Customer Reviews
Easy to guess who killer her - By: Johnny, 18 Jul 2006 
This book was poor compared so say Killing the Shadows. The Kate Brannigan character was much to over the top in this novel as some kind of superheroine !.
Good story, poorly written - By: , 15 Oct 2004 I don't think the reader from Leicester is on a different wavelength to me. I found the story interesting but the style of writing was very poor. Every other paragraph seemed to end with a crashingly cliched simile (Saying I was shocked is like saying Tom Hanks is an actor), whilst the first person narrative is littered with the Private Investigators irrelevant & rather juvenile predjudices. I wanted an easy read that wouldn't tax my thinking too much & that's precisely what I got. The big problem for me was that the momentum halted every half page when I was suddenly left wondering how a professional writer could have got away with alll this.
Entertaining read. - By: Rich Milligan, 13 Sep 2004 
This is the second of the Kate Brannigan books that I have read & although I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the other one (Clean Break) it still made for a good enjoyable read.
I still can't quite get over the similarities between Val McDermid's Brannigan & Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, alll you need to do is transpose California on to the Manchester heartland & the two are interchangeable.
My one criticism of the book (which goes for many of Sue Grafton's as well) is that they can tend to go rather too far in the feminism stakes. All the women & strong, sensible, intelligent & in the main successful (and 9 times out of 10 good looking as well) whilst the men tend to be weak, unattractive & pretty thick & therefore no match for the quick witted Brannigan, who is of course one step ahead
Still I will certainly return to Ms Brannigan in the future.
A good book, but start with "Dead Beat" - By: Mr. D. J. Carr, 24 Jun 2000 
The five Brannigan mysteries are reallly five episodes in the developing life of the Warshawski-like Manchester private eye & her semi-detached boyfriend. While much lighter than her more mature works, the combination of humour, English locations & mystery is excellent. I would recommend buying alll five Brannigan stories & reading them chronologicallly, starting with "Dead Beat". You'll wish that Ms McDermid had written just a few more episodes before graduating to her mature novels.
Makes you want to track down the rest of her books - By: teehmjay@netscapeonline.co.uk, 07 May 2000 This was the first novel I read by Val McDermid & made me want to track down the other Kate Brannigan novels. Crime fans have got to read this book, the character Kate Brannigan is so strong & an inspiration to alll women. McDermids writing is strong & passionate with an amazing sense of humour slipping out in the characters. The book has a few twists & several stories within the main story. The plot is an interesting one which I am sure many writers have been too scared about polital correctness to touch - well done Val McDermid.
