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Trick of the Dark

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About this listen

The brand new thriller from the award-winning crimewriter. 'Death is a hollow drum whose beat has measured out my adult life.' So writes Jay Macallan Stewart in her latest volume of memoirs. But nobody has ever asked whether that has been by accident or design. Nobody, that is, until Jay turns her sights on newly-wed and freshly-widowed Magda Newsam. For Magda's mother Corinna is an Oxford don who knows enough of Jay's history to be very afraid indeed...

©2010 Val McDermid (P)2011 WF Howes Ltd Crime Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Exciting Murder

Critic reviews

"Wonderfully compelling stuff." (Daily Mail)

"A workout for the grey cells, perfectly executed." (Daily Telegraph)

"This standalone from the Scottish force of nature is a brutally clever story." (Daily Mirror)

All stars
Most relevant
Generally speaking I am a fan of Val McDermid and generally she appears to be believable on background. However, on this occasion she appears not to have given as much commitment to this as she normally does. The central character appears to be some sort of cross between a psychologist and psychiatrist which in my experience very rarely happens, I have never experienced it myself and I have 30 years experience in psychiatry. The story seems to revolve around her competence to practise and awaiting the verdict from the GMC which probably wouldn't happen because it would not come under the remit of the GMC, even if she was a psychiatrist which she wouldn't be unless she had first been trained as a medical doctor. She is a good storyteller but I did feel there is a responsibility to get the background something like believable. Sorry Val not your best.

Felt let down

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Whilst I agree with some other reviewers that the workings of a psychiatrist and the police were rather implausible, the general police inspector/side kick and other police workings in many other dramas are not very plausible either. Let's face it many popular books, films and TV series are implausable. Just accept it as entertainment.

I also agree that some comments were homophobic. There is no explicit lesbian sex in the book, contrary to what some said. In fact there is far more sex in "heterosexual" books, and this was not lesbian fiction (not that I have read any), it was just a book where the main characters just happen to be lesbians. What I did find interesting, was the use of language to describe each other which came as a surprise to me, as some words would be considered to be un-pc, but are clearly not if it is lesbians using them. To open minded people, friends who have same sex partners are just the same as heterosexual couples. You just accept everyone in the same way, and don't concern yourself with their sexual habits! Some of the comments others have made remind me of my narrow minded aunts in the 60's/70's who used to whisper "they're living in sin" and then purse their lips, if couples were living together, unmarried!

As for narration, I found the narration of Charlie and most others to be fine, and Charlie sounded about the age she was meant to be. She certainly sounded years younger than Jay and Lisa, yet they had only been a year or two apart at uni. There were just a few lapses where Jay sounded like Charlie, when she dropped her posh-ness. Otherwise, I agree that Jay and Lisa did sound a lot older than they were. I think that trying to make them posher is what made them sound older. If it hadn't been for those two characters, I would have given the performance an additional star.

Enjoyable

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Not to sure about this story, perhaps it was just me but, the voices sounded the same and I was confused as to who was with who, and who did what. The narrator should've made the voices more noticeable for me. Not one of VM's better story's.

Not sure

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The story takes its time to get going, and sometimes focuses on the gay aspects to the detriment of the whole. Once up to speed the tale is intricate and we'll constructed.

intricate

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Well read, and presented, what made this audio crime novel interesting to me was the first consistent use of the 'Ethic of Care' which arose in Moral Philosophy research in the 1980s, in response to the idea of "Ethic of Justice' being the moral framework for the whole of humanity. Since the 'Ethic of Care' was taken as being the main female way of reasoning about the moral, or ethical, quality of behaviour this becomes a very interesting account indeed. I am not sure whether I would have realised this if I had read the book, rather than listening to it, whilst doing other things. Pacing is patchy, the story in the round, very interesting (and yes, you MUST be a medic to be a psychiatrist; very few people can start a medical degree with a Psychology degree, even a first from Oxford; although you might do psychology for your final, pre-clincal year, as medics did at UCL in the 80s when I were a lass) and there are forensic psychiatrists. Recommend

Ethically Interesting

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