Dead Beat

Kate Brannigan #1

by Val McDermid

Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, a female private detective who does for Manchester what V.I. Warshawski has done for Chicago.

As a favour, Kate agrees to track down a missing songwriter, Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realize that finding Moira is a prelude to murder...

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

278 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read. It was less intense than other books I have read by Val McDermid. Narration by Chloe Massey was very good. I enjoyed hearing the local dialect.

Turns of phrase that caught my ears:

"Her voice so low I had to lean in close and risk my crowns on her Rasta beads."

"Tony Redfern was sitting on the broad windowsill looking more like a depressed Golden Retriever than ever. Wavy blonde hair, soulful brown eyes, drooping mouth. For all I knew, a wet nose too."

[Barbara K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was fun! A lightweight mystery featuring a P.I. who normally works on white collar investigations but gets pulled into a murder case against her better judgment. Kate Brannigan is Northern England’s answer to Kinsey Millhone (except that Kate doesn’t carry a gun and generally avoids getting beaten up).

The story revolves around a highly successful musician whose latest albums aren’t of the same quality as his early work. He convinces Kate to track down his one-time collaborator, a woman who disappeared some years previously but whom he has now decided is his soul-mate, the key to resurrecting his music. The ensuing murder occurs in the musician’s palatial home, which is occupied by key members of his entourage, none of whom has an alibi for the critical time.

Along the way to Kate’s solving the murder (as well as the other major case she’s working on) we are introduced to her friends, colleagues, and lover, a guy who bought the house next door because she will never agree to live with him.

Although this isn’t a cozy, it’s a bit frothy compared with McDermid’s best work. Still, I suspect I will return to the series (this is the first) when I need a little of Kate’s sass and wit as a pick-me-up when my mood cries out for a little bubbly rather than bourbon in a female detective. I have a backlog of V. I. Warshawski for the hard stuff.

Four stars on the grounds that it does a nice job of doing what it sets out to do.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate Brannigan is a private investigator and her boyfriend Richard is a music reporter. After attending a concert Kate is asked by Jett a singer to find his former girlfriend, Moira. Kate knows this is something she doesn't normally do, so convincing her partner, Bill Mortensen to take the case will be a challenge.

As Kate looks for answers to Moira's whereabouts she discovers places of London that she wished she never had. Just when things look like they might be coming together, Kate finds herself in the middle of a murder case. Now with the police involved, Kate needs to find out why and who wanted the victim dead. Will they find the murderer in time before there are more victims?

This is the first book I've read by Val McDermid and it definitely won't be my last. If you enjoy a good mystery or thriller then I recommend you read Dead Beat. Well worth reading.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate Brannigan is an entertaining character. She is a P.I who is hired to find Moira a famous rock stars song writing partner. Jett the rock star is surrounded by sycophants and a dodgy manager, so could be any rockstar. Kate finds Moira who is a recovering heroin addict and getting her life together.

She is then murdered. Its a locked room mystery with only seven suspects. Neil the unscrupulous journalist writing a autobiography for Jett, Jett, Kevin his manager, Tamar his posh girlfriend, Gloria his PA, Mickey his producer and Maggie who was Moira’s partner.

The police are relatively incompetent, Kate is dogged in following leads and asking the suspects questions. All have potential motives. There are lots of red herrings and a good ending. The story is set in the midlands around Manchester and Leeds. An enjoyable read.

[Marnie (Enchanted Bibliophile) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The joy of rereading



First Sentence: I swear one day I'll kill him.


I've read most of the Kate Brannigan Series already, but I never read them in order. So I've decided this year I'm gonna do it right.

I think these books don't impress me as much as McDermid's newer books, because just that! McDermid grew so much as an author, her writing and plots have become so much better, so much more complicated.

I am sorry I didn't read these books first, it would have mean so much more to me that way.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad this is not the first book of Val McDermid I have read, if it had been I am sure it would have been my last. I struggled all the way through it as I found it dull and many of her characters wooden and unbelievable. ms mcDermid has gone on to write some great who dunnits, this just wasn't one of them.

