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VAL McDERMID

Kate Brannigan is a partner in a two person firm in Manchester, England. Her boyfriend is a rock music critic. Her cases tend to be off-beat. McDermid's writing is slangy and face paced.  The cast of supporting characters, including Brannigan's best friend, a lesbian crime reporter, are very well developed. While I can't take Sam Spade style dialogue seriously in American detective fiction anymore, I can stay up all night reading these tough talking Manchesterites. Colorful doesn't begin to do justice to all the different, nasty ways these folks can say "police." Val McDermid deserves a large and devoted readership. 

Dead Beat
Kick Back
Crack Down
Clean Break
Blue Genes

If you enjoy Kate Brannigan, try Liza Cody's Anna Lee series.

Lindsay Gordon describes herself as a lesbian feminist socialist. She's a freelance journalist who doesn't deny there's a seamy side to her career. I wish I could say that McDermid's Lindsay Gordon books were up to the high standards she sets in her other writing. Unfortunately, they lack the edginess that give the Kate Brannigan books so much of their appeal. These books are slowly being brought out in America , sometimes under titles different than those of the English editions.  Final Edition has been reprinted in the US as both Deadline for Murder and Open and Shut. It gets confusing! I list the English editions and titles here.

Report For Murder
Common Murder
Final Edition
Union Jack
Booked For Murder

Visit a Val McDermid Homepage :

http://www.totalweb.co.uk/tangledweb/authors/
valmcdermid.html

Val McDermid writes reviews for a Manchester newspaper. You can read them online at : http://www.thenet.co.uk/~hickafric/
vreview.html