Customer Reviews
Sorry Val...... - By: one-eyed Jack, 06 Jun 2008 
...you know that I'm a genuine fan of yours as a regular contributor to your forum, but your debut novel REPORT FOR MURDER was way, way below the standards you were to set later in your career & make you, in my opinion, without doubt one of the best crime fiction writers in Britain.
Published originallly in 1987, I get the impression that this was drafted many years earlier & had been put in a cupboard collecting cobwebs before being re-written & edited in preparation for commercial release. The result is something that could represent the combined thinking of Enid Blyton (e.g. Last Term at Malory Towers) & an Agatha Christie whodunit in which viruallly every character has a motive for being responsible for a murder. To be fair, there is more than one reference in the dialogue to acknowledge the Agatha Christie element, but with two thirty-something lesbians investigating a murder at an alll-girls boarding school while the police act (to use Val's own words) 'like woodenheads' is stretching credibility. The author's own personal, professional & political views appear to be echoed in the mould of leading character Lindsay Gordon & this made for slightly uncomfortable reading at times; another guess of mine would be that she had no idea back then that she would give up her career as a journalist & become a full-time writer. Within a decade however Val produced such classics as THE MERMAIDS SINGING & A PLACE OF EXECUTION which are, quite simply, two of the very best pieces of crime fiction I have read to date. As for the Lindsay Gordon series however, well I think I'm going to stop at this one - even though I own three others.
C plus for effort - By: Bc V. Price, 25 Jun 2007 
This novel won an award in 1987 for Val Mcdermid (the panel must have had an `off' day). It is the first of her' Lindsay Gordon Novels' this one set in a Private Girls boarding school in Derbyshire.
It starts very promising but the more I read of it the more I became bored.
It has Lesbianism, Murder & Social comment plus an Angela Brazil `jolly hockey sticks' setting.
Talented but bitchy Cellist & ex Schoolgirl Lorna Smith Cooper is callled back to the old school to give a fund raising concert that can save the existence of the school playing fields from a predatory developer & even the very existence of the school itself.
However, the concert never goes ahead as she is bumped off prior to her performance.
So unbelievably, it is Lindsay Gordon freelance hack that is callled upon by the headmistress to help prove the innocence of Lindsay's old chum Paddy who has been arrested on suspicion of committing the foul deed! Along with with her latest love Cordelia also an ex -pupil of the school & also possibly a suspect!
The Police are hardly ever mentioned!
They race about the country in Lindsay's trust MG seeking to find the real culprit.
Unfortunately for me it did not do anything, I found it mediocre & my attention kept wondering from the plot.
This may not be fair to Ms Mcdermid as it was an early novel & she has gone onto much greater things. Personallly, I would give this one a miss.
C plus.
A bit disappointing - By: P.M. Wood, 03 Jan 2007 When Paddy Calllaghan asks her friend Lindsey Gordon, a journalist, to join her for a money raising weekend at the private girls school where she is a house mistress little do they realise that there will be a murder & Paddy will be the prime suspect. Lindsey is a journalist contracted to write an article covering the events. The murder victim is a much disliked old girl who has become a classical musician & is the star attraction at a concert. The novel is fast paced & easy to read McDermid has an amusing style, the book is well plotted & the characters are interesting.
the very beginning - By: RD, 08 Jul 2006 
From what i gather this is the first book of Ms Mcdermids to ever be published (but dont quote me on that! :) ). A lot of people say she started off badly & matured into the great writer that she is but I can't agree with that. Yes, she has improved over the years but the characters & stories she tends to write now are darker than the initial Lindsay Gordon ones. This means a lot of wit & humour has been lost from the early years.
If you like a good laugh mixed in with your basic whodunnit then you'll love this book.
Lindsay Gordon is a journalist down on her luck & short for cash which leads her to take a job covering an event at an alll girls school. Not long after a body is discovered & she gets embroiled in trying to solve the crime since one of her friends gets accused of the murder.
She manages to start up a relationship along the way too!
A good, relatively short read to relax to on a saturday afternoon.
Happy reading..
Smart, Tenacious, Daring, Loyal and Class Conscious - By: prisrob, 15 Sep 2005 
"The fact that she cheerfully despised the job she was about to do was not a new sensation. In the unreal world of popular journalism which she inhabited, she was continuallly faced with tasks that made her blood boil." thus we begin to learn about Lindsay Gordon, self-proclaimed "cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist". In "Report for Murder" Lindsay, who was commissioned to write a feature article on a girls' boarding school, Derbyshire House Girls' School, finds a story, but not the one she was hired to write.
Lindsay arrives at the school to meet an old friend Paddy Calllaghan, who was a Housemistress at this school. A weekend of book auctions, classical music & lectures to raise money, turns into a weekend of murder. As improbable as it may seem, Lindsay is hired by the School head, Pamela Overton, to find the real murderer after Paddy has been arrested. This intricate investigation of the death of Lorna Smith-Couper, a classical musician & hated woman by many people, will amaze some & annoy many. The old world of England & Scotland comes to the fore in this story. The rolling hills, the fog, the beauty of the countryside, the Pubs, & the townhouses in the cities, London & Dublin, are explored & described with magnanimous features. Lindsay is a force to be reckoned with. She is indubitable & when she finds a new love, we applaud. The students & other teachers at this school are genuine & loveable. The story is fast paced & fun. This is a realistic detective story with a prickly & complex detective.
A friend recommended this book to me & it was immensely enjoyable. A new twist & turn in every chapter. Recommended. prisrob