[Cynnamon · Rating 3 out of 5]

English version below

****************

In diesem 90er Jahre Krimi, wird eine Privatdetektivin von einem Pop-Star angeheuert, um seine frühere Freundin, ein Talent im Musikbusiness zu finden und nach Möglichkeit zu ihm zurückzubringen. Nachdem das gelungen ist, hat unsere Detektivin leider sehr schnell eine Morduntersuchung an der Backe.
Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob ich als Leserin tatsächlich viel übers Musikgeschäft gelernt habe, aber der Roman hat mir definitiv besser gefallen als erwartet.
Man merkt zwar, dass das Buch mehr las 30Jahre alt ist, aber es kommt trotzdem noch ziemlich frisch daher.
Es schadet auch sicher nichts, dass es als Ariadne Krimi erschienen ist, weil dadurch die Geschlechter-Themen nicht gar so altbacken aufgetischt werden.
An vielen Stellen hat mir auch der Humor sehr gut gefallen.

3,5 Sterne.

------------------

In this '90s crime thriller, a pop star hires a private investigator to track down his former girlfriend, a talent in the music business, and if possible bring her back to him. After that has succeeded, our detective unfortunately very quickly has a murder investigation on her cheek.
I'm not sure I actually learned much about the music business as a reader, but I definitely enjoyed the novel more than I expected.
You can tell the book is more than 30 years old, but it's still pretty fresh.
It certainly doesn't hurt that it was published as an Ariadne crime thriller, because that way the gender issues aren't served up in such an old-fashioned way.
I also really liked the humor in many places.

3.5 stars.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Val McDermid's writing and after reading all the Karen Pirie series I decided to make a start on a new one. This is the 1st book in the series and introduces Kate Brannigan, a female private detective operating in Manchester.

Kate agree to try and track down a missing songwriter Moira Pollock for her her rock journalist boyfriend. What starts out as a fairly straight forward missing person turns into a prelude to murder.

A decent start to the series but didn't really set the world alight. Decent characters that hopefully will get better in the following books.

[currentlyreadingbynat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Val McDermid's novels and I found myself wanting to start a new series by her. I went old-school and requested Dead Beat from the library. It was first published in 1992 and although a bit of the tech has aged, its still current in regard to its crime storyline.

Dead Beat by Val McDermid introduces us to Kate Brannigan, a tough and resourceful private detective working in Manchester. In this first book of the series, Kate takes on what seems like a straightforward missing person case: tracking down a songwriter named Moira Pollock. However, the case quickly escalates into a complex web of deception and murder.

McDermid's writing is as sharp as ever, and I really enjoyed the Manchester setting. Kate is a likable protagonist, with her wit and determination shining through. However, as an introduction to the series, the plot feels more functional than thrilling. While it kept my interest, it didn’t quite have the punch I expected from McDermid.

That said, the book lays a solid foundation for the series, and I’m excited to see what's next from the characters. If you enjoy female-led detective stories, you'll most likely enjoy Dead Beat.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an older book (first published 1992) but it has stood the test of time and I enjoyed the trip back to the nineties!
Kate Brannigan is a private investigator who gets roped into investigating a murder - her first one - and it's for a high profile musician.
I like Kate and I like the way the mystery unfolds (with many nods to Agatha Christie).
I'll be reading more of this series for sure.

[Kelly Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad reviews seem anathema to other readers and this site, especially if they deviate from the conventional 'great read' response. But, I doubt my unfavourable opinion of this novel will trouble Val McDermid's bank account. I therefore have no hesitation in stating that getting to the end of this book was a trial. I could have stopped reading, granted, but as McDermid is such a popular writer I really wanted to give her a chance to redeem herself. My aim was not completely altruistic; I do love to find a prolific writer with engaging work so that I can stack my book-shelves with their stuff. I've realised that's not going to happen this time.

Firstly, the attempts to challenge gender stereotyping is clunky, her characters just as contrived. The protagonist Kate seems only to gain/retain her status in a male dominated profession by being as masculine as the men: kick-boxing, bullying, the lack of interest in marriage - suggesting the only way to gain equality is to homogenise your personality to the dominant gender. A tired concept.

Oh, the cliches! Kates lover calls her Brannigan like she's in some 80s TV police drama; the straight women are all parasitic bitches; the lesbians are bitter and unhappy; the men sleazy or devious. Much of this novel, right down to the 'gather everyone together' scene at then end, is so derivative that it becomes exasperating quite early on and only become progressively more annoying.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Mortensen and Kate Brannigan made up the private investigators who investigated fraud and white collar crime, so when Jett, singer, songwriter and musician asked her to find an old friend of his as a favour, she was hesitant. But with the grudging approval of her partner, she took it on. Never having done a missing person before, Kate got right into it, and before long she was deeply involved in the sleazy side of London, discovering parts she hadn’t known had existed.

