Product Description

Lindsay Gordon, Scottish journalist and amateur sleuth, was the first creation of international bestseller Val McDermid. Report for Murder introduced the United Kingdom's first lesbian detective, and the series has been perennially popular ever since. Lindsay is tenacious to the point of stubbornness, intrepid to the point of stupidity, and loyal to the point of laying her life on the line. With the support of friends, family, and lovers, she takes on the world with wit and brio, unraveling criminal conspiracies and unmasking murderers. She's feisty, feminist, and funny.

Each novel plunges Lindsay into a different milieu. Report for Murder is set against the backdrop of an exclusive girls' boarding school; Common Murder features a women's peace protest, where feelings run deadly; Deadline for Murder forces Lindsay to confront the darker side of her own world of journalism; Conferences Are Murder explores the deadly underbelly of trade unionism; Booked for Murder lifts the lid on publishing, showing it's no longer a gentleman's game; and Hostage to Murder brings Lindsay face-to-face with child custody battles and the gangsters who inhabit the world of terrorism. The hallmark of McDermid's novels is a compassionate understanding of human relationships and a shrewd insight into contemporary society.

The Lindsay Gordon novels have been published to great critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Booked for Murder, the fifth Lindsay Gordon mystery, was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. McDermid has been praised for the way her storytelling interweaves the various elements of the novel into a seamless, balanced whole. "I don't write about issues, I write about characters," McDermid says. The books have won a wide general readership among fans of the mystery genre.

Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community and read English at Oxford. She lives in northern England.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #241265 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 265 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This promising debut from a British writer introduces Lindsay Gordon, who mockingly describes herself as "a cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist." Commissioned to write a story on Derbyshire House Girls' School in the North of England, Lindsay encounters strong undercurrents of hatred--against developer James Cartwright, who wants to turn the school's playing fields into holiday flats and a leisure complex, and against celebrated cellist and old girl Lorna Smith-Couper, who also appears to have a talent for making enemies and fomenting discord. During a fund-raising concert, Lorna is found strangled with a cello string, and schoolmistress Paddy Callaghan, an old friend of Lindsay's, is charged with the murder. Lindsay sets out solve the crime with the aid of noted playwright Cordelia Brown, another old girl, who had written and staged a play for the fund-raiser. McDermid has created a complex and prickly detective, whose working-class background sets her at odds with her companions, particularly her new lover, Cordelia. The shifting relationship intertwines a realistic romance with a solid detective story.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
The first US publication of a novel that appeared in 1987 in England. Here, gay journalist Lindsay Gordon (Deadline for Murder, 1997, etc.), based in Glasgow and presently freelancing to eke out a living, makes her debut when longtime friend Paddy Callaghan, a drama teacher at the Derbyshire House Girls' School, gets her a magazine assignment for a story on the school's fund-raising weekendan event that's part of the schools battle to fend off builder James Cartwright, who wants to buy its athletic fields for residential development. Other weekend guests include novelist/talk-show star Cordelia Brown and famed cellist Lorna Smith-Coupey. As the audience awaits a benefit concert that evening, Lorna is discovered dead-garrotted by a cello stringin one of the backstage music rooms. In short order, a truculent Inspector Dart has jailed Paddy for the killing, and school head Pamela Overton has authorized Lindsay and Cordelia (lovers at first sight) to try to find evidence to clear Paddy. A string of tedious interviews, plus repetitive reviews of time frames and alibis, produces a host of Lorna-hating suspects, but it's a second death that pushes our journalist-sleuth to a violent confrontation with the not-so-surprising killer. Clumsy plotting, relentlessly verbose characters, and a sluggish pace don't help Lindsay's overextended debut outingone of the author's lesser efforts. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
'Move over V.I. Warshawski' Options 'McDermid has created a complex and prickly detective. The relationship intertwines a realistic romance with a solid detective story.' Washington Times '[She is] fresh and funny with a sparkling sense of time and place' Literary Review

Customer Reviews

Finally back in print-YES!
When her friend Paddy Callaghan, the headmistress of an exclusive girls school, asks Lindsay Gordon to write an article on fundraising, she reluctantly agrees. Even though she loathes spending time at the elite Derbyshire boarding school, Lindsay accepted the assignment because Paddy is an old school chum.

When Lindsay arrives at her destination, she soon learns the dire financial straits confronting the school. Several of the illustrious alumni have returned to help raise money. For instance, the renowned musician Lorna Smith-Couper will perform a benefit concert to raise some cash. However, the famous cellist is found strangled just prior to her concert. Lindsay soon learns that the victim had many enemies. Soon, Paddy asks Lindsay and Cordelia (a writer who Lindsay is very attracted to) save the school and its reputation from ruin by solving the killing.

REPORT FOR MURDER is a reprint of the debut novel of Lindsay Gordon, a wonderful character, who remains relevant and interesting. Though the lesbian-leanings of Lindsay may turn off some readers, Val McDermid handles her star's sexual preference with finesse and good taste. The story line is intriguing and demonstrates why Ms. McDermid has won several awards. This gritty, on its head cosy is a brilliant amateur sleuth who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

This book holds fond memories!
This is the first book in Val McDermid's first published series, so by its very being it IS special. That said, at the time I read this, I had read many of her other books, and it was very, very different. It was much cuter.

Cute may not have been what Ms. McDermid was going for, but that does not make the story bad, not by a long shot. Indeed, while it may not contain the creepy elements that get under one's skin as in later McDermid novels, I found main character Lindsay's class consciousness to be quite intriguing.

This novel is not for everyone. It is only for those whose preconceptions' about homosexuals won't get in the way of their ability to digest the novel.

Smart, Tenacious, Daring, Loyal and Class Conscious


"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 continually 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 Callaghan, who was a Housemistress at this school. A weekend of book auctions, classical music and 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 and hated woman by many people, will amaze some and annoy many. The old world of England and Scotland comes to the fore in this story. The rolling hills, the fog, the beauty of the countryside, the Pubs, and the townhouses in the cities, London and Dublin, are explored and described with magnanimous features. Lindsay is a force to be reckoned with. She is indubitable and when she finds a new love, we applaud. The students and other teachers at this school are genuine and loveable. The story is fast paced and fun. This is a realistic detective story with a prickly and complex detective.
A friend recommended this book to me and it was immensely enjoyable. A new twist and turn in every chapter. Recommended. prisrob.