Dead Beat - Softcover

Val McDermid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0575055219 ISBN 13: 9780575055216

Publisher: Gollancz, 1993

Synopsis

A starred review from Publishers Weekly ushers in the electric debut of a P.I. "sure to win readers' hearts": Kate Brannigan, a Manchester-based private detective whose hobbies include Thai kick-boxing, computer hacking, and a misadventurous relationship with her journalist boyfriend Richard.
It's no thanks to Richard that Kate agrees to take on a strange missing persons case as a personal favor to a rock star, and no thanks to Richard that she is immediately reminded of why such cases are best avoided. Every rock star is on the hunt for a good lyricist, but Kate's celebrity client is determined to have only Moira Pollock: his partner in sex, drugs, and rock and roll - that is, until Moira vanishes.
Kate finds herself combing the seediest areas of Leeds in her search for Moira, and knows to expect trouble in the rougher parts of town. But who could have expected that solving the mystery of the missing lyricist and restoring her to her former life would prove a prelude to murder?

About this title

About the Author

Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community and attended Oxford University. She worked as a journalist in Scotland for 14 years, becoming National Bureau Chief of a major national Sunday tabloid. She quit journalism in 1991 and has since become a full-time writer. She is creator of both the Lindsay Gordon and the Kate Brannigan mystery series. Her novel, A Place of Execution (St. Martin's, 2000) was recently named by the New York Times Book Review as one of the notable books of 2000 and won the L.A. Times Book Prize in the new murder/mystery category. It was also shortlisted in 2001 for the Edgar Award and has been nominated for the 2001 Boucheron Anthony Award. Her latest Lindsay Gordon novel, Booked for Murder, was nominated for the Best Lesbian Mystery by the Lambda Literary Fdn., 2000, and has been chosen by Bookspan's Insight/Out book-of-the-month club.

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Manchester, England, which its natives claim as the home of rock 'n' roll, the forthright and unpretentious sleuth introduced in this fast-paced story is sure to win readers' hearts. Kate Brannigan is hired by rock legend Jett to locate his former partner and lover, Moira. Kate finds Moira, a rehabilitated drug user, living with--and in love with--Maggie, an ex-counselor. Moira reluctantly agrees to return to Jett to help his career while Kate goes back to her investigation of counterfeiters and her own lover, a rock journalist. But six weeks later Moira is murdered--beaned by a tenor sax--and Jett wants Kate to find which member of his inner circle is the culprit. As Kate questions Jett's entourage, she uncovers why everyone closest to him wanted Moira dead. McDermid's ( Open and Shut ) snappy, often comic prose keeps the story humming as Kate is drawn deeper and deeper into the twisted plot of her first murder investigation.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gollancz
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0575055219
• ISBN 13: 9780575055216
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192