As she dug deeper, Kate was horrified when suddenly there was a murder victim in the middle of it all. All of a sudden the investigation took a huge turn – the police were involved, and the suspects were numerous. Who would benefit from the death; who had motive and opportunity? Would Kate find the killer or would the police get it wrong?

This novel is the first in the PI Kate Brannigan series and quite enjoyable. The intrigue was well set out, the plot plausible. I had the murderer picked quite early, but the red herrings were well placed! I’ll certainly be reading more about PI Kate Brannigan and her exploits!

[Richard Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this in a Kindle 99p deal thinking it was a new series. After the first few chapters I suspected this was not true, which a quick Google confirmed. This is nothing like Val McDermid's later books: it doesn't even suggest she will become as good a writer as she has. It's clichéd and unconvincing; its characters are cut-outs and its Poirot-style ending risible. In fact it reads like a script for 'Murder In Paradise': that's how hokey it is.
I shall return to 'Shetland' and 'Vera' and give any more Kate Brannigans a miss.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. A fairly pedestrian crime story - but I did get a chuckle out of the dated computer references, and the Agatha Christie-ish reveal flourish at the end :)

[Aapo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manchesteriin sijoittuva dekkari Manchesterin reissun matkalukemiseksi. Paljon hyvää, esimerkiksi monipuolinen henkilögalleria ja mielenkiintoinen aikakapseli 1990-luvun alkuun (tietokoneet, musiikkibisnes). Sitten myös vähän väsynyttä huumoria ja dekkarikliseitä. Käännöksessä oli myös joitakin kömpelyyksiä.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this genre novel via my reading on the doings of Manchester, England, as I’d recently moved here from the United States. McDermid was cited as introducing a PI who worked a Manchester beat, as was Cath Staincliffe, whose novel Go Not Gently I read recently with the same impulse to get at more of what the city’s culture is about.

While ably telling her story about Kate Brannigan, PI and co-owner/operator of Brannigan and Mortensen, McDermid introduces many references to the city’s culture and geography, in particular at the beginning of the novel, when there are references to the music scene in Manchester circa late 80s and early 90s. Brannigan tells the story, and she is a long-time resident of Manchester, and is aware of its history and easily knows her away around the city and environs). It’s a smart, matter-of-fact voice that Brannigan assumes, though she is prone to sarcasm in confrontational dialog. She is good at accommodating her lover, and she is without illusion about what a man can and cannot do for her.

The defunct Hacienda night club (now remembered by the apartment complex that borrows its name) gets several mentions; the Ardwick area where Brannigan lives near the University and College of Manchester is described as dicey; Brannigan’s home is within walking distance of her office, located near the BBC (Oxford Road and Charles Street), which was demolished in 2012 after it moved its operation to Salford; and Moss Side is presented as the gang-infested area just south of the city center where the novel’s two principals (musicians Moira and Jett) grew up.

There are some additional excursions east to Leeds and Bradford, which lend some regional color about that area of Lancashire, though none of it cheery in the blasted areas Brannigan is investigating in 1991 (Lancashire was site to some bad depression in this era, and there were race riots as well). In the several scenes where trips are made here and there, the references to major roads helps to establish one’s place on real mental map of the city and its environs. McDermid does a very good job of placing her character in a real setting and giving that setting significance, though it’s at a fictional estate—Colcutt Manor, in Cheshire—that the murder occurs and many of the interviews before the final reveal in the Manor’s drawing room, which Brannigan herself archly calls “melodrama.”

Brannigan’s job is initially to find a rock star Jett’s former band mate and fellow song writer, a woman who vanished under a cloud of addiction. Brannigan does find her, off drugs and the street, and in a happy relationship with another woman. Moira, however, does decide to attempt a reunion with Jett, which causes upset in his small, cloistered entourage. Moira is six weeks later found dead, and it’s Jett’s wish to have Brannigan get at the bottom of things, in parallel with the operations of the police. Brannigan gets a few breaks and remains a step ahead of the police, with whom she butts heads a few times. Having extracted stories and motives from all of the principals, Brannigan has an ah-ha moment, and uses a bluff to flush out the killer when all (including the police) converge in the drawing room.

