aliases, and married names - so I have no idea who the killer actually started out being and have no motivation to check back and find out. The conversations were a bit stilted and artificial, and the plot was largely unbelievable; I had difficulty believing this was a Val McDermid book at all. 2 underperforming stars.

[J.F. Penn · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do events from Oxford years ago reflect on a recent death, and is the public face of a well known business woman hiding a serial killer. Another great one from Val McDermid .

[➸ Gwen de Sade · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf. Painfully slow and confusing

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect amount of lesbians and the right amount of suspense.

[Lizzie Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Trick of the Dark’ by Val McDermid
Published by Little Brown, September 2010. ISBN: 978-1-4087-0201-7

Charlotte (Charlie) Flint, forensic psychiatrist is in turmoil, firstly she is currently suspended awaiting a hearing by the GMC which will decide whether she can be reinstated, and secondly because she is in love, normally a happy situation, but when you have a partner of seven years, whom you still love, not so good.

She receives through the post a bundle of photocopied sheets that refer to a murder at the Old Bailey, and against her better judgement, becomes interested in the murder of a 28-year-old woman, Magda Newsam, whose husband was murdered on their wedding night, by his two business partners.

The main POV’s of the story are related by Charlie Flint and Jay Stewart, the connection between these two characters being that both were undergraduates at St Scholastika’s College, Oxford and that Corinna Newsam, mother of Magda Newsam, was their tutor.

As Jay Stewart, a successful business woman currently writing her second memoir following the amazing success of the first, is now in a romantic relationship with Magna Newsam, Corinna suspects that the Jay may have had something to do with her son-in-law’s murder, and so she asks Charlie to look into the death.

Whilst the mystery is intriguing, and brilliantly plotted, for me the strength of the book lies in the relationships of the characters. And while in some respects they bare their souls, the reader is aware that much is held back, or in some cases could memory be faulty, or do we remember things as we want to remember them not how they were, and in many instances we suppress the truth even to ourselves. Different from much of her earlier work this is Val McDermid at her best.

Highly recommended.
-----
Lizzie Hayes

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, a Val Mcdermid novel is a treat to be savoured which is why I often read them long after publication (the exception being the "Tony Hill" books which I can't stop myself from devouring in an instant!). The Hardback version of this has been sat on my shelf for a while (and boy its a good looking book) A couple of days ago I decided it was time and dived in. I tend to really enjoy Ms McDermid's stand alone novels (A Place of Execution and The Distant Echo being some of the best crime fiction I've ever read) and it was no different here. Charlie Flint, currently suspended psychiatric profiler, receives a package in the post with clippings about a murder that has taken place at her old College in Oxford. Her investigation into who sent this to her, and ultimately into the murder itself, creates the basis for this story. Well executed as ever, Val Mcdermid is the queen of misdirection whilst always in actuality sending you completely the right way if only you can get your brain in gear. Her characters are real and so are the places they inhabit. This book was even more fun for me as I live just outside Oxford, and atmospherically she has got it spot on. As usual you get all the information you need to know what the truth actually is long before the end and yet still the rug gets pulled out from underneath you. Whilst this was not my favourite of her novels, that doesnt detract from the fact that this is Crime fiction at its best.

[Cas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually enjoy anything by Val McDermid, but for the first time I was a little disappointed. The story was thin, too contrived to be totally convincing. Richard Russo's wonderful novels proved to me that I don't actually have to like the main character in order to enjoy a book, but actively disliking McDermid's heroine did make it hard for me to enjoy this story. Charlie Flint goes through the novel contemplating being unfaithful to her partner. Considering the starting point of the novel was her high moral standpoint in a previous case, this totally undermined her character for me, as did her decision, late in the story, to lie to the person who instigated the investigation. Worst of all was the scene that tied the whole thing up when Charlie, quite on the spur of the moment, decides to visit the a block of flats where, displaying the skills of a trained surveyor, she notices a discrepancy in the dimensions of a room and by then employing an impressive talent for demolition, makes the all-important, discovery. Serious credibility failure there. Ah well... All writers have weaker novels and there are plenty of great McDermid books to make up for this one.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trick of the Dark is an intricately plotted who-done-it, satisfyingly set in Oxford, London, and other British and Scottish locales. That gives American readers not only an intelligent puzzle to work out but also a trip to jolly new Great Britain. It's the story of Dr. Charlie Flint, a disgraced psychiatrist whose testimony set a murderer free. She's wrestling with that angst, but also flirting with betraying her wonderful wife, Maria, for the sultry, mixed-message charms of Lisa.

(Oh, did I mention? The majority of characters in this story are lesbians. It's not an in-your-face, gratuitous thing, but rather key to the plot and to Charlie as a character. And key to the suspect's character.)

I entered the goodreads giveaway for Trick of the Dark, and got it in the mail just a couple days ago. I ended up finishing it off during lunch today, unwilling to wait until tonight. Really a gripping read!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Charlie Flint is having a bad time. She refused to help wrongly convict a man who went on to kill four women and her medical license is under review. She loves her wife, a dentist, but feels tempted by the attentions of a flirtatious self-help expert. When her former Oxford tutor asks her to investigate her daughter's lover, Jay, a wealthy entrepreneur the professor suspects may have had a hand in the murder of her daughter's husband as well as other business rivals, Charlie takes the case, hoping it will bring her closer to her lust interest.

The characters and their backstories are compelling, but the mystery doesn't add up to very much, relying on some fairly predictable late-breaking twists. Excerpts from Jay's second memoir, paired with her manipulative musings, are rather fun, but a little calculated. I prefer McDermid's gorier Tony Hill mysteries, with their sharp edges.