The novel is fast-paced, and there are a couple of car chases, but there is no violence punctuating this detective’s peregrinations, which include wiping up the details of a merchandise knock-off ("sneid") operation she’d been working on prior to the current Moira murder. It’s a quick, engaging read, and Brannigan seems a detective worth meeting again.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read all of the Tony Hill series and most of her standalone thrillers, but hadn't got round to her first series before, which features Kate Brannigan, PI. It's not bad for a first novel - much more light-hearted and without the gruesomeness of her later books, but given it was published in 1992 and is full of early 90s musical references ( the worst period in music history IMHO) and quaint descriptions of what at the time was no doubt brand new technology ( she has to explain what Tetris is, and what a modem does...) not to mention our heroine lusting after a teal-coloured shell-suit - I still can't work out if that was sarcasm.... Kate, a youngish investigator who did two years of law-school before joining a private firm in Manchester, is asked by Jett, rock star friend of her music journalist boyfriend, to locate his ex-girlfriend & muse Moira. She then gets drawn into a murder investigation. As always in this kind of book, particularly the first in a series, the characters just happen to intersect with a case she's already working on involving counterfeit goods - this lazy use of coincidence to help the plot along always annoys me - I was half expecting her boyfriend to turn out to be the villain - the other usual cliche for the genre, but actually I wasn't sure whodunit. Kate isn't a bad heroine - resourceful but loyal, and the quips were amusing but not overdone enough to get irritating. She sees herself as above the law which I disapprove of, but overall there was enough here for me to continue with the series.

[Jennie Rigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I vaccillated between 3 and 4 stars for this. I'm not keen on Kate as a protagonist, but I think the trademark flashes of McDermid humour and the precision of the geography in the places I know well did enough to bump it up for me.

The other point in it's favour is the evocative talent McDermid has for anchoring a book in a time period. Everybody in this book smokes. The food and drink choices are as blatantly nineties as prawn cocktail and Cinzano bianco are seventies. They all think shell suits are the pinnacle of fashion. It was like being transported back in time to when I was a teenager and living through this stuff.

So, yeah, I can forgive it a slightly annoying protagonist and the fact that the murder doesn't even happen till over half way through just for the pure, oozing nostalgia.

[Sara Habein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this was not her first novel ever, but it sure reads like it. The casual racism and internalized misogyny I can almost explain away by the year in which it was published (1992), but there's not a lot I liked otherwise. The whole book needed a lot more developmental editing, but I will say I cared enough to know how it all shook out in the end. (The ending was... fine.) I've read and enjoyed plenty of other McDermid novels, and though they may have some elements I don't care for, the story is usually well done and makes me want to read the next one in the series. I won't be reading the next Kate Brannigan book.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heard an interview with Brannigan on BBC World Service not long ago and thought I'd give her a try. This book was just OK, but I'm willing to keep going with the author because other reviewers have noted that she gets better. I've just switched over to her Tony Hill series which is crazy gory and moves along at a much faster pace. So far I'm liking it better.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't really a fan of this one - maybe because it's one of McDermid's older ones, but it felt too.... conversational and unpolished. The plot seemed just a tiny bit too unlikely to make any of it feel plausible, but I also didn't really care for Brannigan and her methods a whole lot.

[Julie Gardner · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first Val McDermid book that I really haven't liked. I didn't warm to the characters - apart from one who got murdered pretty early on. I won't bother reading any more in this particular series.

[Maurice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I reached as far as page 200 before giving up, so DNF. The storyline was tedious and slow. The characters were wooden and boring. The dialogue to me seemed amateuristic. Very disappointing, i was expecting a much more interesting book.

[David]

Kate Brannigan is a lot of fun. She is a hard-boiled, noir-style PI who doesn't much care who she annoys as long as the job gets done. She joins the list of those for whom 'moral' is slightly more important than 'legal.' If Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe could have aspired to being women, Kate Brannigan is the woman they'd have wanted to be.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: PI Brannigan is asked to find a missing person as a favour. The missing person is a songwriter; her search is a prelude to murder.

[Andrew Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok,nothing special

[Eileen Lynx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. I like the Karen Pirie series better. But this was a good story and I’ll keep reading the series.

[Sharmila Chakravorty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Avoidable

[Rich Baker-Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow burner, damped up half way through

[Sriyah Patel · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5